Energy Flash – The Rave Movement
Rave culture from the 1980s and 1990s was Europe’s last big youth movement. During this period of radical social and political change, rave, in its various guises, migrated around the continent from its epicentre of Great Britain, Belgium and Germany. As a movement, it enacted a desire to be autonomous, with a belief in tolerance and experimental living, all built around the latent energy of electronic music. As a music-based culture, it embraced self-practice, invention and unbridled creativity, arguably leading to the densest period in history for the diversification of music. Energy Flash will be the first museum exhibition for considering rave, as well as the social, political, economic and technological conditions that led to the advent of rave as an alternative movement across Europe. It will look at the ideologies as well as the aesthetics of rave, along with its effects on wider culture.
For many who felt failed by both the market and the state, raves opened up a third kind of space, which formed its own logic based on the collective. Regularly drawing many thousands of participants, raves themselves have been theorised as ‘temporary autonomous zones’ – spontaneously organised concentrations of people and musical energy that eluded formal structures of control. Though embodying both dystopian and utopian impulses, raves possessed some extraordinary qualities, transgressing race and class. Utilising the emergent technologies of the day, the music itself possessed a distinct new aesthetic that redrew the boundaries of music. Each locale developed its own rave culture, evolving countless forms of acid house, techno, hardcore, jungle and beyond. In a situation of moral panic, governments in Western Europe legislated to criminalise rave culture from the mid-1990s onwards.
Energy Flash will look at rave as a highly politicised phenomenon, considering it through the key notions of ‘autonomy’, ‘civil liberty’, ‘technology’ and ‘creativity’. As an interdisciplinary project, it will display the works of numerous visual artists in dialogue with many artefacts from the fields of design, music and fashion, along with items selected from various archives, television documentary, literature and criminal legislature. In bringing together this diversity of material, this exhibition will argue that rave culture was inhibited due to its ambiguous place outside of neoliberal ideology, existing largely autonomous of both market and the state forces. This condition makes it a key case study for those wishing to imagine alternative forms of infrastructure for art and culture.
Energy Flash includes a substantial programme of events by artists and musicians taking place over the summer.
The exhibition is curated by Nav Haq, Senior Curator at M HKA.
Artists: Jacques André, Irene de Andrés, Cory Arcangel, George Barber, Jef Cornelis, Jeremy Deller, Denicolai & Provoost, Rineke Dijkstra, Aleksandra Domanović, Andreas Gursky, Dan Halter, Henrik Plenge Jakobsen, Ann Veronica Janssens, Martin Kersels, Mark Leckey, Daniel Pflumm, Matt Stokes, Sergey Shutov, The Otolith Group, Walter Van Beirendonck
Items
Comic strip by Franklin, from The Sun newspaper, November 2, 1988
Music video published by Warp Records and directed by Jarvis Cocker
Hakim Bey – T.A.Z. De Tijdelijke Autonome Zone, 1994
Dutch translation of T.A.Z. The Temporary Autonomous Zone. Translation: Sakhra-lÁssal / Ziekend Zoeltjes Produkties
Cassette tape invitation for the Hard Beat collection show, featuring music by the Belgian new beat group Real Man (Theo Linder, David Salamon and Jan Vanroelen).
Promo music video.
Jeremy Deller presents Acid Brass, 1997
Live recording of the first Acid Brass concert performed by the Williams Fairey Band at The Bluecoat, Liverpool.
