Ink, Paper and Staples: Action, Redaction and Creation
06 Dec 2017 - 14 Jan 2018
INK, PAPER AND STAPLES: ACTION, REDACTION AND CREATION
6 December 2017 - 14 January 2018
Curator: Eva López Campesino
Coordinator: Araceli Corbo
INDEPENDENT PUBLICATIONS ON THE MOD MOVEMENT AND THE SIXTIES CULTURE
At the end of the 70s/early 80s there was a so-called ‘Mod Revival’ in England led by musical bands such as The Jam, which resuscitated this movement that had emerged in the early 60"s but presenting it in the style of the two following decades. It is at this moment when there appeared some independent publications reflecting this culture, characterized by its strong individualism and proud to be underground, as an indispensable complement and knowledge-transmitting vehicle.
The publications adopted the form of a fanzine (several photocopied sheets of paper bound with one or two staples), of fact sheets (normally a sheet of paper folded in half), or of magazines with a more professional look but also self-published. On many occasions they were accompanied by cassettes, records, CDs, pin badges or other objects sometimes designed and manufactured by the publishers themselves. They were the perfect method to maintain contact with the readers (who, like the publisher, were fans of a specific kind of music, aesthetics and form of life) and, at the same time, a way to make new friends. With the emergence of the internet, many disappeared, but others are still active. Some were even born when the use of the net was already fully consolidated and combine the physical with the digital format. They are still a great source of information and knowledge transfer, using also social media for this purpose.
Contemporary culture cannot be understood without the underground movements, and one of the most important to develop both in León and internationally has been the Mod movement and the Sixties culture. These independent publications are a faithful reflection and result of this movement; through them we can appreciate aesthetic and cultural changes, new influences, and different ways of thinking.
The contradiction or paradox of the fact that objects originating in the counterculture are housed within the framework of official culture has been overcome already some time ago, since the museums of contemporary art — such as the MUSAC — are living organisms and as such have the mission to absorb, analyse and disseminate all these cultural manifestations, defending them as what they ultimately are: forms of expression.
NK, PAPER AND STAPLES: ACTION, REDACTION AND CREATION is a project in progress, connected to the MUSAC’s aim of giving visibility to the importance of documentary sources as essential elements for contemporary art and culture research.
The project consists of two parts. The first one is an analysis, study, compilation and cataloguing task of a variety of materials included in the documentary collection of the Documentation Centre.
On the occasion of the Completando discursos. Ediciones especiales del Centro de Documentación project, a new web that houses this special collection was created for the Documentation Centre (www.musac.es/centrodocumentacion). A new ‘project’, which will include activities and access to a selection of the material, will be opened in that section. The file cards will contain the same fields and analytical description as the rest of the special editions, adding the category: "mod fanzine" or "fanzine sixties". This material can also ‘travel’ via the Fanzinoteca. A specific and independent branch of study will be established, a documentary collection focused on this topic around the world.
The second part is an exhibition of some copies of these publications, which will showcase the aesthetic and iconographic developments since the 1980s to the present day.
Part of one of the most long-lived and singular of these publications, Ecos de Sociedad, published by Javier Morales (Tenerife), specifically made for the Purple Weekend Festival and for this project, will be displayed. This publication is totally customized; there is only a copy of each issue: it passes directly from the publisher to the reader, to whom it is expressly dedicated. Javier uses handwriting, drawings, clippings, collages... sometimes leaving blank parts so that the reader can write or draw in them, opening a door to interaction and encouraging imagination. Subsequently, it will enter this documentary collection.
After the closing of the exhibition a fact sheet (a simple copy in black and white) will be created as a special publication of the MUSAC. This fact sheet will contain information and photographs of the activities developed in this project. The work around these publications will generate another publication, closing a circle allying the diffusion with the production.
With the collaboration of: Maxi García, Encarnación Campesino, Sandra Casariello, Patricia Macho.
6 December 2017 - 14 January 2018
Curator: Eva López Campesino
Coordinator: Araceli Corbo
INDEPENDENT PUBLICATIONS ON THE MOD MOVEMENT AND THE SIXTIES CULTURE
At the end of the 70s/early 80s there was a so-called ‘Mod Revival’ in England led by musical bands such as The Jam, which resuscitated this movement that had emerged in the early 60"s but presenting it in the style of the two following decades. It is at this moment when there appeared some independent publications reflecting this culture, characterized by its strong individualism and proud to be underground, as an indispensable complement and knowledge-transmitting vehicle.
The publications adopted the form of a fanzine (several photocopied sheets of paper bound with one or two staples), of fact sheets (normally a sheet of paper folded in half), or of magazines with a more professional look but also self-published. On many occasions they were accompanied by cassettes, records, CDs, pin badges or other objects sometimes designed and manufactured by the publishers themselves. They were the perfect method to maintain contact with the readers (who, like the publisher, were fans of a specific kind of music, aesthetics and form of life) and, at the same time, a way to make new friends. With the emergence of the internet, many disappeared, but others are still active. Some were even born when the use of the net was already fully consolidated and combine the physical with the digital format. They are still a great source of information and knowledge transfer, using also social media for this purpose.
Contemporary culture cannot be understood without the underground movements, and one of the most important to develop both in León and internationally has been the Mod movement and the Sixties culture. These independent publications are a faithful reflection and result of this movement; through them we can appreciate aesthetic and cultural changes, new influences, and different ways of thinking.
The contradiction or paradox of the fact that objects originating in the counterculture are housed within the framework of official culture has been overcome already some time ago, since the museums of contemporary art — such as the MUSAC — are living organisms and as such have the mission to absorb, analyse and disseminate all these cultural manifestations, defending them as what they ultimately are: forms of expression.
NK, PAPER AND STAPLES: ACTION, REDACTION AND CREATION is a project in progress, connected to the MUSAC’s aim of giving visibility to the importance of documentary sources as essential elements for contemporary art and culture research.
The project consists of two parts. The first one is an analysis, study, compilation and cataloguing task of a variety of materials included in the documentary collection of the Documentation Centre.
On the occasion of the Completando discursos. Ediciones especiales del Centro de Documentación project, a new web that houses this special collection was created for the Documentation Centre (www.musac.es/centrodocumentacion). A new ‘project’, which will include activities and access to a selection of the material, will be opened in that section. The file cards will contain the same fields and analytical description as the rest of the special editions, adding the category: "mod fanzine" or "fanzine sixties". This material can also ‘travel’ via the Fanzinoteca. A specific and independent branch of study will be established, a documentary collection focused on this topic around the world.
The second part is an exhibition of some copies of these publications, which will showcase the aesthetic and iconographic developments since the 1980s to the present day.
Part of one of the most long-lived and singular of these publications, Ecos de Sociedad, published by Javier Morales (Tenerife), specifically made for the Purple Weekend Festival and for this project, will be displayed. This publication is totally customized; there is only a copy of each issue: it passes directly from the publisher to the reader, to whom it is expressly dedicated. Javier uses handwriting, drawings, clippings, collages... sometimes leaving blank parts so that the reader can write or draw in them, opening a door to interaction and encouraging imagination. Subsequently, it will enter this documentary collection.
After the closing of the exhibition a fact sheet (a simple copy in black and white) will be created as a special publication of the MUSAC. This fact sheet will contain information and photographs of the activities developed in this project. The work around these publications will generate another publication, closing a circle allying the diffusion with the production.
With the collaboration of: Maxi García, Encarnación Campesino, Sandra Casariello, Patricia Macho.