The Beginnings of Punk and New Wave in Germany, 1977 — 82
7th July — 15th September 2002
| ZURÜCK ZUM BETON The Beginnings of Punk and New Wave in Germany, 1977 — 82 7th July — 15th September 2002 |
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Along with Hamburg and Berlin, Düsseldorf was a center for the early punk and new wave movement in Germany between 1977 and 1982. Bands such as KFC, Mittagspause, DAF, ZK, Fehlfarben, and many others came from Düsseldorf. At the start, many different kinds of music, styles, forms of expression, and attitudes were classified under the terms punk and new wave. What they had in common was the urge to break out of the paralyzing, self-satisfied political and social situations of the late nineteen seventies. Opposing the sentimental images of hippies bent on improving the world, slogans and song titles such as "Zurück zum Beton" ["Back to Concrete"] (S.Y.P.H.) or "Verschwende Deine Jugend" ["Waste Your Youth"] (DAF) expressed a radical attitude. New, affordable copying and production methods, such as photocopiers, Super 8, Polaroid, and the first video cameras, double cassette decks and home studios were the tools for a self-organized counter culture. They marked the esthetics of "brilliant dilettantes", with whom some in the art scene sympathized. The paths of youthful punks and the art scene crossed at gathering places such as the Ratinger Hof in Düsseldorf or the SO 36 in Berlin. Artists played in bands, designed record covers, documented many punk concerts, and organized exhibitions with band performances, such as "Finger für Deutschland" at Jörg Immendorff’s studio or "Elend" in Kippenberger’s Büro. Over the past three years, journalist Jürgen Teipel conversed with protagonists of the early punk and new wave generation, editing almost 1000 hours worth of interviews into a type of documentary novel, "Verschwende Deine Jugend" (published by suhrkamp taschenbuch). Under the new direction of Dr. Ulrike Groos with the collaboration of Peter Gorschlüter and the co-curator Jürgen Teipel and numerous lenders and eyewitnesses, the Kunsthalle Düsseldorf presents a broad selection of materials including audio, visual, written, and film documents, record covers, and original objects, with the intention of researching the musical, social, visual, and artistic aspects of the punk and new wave phenomenon. Thanks to the participants’ willingness to cooperate, this is the first time that a show has been put together and dedicated to the youth culture of a generation that had one of its centers in Düsseldorf and whose representatives are now either in or approaching their forties. "Zurück zum Beton" is not a contribution to the much-discussed, wholesale eighties revival. Rather, it is — as it must be — a conscious attempt, as fragmentary as it is polyphonous, to portray this phenomenon that occurred at the end of the nineteen-seventies. The statements of the protagonists and the objects speak for themselves, in their own language. They show how different the apparently homogenous movement was even then and allude to the reasons why the movement died so early, as well as to why it continued on a partly individualized, partly commercialized basis. An exhibition catalogue is published by Buchhandlung Walther König with essays of Detlef Diederichsen, Diedrich Diederichsen, Peter Glaser, Peter Hein, Justin Hoffmann, Roberto Ohrt and Ulf Poschardt. The exhibition is sponsored by: Ministerium für Städtebau und Wohnen, Kultur und Sport NRW, Pop+Musik NRW, Kunst- und Kulturstiftung der Stadtsparkasse Düsseldorf, Addon Group, triggerfish.de, Popkomm. The supporting programme is sponsored by Diebels, Drum and Saturn.
Opening: Saturday, 6th July 2002, 8pm |
 ZURÜCK ZUM BETON
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