The Secret Public
dal 5/10/2006 al 26/11/2006
Segnalato da
Charles Atlas
Bodymap
Leigh Bowery
Victor Burgin
Marc Camille Chaimowicz
Michael Clark
Duvet Brothers
Peter Doig
Gorilla Tapes
Brian Eno
Cerith Wyn Evans
Gilbert and George
Richard Hamilton
Derek Jarman
Isaac Julien
Tina Keane
Sandra Lahire
5/10/2006
The Secret Public
Kunstverein Munchen, Munich
The last days of the British Underground 1978-1988. The exhibition is internationally the first attempt to critically re-evaluate Britain's recent past, while also presenting the lasting impact that artists and cultural producers of this time have on the cultural and political fabric of Britain today. The show examines an art and creativity which was deeply concerned with gender, sexuality and the performative self - the body as a performance and spectacle.
The Last Days of the British Underground 1978-88
Charles Atlas, Bodymap, Leigh Bowery, Victor Burgin, Marc Camille
Chaimowicz, Michael Clark, Duvet Brothers, Peter Doig, Gorilla
Tapes, Brian Eno, Cerith Wyn Evans, Gilbert and George, Richard
Hamilton, Derek Jarman, Isaac Julien, Tina Keane, Sandra Lahire,
Linder, Stuart Marshall & Neil Bartlett, John Maybury, Neo-
Naturists, Julian Opie, Jon Savage, Peter Saville, Mark E. Smith,
Wolfgang Tillmans, Trojan, Stephen Willats and others.
The exhibition The secret public. The last days of the British Underground 1978-1988 is internationally the first attempt to
critically re-evaluate Britain’s recent past, while also
presenting the lasting impact that artists and cultural producers
of this time have on the cultural and political fabric of Britain
today.
Disquieting, playful and intensely urban, at times aggressively
nihilistic or steeped in confrontational sexuality, a dark
flowering of creativity occurred in the UK between 1978 and 1988
which was as much an extension of subcultural lifestyle as it was
a consequence of art making in the traditional sense. Occurring at
a time of lowering political, economic and social change, this was
a flourishing of creativity that seemed to take shape in a covert
form outside the institutional canon of the time - creating its
own underground network of activities, events, economies and
celebrities. As a generational grouping of artists and
personalities, it is well described by the title of a fanzine
published in Manchester in 1978: The secret public.
As an exhibition, The secret public examines an art and creativity
which was deeply concerned with gender, sexuality and the
performative self - the body as a performance and spectacle. In
this it also engaged with fashion, dance, performance, film, video
and music. As such it surveys perhaps the last period in
British culture before the rise of the consumer environment and
the flattening of sub-cultural manifestations and creative
industries into a single, pasteurised range of commodified styles.
The Secret Public was conceived by Kunstverein Munchen and is co-
curated by British author and critic Michael Bracewell. Curator
for Film/Video is Ian White (Adjunct Film Curator, Whitechapel Art
Gallery, London).
Talks programme:
Saturday
07. Oct, 7pm:
Linder & Peter Saville
in conversation with Michael Bracewell
Tuesday Talks:
17. Oct, 8pm: Blumenbar Book Release Party
24. Oct, 7pm: Florian Wust presents:
Who is saying that concrete does not burn,
have you tried it? West-Berlin 1980s.
31. Oct, 7pm: Filmscreening:
Bred and Born, M.P. Leece & J. Davis, 1983
Handsworth Songs, J. Akomfrah &
Black Audio Film Collective, 1986
07. Nov, 7pm: Filmscreening:
Plutonium Blonde, Sandra Lahire, 1986
Carry Greenham Home, Beeba Kidron, 1983
14. Nov, 7pm: Filmscreening:
Bright Eyes, Stuart Marshall, 1984
21. Nov, 7pm: Filmscreening:
Hail the New Puritan, Charles Atlas, 1985
The Secret Public is supported by: Allude; British Council, Berlin; The Federal German Cultural
Foundation; The Henry Moore Foundation.
Kunstverein Munchen
Galeriestrasse 4 - Munchen