THE EIGHTIES a Decade of Extremes 17.06.2016–18.09.2016
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THE EIGHTIES A Decade of Extremes 17.06.2016–18.09.2016 After its notable long-term project on the post-war avant-garde, the European museum confederation L'Internationale now focuses on the eighties, a decade that ushered in the end of the post-war world order, the welfare state and a bipolar world order. The research lines of L'Internationale primarily focus on the critical phenomena that were less apparent in the art scene of the time. Energy Flash – The rave movement (17.06 - 25.09.2016) forms part of this exploration. In the complementary exhibition The Eighties – A decade of extremes (17.06 -18.09.2016), M HKA reflects on the art scene of the time as it emerged in its most glossy incarnation within a non-problematized commodified market. The focus is turned on a few of the pillars that constituted this commodification, but that, retrospectively, still seem to hold a critical potential: the last moment of the predominance of the New York scene with remarkable female artists, the post-minimalist scene and its alliance with a reflective figurative sculptural art, as well as the German painting of the time and the thematisation of the postmodern loss of reality. Club Moral is added as a counterweight, part of the ‘other side’ of that period, as is the presentation Memories of Montevideo: the Antwerp avant-garde scene in the early 80s in the frame of INBOX (Part 1: 16.06 - 10.07.2016, Part 2: 14.07 - 07.08.2016). With Georg Baselitz, Guillaume Bijl, Jean-Marc Bustamante, Club Moral (Danny Devos & Anne-Mie Van Kerckhoven), Jef Cornelis, René Daniëls, Thierry De Cordier, Wim Delvoye, Bernaded Dexters, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, Lili Dujourie, Jan Fabre, GAL, Robert Gober, Rodney Graham, Keith Haring, Jenny Holzer, Jörg Immendorff, Per Kirkeby, Jeff Koons, Barbara Kruger, Robert Mapplethorpe, Paul McCarthy & Mike Kelley, Allan McCollum, Cady Noland, Ria Pacquée, A.R. Penck, David Robilliard, Martha Rosler, Rob Scholte, Thomas Schütte, Cindy Sherman, Walter Swennen, Jan Vercruysse and Franz West. In the eighties, as a reaction to the global economic crisis, the relationship between state and market become redefined. The rise of the neo-liberal policies of Thatcher, Reagan and Kohl marks the beginning of the erosion of the welfare state, which leads to growing inequality. These are hard years with massive strikes, rising unemployment and protest marches against nuclear missiles. In 1986, the Chernobyl nuclear power plant explodes. There is the onset of acid rain, and in Africa successive droughts lead to harrowing images of famine. AIDS, a hitherto unknown disease, emerges in America and is rapidly spreading across the world. Belgium is shaken by the bombings of the CCC (Cellules Communistes Combattantes - Communist Combatant Cells) and the attacks of the Gang of Nivelles. Abroad, there are the IRA bombings, the worldwide cultural boycott against South Africa and the start of the First Intifada. In 1989 the Berlin Wall falls, yet in China, the student protests at Tiananmen Square are bloodily suppressed. At the same time, the eighties are a period of hyper-consumption, with its yuppies, young urban professionals, and new decision makers. In the newly created free market they quickly acquire new wealth, which they display openly. To them, arts and culture are about aestheticism, informatization and mediatization, and mostly serve as a status symbol. Lifestyle becomes a concept, defined by, among others, nouvelle cuisine and aerobics. Video, CD and Walkman embark on an unstoppable march, and in Belgium the first advertisements are aired on TV. These are the years of the megastars such as Michael Jackson, Prince and Madonna, and blockbuster films such as Star Wars. The exhibition The eighties – A decade of extremes brings to the fore this polarization between extremes, between playful gaiety and hard radicalism. The Eighties evokes an eventful decade through a number of cornerstones that defined the art of the moment. The Neue Wilde in Germany The return of painting was one of the most striking developments in the art scene of the eighties, and was broadly defined by the generic moniker ‘neo-expressionism’. The epicentre lay in Germany, but Italy had its own offshoot as well, the ‘Transavantguardia Italiana’. In Belgium and the Netherlands artists like Fred Bervoets, Walter Swennen, René Daniëls and Marlene Dumas raised considerable interest. Artists expressed their social unease on large-format canvases; in coarse brushstrokes they vented their anger against the established structures which they criticized and accused of hypocrisy and covert fascism. The art market experienced a boom thanks to the return of painting. The critical impact of the Neue