Kraftwerk's first American tour footage, 1975
Kraftwerk zijn de peetvaders van de elektronische popmuziek. Kraftwerk werd in 1970 opgericht in Düsseldorf door Florian Schneider en Ralf Hütter. De groep zorgde voor een revolutie in populaire muziek via hun klinisch gebruik van elektronica, op een manier die tegelijk minimalistisch en emotioneel was. Daarbij gebruikte ze repetitieve ritmes en melodieën, gecombineerd met gecomputeriseerde of met de vocoder bewerkte zanglijnen. Tijdens wat gezien wordt als hun klassieke periode, van 1974 tot 1981, bestond hun line-up uit Florian Schneider, Ralf Hütter, Wolfgang Flür en Karl Bartos. Samen produceerden ze de albums Autobahn (alleen in het Duits), Radio-Aktivität (met ook een Engelstalige versie van de hoes, zonder in het Engels gezongen teksten) en Trans Europa Express, Die Mensch-Maschine en Computerwelt, alledrie met Engelstalige pendanten. Kraftwerk had zeer veel invloed op de vorming van techno in Detroit en house in Chicago in het midden van de jaren 1980, en op Europese new-wavegenres zoals electronic body music (EBM). Kraftwerk nam de persona van de robot aan. De groep kan ook gezien worden als pioniers van het idee om de muziek op de voorgrond plaatsen, eerder dan de figuur van de artiest, wat daarop ook gangbaar wordt in andere elektronische muziek door bijvoorbeeld de artiesten niet af te beelden op de platenhoezen.
New Order – Blue Monday , 1983
Blue Monday is the biggest selling 12” single of all time. The sleeve was designed by renowned Factory Records designer Peter Saville, and was made to resemble a 5¼" floppy disc. The sleeve was so expensive to produce that the label actually lost money for each copy that was sold.
Music video (Originally published by Factory Records)
Prime 5 8 6 is one of New Order’s early tracks made with experiments using electronics, and is thought to have set the blueprint for their future dance-oriented tracks such as Blue Monday. This video was specifically made by band member Stephen Morris for display at the opening of the Haçienda nightclub in 1982. The track is also known as Video 5 8 6.
Panorama: Nog niet naar House, 1993
Television documentary that first broadcasted on December 2nd, 1993
PIRATSKE UTOPIJE in Začasno Avtonomna Cona, 1997
Slovene translation of “Pirate Utopia” from T.A.Z. The Temporary Autonomous Zone. Translation by Hieronimo Morfejez (Bojan Azman).
Music video.
Analogue synthesizer
Music video.
Telefacts: Made in Belgium, 1992
Television documentary that first broadcasted on April 21st, 1992.
1987 was the debut LP by the JAMs (Justified Ancients of Mu Mu), known later as the KLF. The album used many unauthorised samples, and they were ordered to destroy all copies and master-tapes following a compliant from ABBA because of samples from their song Dancing Queen. The JAMs travelled to Sweden in the hope of meeting ABBA to convince them to allow them to use the sample. After failing to meet them, most of the records were burned in a field in Gothenburg during the return journey. A handful of copies survived.
The KLF – 1994 K. FOUNDATION AWARD, 1993
Advertisement published in Guardian Weekend, August 28 1993
The KLF – ABANDON ALL ART NOW, 1993
Advertisement published in Guardian Weekend, July 31 1993
The KLF – The White Room, Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, 1988
Limited promo copy of the unreleased soundtrack to the unreleased film The White Room.
The letter “E” from façade sign of the Energiehal, Rotterdam
The letter “E” from façade sign of the Energiehal, Rotterdam. The Energiehal is considered to be the birth place of Gabber music.
The Red Army Choir – K CERA CERA (War Is over If You Want it), 1993
Limited Edition CD by The KLF (under the guise of The Red Army Choir) published the year after the announcement of their 23-year moratorium. The CD was only released in Israel and Palestine.
The Timelords – The Manual (How to Have a Number One The Easy Way), 1988
The Manual by The Timelords (also known as the KLF) is a step-by-step guide to creating a number one hit without the necessity of any funds or talent. The same year, The Timelords had a number one hit with their novelty pop track Doctorin’ the Tardis.
Trevor Miller – Trip City, 1989
Trip City is to be considered the first rave novel.
Various Artists – (Motion), 1994
Music video.
Published by Warp Records
Directed by Phil Wolstenholme, David Slade and Jess Scott Hunter.
World in Action: A Trip Around Acid House, 1988
Television documentary that was first broadcasted on May 12th, 1988