The 1980s. Today’s Beginnings?

From July 2, 2016, three new perspectives—counter-cultures from Catalonia, Turkey and Madrid—will be added to the exhibition The 1980s. Today’s Beginnings? Together with the presentations Talking Back: Counter-Cultures in the Netherlands and Thinking Back: A Montage of Black Art in Britain, on view since April 16, they explore the long 1980s from different European perspectives, examining the relevance of this transformative decade for today. This collaborative project comprises a diverse mix of artworks, music, TV, graphic and archival material.

The material presented draws from projects carried out by partners of the museum confederation L’Internationale alongside research undertaken by curators at the Van Abbemuseum.

The new perspectives:

Video-Nou / Servei de Video Comunitari: video-intervention in the Spanish Transition
This presentation looks at a pioneering collective project that took place in the immediate aftermath of Franco’s death in 1975 and the state’s shift from a dictatorial to democratic sphere. Video-Nou / Servei de Video Comunitari used portable video equipment, initiating activist TV stations that were rooted in conceptual art practices and institutional critique. From 1978 they became focused on documenting social changes as a result of the gentrification of neighbourhoods in cities across Catalonia. Their “video-interventions” are now a cornerstone in the understanding of the historical events and social processes during this transformative time in Spain.

Artists: Video-Nou / Servei de Video Comunitari
Curator: Teresa Grandas, MACBA, Barcelona

How did we get here. Turkey in the 1980s
How did we get here delves into the recent past of Turkey starting from 1980, a period that introduced free market economy under military rule. This chapter gives an account of the decade, with an emphasis on Istanbul, through archival materials including magazines, photographs, and films, alongside artworks that evoke the political and cultural climate of the 1980s. It maps the struggle of the decade, tracing the origins of the current context of Turkey through social movements and elements of popular culture. The presentation was first shown at SALT Beyoğlu and has been especially adapted for the Van Abbemuseum.

Artists: Aslı Çavuşoğlu and Barış Doğrusöz
Archives of: Yücel Tunca, Aziz Nesin Archive, Füsun Ertuğ, Gençay Gürsoy, İbrahim Eren, Gülnur Savran, Murat Öneş, Nilgün Öneş, Tuğrul Eryılmaz, Murat Çelikkan, Serdar Ateşer
Curator: Merve Elveren, SALT, Istanbul

Archivo Queer? Screwing the System (Madrid 1989–1995)
Archivo Queer? consists of an open archive with a palimpsest of images, publications, videos and writings from public performances, actions and campaigns of queer movements in Madrid in the early 1990s, a time when the AIDS crisis was a pandemic. The archive, presented here for the first time, aims to subvert hetero-centric and patriarchal forms of categorisation through its formation and display. Archivo Queer? is initiated by Fefa Vila Núñez, promoter of the artist group LSD and Sejo Carrascosa of the group Radical Gai—with the collaboration of the artist Andrés Senra and the researcher Lucas Platero.

Artists: Archivo Queer? is comprised of material drawn from collective production in the late ’80s and ’90s by activists who collaborated with LSD and Radical Gai.
Curator: Fefa Vila Núñez, independent researcher, i.c.w. Museo Reina Sofía, Madrid

Programme curators
Nick Aikens & Diana Franssen (exhibition), Gemma Medina (mediation)

Exhibition design
Kerstin Meyer-Ebrecht (architecture), Roosje Klap (graphics)

Bosch Grand Tour
Part of the Bosch Grand Tour.

L’Internationale
Part of the five-year programme The Uses of Art, on the legacy of 1848 and 1989.

Subsidisers
Supported by Mondriaan Fund, European Union, Bosch 500 and The Art of Impact.