A biting criticism against the paternalism of Northern Europe towards South, and an accute reply to the stereotype of siesta, sun and beach, with a selection of portuguese, italian, greek and spanish artists

Curator: Blanca de la Torre

"Eight years ago, Pigs really did fly. Their economies soared after joining the eurozone. Interest rates fell to historical lows – and were often negative in real terms. A credit boom followed, just as night follows day. Wages rose, debt levels ballooned, as did house prices and consumption. Now the Pigs are falling back to earth".
“Pigs in Muck”, Financial Times, 1 September 2008
The article quoted above marked the start of an economic and social imaginary that has coloured our lives in recent years. In what are perhaps the dog days of post-globalisation, there are three factors that are regarded as crucial to a country’s economic growth: economic abundance (technological wealth), raw materials and the workforce (labour wealth). Deutsche Bank ranks 62 economies and uses these factors in its criteria. Just five of these economies have none of the afore-mentioned components and four of them are European countries, Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain (the fifth is Argentina). The initials of these four countries form the well-known acronym used by the Financial Times in the article from which the quotation above comes and earlier by other publications, among them The Economist, The Times and Le Monde.

Artists: Carlos Aires, Vasco Araujo, Artspirators (Maria-Andromachi Chatzinikolaou, Nikos Podias, Rania Armagou, Spyros Tsalapatas), Bill Balaskas, Karmelo Bermejo, Rossella Biscotti, Stefano Cagol, Nuno Cera, Paolo Cirio, Danilo Correale, Priscila Fernandes, Carla Filipe, Nuria Güell, Jenny Marketou & Zafos Xarogaris, Juan Carlos Meana, PSJM & José María Durán, Avelino Sala, Santiago Sierra, Federico Solmi, Stefanos Tsivopoulos
Production: Artium (Vitoria-Gasteiz), Contemporary Art Center-State Museum of Contemporary Arte (Tessaloniki, Greece), Galeria Municipal do Porto (Porto, Portugal), Es Baluard (Mallorca)