Wilde remained largely underexposed because their work was appropriated by the art market as the return of commodified art. The last high mass of the New York scene New York, which had dominated the art market since World War II, experienced its last period of commercial hegemony in the eighties. Following in the wake of pop art and conceptualism, New York artists processed and reworked the images and texts of the mass media. Graffiti (Keith Haring), light boards (Jenny Holzer), billboards (Barbara Kruger), movies (Martha Rosler) and posters were spread throughout the city. Critical reflections were a matter of course, just as evident as the marketing of the works. Particularly notable were female artists who in their work took a stand against the consumer society. Jenny Holzer and Barbara Kruger used language as a primary medium in their installations. In their photos and films, Cindy Sherman and Martha Rosler parodied the stereotypes of women as they were presented on television, in advertising and magazines. Postmodernism as an undercurrent Almost all art from the eighties can be linked to the philosophical movement that engulfed the decade like a tidal wave: Postmodernism, with both French protagonists such as Jean Baudrillard, Jacques Derrida, Jean-François Lyotard and Michel Foucault, and specifically art-oriented reflections, such as Arthur Danto's The Transfiguration of the Commonplace. Postmodernism radically renewed the space of art, whereby combinations of high and low culture, and levels of attendance were played off one another. Some artists, such as Jeff Koons, Allan McCollum, Guillaume Bijl or Haim Steinbach have, more than others, become identified with Postmodernism. With much irony and unrestrained parodying, the commercialization of art and culture was denounced by artists such as Rob Scholte, Wim Delvoye and Ria Pacquée. Post-minimalism as refusal The second half of the eighties marked the return of sculpture in an art scene in which Europe, particularly, was trying to create its own position. The most ambitious in this context was the post-minimalist art of the Eurocore, with Harald Klingelhöller and Reinhard Mucha in Dusseldorf, Niek Kemps in the Netherlands, Jean-Marc Bustamante in France and Jan Vercruysse and Lili Dujourie in Flanders. While consciously pursuing a position in the market, these artists also adhered to a strict position that advocated a professional, respectful attitude toward the mystery of art. Their installations, characterised by a cool aesthetic and a prolific referencing of art history, made use of strategies derived from concept art, translated into a tangible and aesthetic artwork. Their work exudes melancholy and can be seen as a last stand for an autonomous art, aware of the changing zeitgeist yet fully aligned with the new marketing. A reflective, body-oriented sculpture Artists such as Thomas Schütte, Franz West, Thierry De Cordier and Juan Muñoz were part of the post-minimalist network, although their works are more performative in nature and more figurative in appearance. They have a very physical and often theatrical way of dealing with the legacy of conceptual art. The viewer becomes part of the presentation, and is expected to adopt an active role. Thomas Schütte's forms hover between reality and the imaginary. The viewer is expected to touch, pick up and put Franz West’s Paßstücke in motion. Thierry De Cordier creates enclosed interior spaces that need to be virtually accessed by the spectator. While fully functioning within the art market, these artists were at the same time explicitly interested in a reflective, experience-based space. The counter movement as part of the art scene The commodification of art in the eighties was accompanied by a vital off scene. In 1981, Danny Devos and Anne-Mie van Kerckhoven founded Club Moral, a noise-music group and independent venue for exhibitions, performances and concerts. On the basis of the absolute right to free speech, they used aggression and provocation both substantively and strategically to position themselves against tradition, the established values and the ruling order. Aside from their music cassettes, Club Moral also published, from 1982 onward, the magazine Force Mental. Force Mental RVSTD has been reprinted on the occasion of the exhibition and is for sale in the bookshop. The exhibition presents a remake of In Vitro, an international event organised by Club Moral in both 1984 and 1986. LPs, cassettes, magazines, books, films, videos and objects are displayed of Belgian and foreign alternative publishers, musicians and artists of the period. The local context: internationalization Aside from artworks, The Eighties also recalls the social and political events of the decade through the television reports of Jef Cornelis, film clips and original drawings by the ‘political