Cover by Francisco Ibáñez (Barcelona, 1935-2023) as an example Mortadello and Philemon It’s like a diagram of physicist Hugh Everett’s many-worlds theory: quantum superposition of parallel universes. Her images reflect a complex reality that must be looked at again and again to understand every detail present. His stories are a succession of Newton’s third law (for every action there is an equal opposite reaction) and the method of trial and error, always culminating in error. Science and technology around the adventurous people of TIA and its team (El Súper, Bacterio y Ofelia) at the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) have served to inaugurate this exhibition in the Casa de la Ciencia de Sevilla. The Science of Mortadello and Philemon: Contrasting Records of Research in Spain. It will be open until February 15 in the Andalusian capital to visit the rest of Spain.
CSIC physicist Alberto Casas warned you in his book The illusion of time (Ediciones B, Penguin Random House 2025) that future voyages are “tested in a roundabout way” based on the theory of relativity. Ibáñez ya Llevó a sus debujos with the Máquina del Cambiazo created by Professor Bacterio, despite the inaccuracy of its coordinates.
They are also present in the awaited homeland march with the stars (Cocoa space(pseudoscience)Super Mortadello No. 22), cloning (Copier people), vaccines (office c), recovery of extinct species (Giant Mortadello No. 8), the latest mobile devices… “Ibanez has always remained interested in current affairs, reading periodicals, and science, integrated as an everyday thing,” highlights Bora Fernández, Vice President of Scientific Culture and Director of CSIC Editorial.
In this sense, Nuria Ibáñez, the author’s daughter, says: “The stories that were written increasingly referred to current affairs, as well as to those related to scientific research. This was a way to rejuvenate people and make new generations in touch with their ideas.”
The idea came from Fernando del Blanco, responsible for the library of CSIC’s Research and Development Center and curator of another exhibition that remains one of the most requested exhibitions at the centre: Science according to Forges, The EL PaÍS viñetista from 1995 until his death in 2018. Blanco proposed the recently opened museum as a tribute to Ibáñez, but also as a propaganda tool, although “this was not the developer’s intention,” according to Fernández. “He wanted entertainment,” he says.
However, to achieve this goal, it must reflect contemporary realities that, in many cases, have to do with science, such as organ transplants, viruses, gene editing, biodiversity, evolution, and prehistory. Everyone had a place in the world of absurdity Mortadello and Philemon. “It integrates because it’s day to day, and it’s what allows us to move forward as a society,” explains CSIC’s vice president, who adds: “Everything permeates.”
Bora Fernández is convinced that the audience’s reading will be correct, and will assume that the caricature of science that Ibáñez presents is not intended as a satirical reflection of reality, but rather a source of humor. “This world that Ibanez has created reflects the practical malady of science and technology. It is a disaster and chaos. Bacterio lives isolated from society and puts his delirium at the service of the laboratory and the most disparate things, but the ultimate message is that science is the continuous work of many people and that it generates one knowledge for society. And I think people understand it.” Mortadello and Philemon “It is so ingrained in our cultural DNA that we know how to read it.”
The exhibition includes, for those who want to delve deeper into this parallel world, a catalog with a QR code that directs to real investigations related to the scientist Ibáñez caricatured. “We put up a mirror that reflects the context that inspired him to create his rave,” Fernandez explains.
The exhibition was supported by the family of Francisco Ibáñez and in collaboration with Penguin Random House, an editorial based on the rights to detective stories and graphic examples of chaos theory.
39 cover
The 39 selected covers were published between 1975 and 2018 and are divided into five sections. Firstly, A moving world under the magnifying glass of scienceis a portrait of the relationship between science, nature and society, with references ranging from the collapse of glaciers to pandemics, including the latest discoveries in agricultural production.
On Technological innovations included by TIA. Some inventions developed or used by this spy agency are identified, sometimes leading to chaos.
Section Bacteria laboratory accidents and accidents depicted in cartoonsThrough humor, he explores the limits of science and recovers the dangers of separating it from common sense, because “when it comes to research, ethics and security are not optional,” according to the organizers.
Science in the social mirror by Mortadello and Philemon Think of the protagonist characters as examinations of how science can be negotiated, distorted, and sometimes misinterpreted.
Close the sample section Emergency science in turbulent timesSo Ibanez wanted to tear apart the Carcajada in the middle of the disaster. Climate change, pollution, invasive mosquitoes, or desert octopus clouds are among the threats that Mortadello and Filemon confront with the least amount of success in the final section of the exhibition.