In the early 1980s the group lightened its social-revolutionary ideology and went from an economy based on rural collectivism to investing in financial speculation. The discipline of scheduled work ended up putting high profitability in contradiction with the hedonistic and collectivist principles that had been the foundation of the commune. In an attempt to recover the initial spirit, they decided to invest in a new headquarters dedicated to artistic and leisure activities and integrated into nature.
In 1987 they acquired a large isolated and abandoned farm that was once one of the main agricultural farms in La Gomera: El Cabrito. The enclave that the community members had chosen as their holiday center has now become, after the group’s dissolution in 1990, a tourist resort. The Canarian period of the commune constitutes the final scenario where those emancipatory utopias of the sixties, fueled by the great myths of modernity, will be overwhelmed by their own internal contradictions to end up leading, with complete naturalness, into a foreseeable tourist utopia.
Ralph Kistler. Artist and doctor in Fine Arts from the University of La Laguna, Santa Cruz de Tenerife. Master of Art in public spaces and new artistic strategies from the Bauhaus Universität Weimar. As a plastic artist, he is interested in new technologies and their impact on visual culture. He has exhibited his projects at biennials and international festivals. subtours.com
