EINDHOVEN.- The 1980s. Today’s Beginnings? explores the long 1980s from six 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, exploring a wide set of socio-political themes through the lens of culture. The different presentations and mediation programme present cultural production that took place against the mainstream, examining its role in moments of state structures in transformation. Culture was central in responding to or predicting deep societal shifts. As Europe is in the midst of a defining transition in terms of how it sees itself and its relationship to others, it is urgent to examine key moments in identity formation and self-organisation from the recent past.

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. Highlighting the reorientation between civil society and the state during the decade, this project aims to show the significance of developments in the 1980s for society today.

Different European perspectives
The project gives space to multiple narratives and voices from different European perspectives, beginning with counter culture in the Netherlands, the Slovenian collective NSK and black art from Great Britain. The configuration of the galleries will shift during the course of the exhibition; the presentation of NSK lasts until 26 June and from 2 July three new presentations developed by museum partners in Istanbul, Barcelona, and Madrid will be added.

Talking Back. Counter Culture in the Netherlands 16.04 – 25.09.2016
Curator: Diana Franssen, Van Abbemuseum
Talking Back examines Dutch counter culture in the 1980s through the squatters’ movement and its cultural spin-offs in artists initiatives with alternative attitudes to the art world. A group of artists increasingly employed video, sound and photography to subvert mass media’s ‘manipulative’ patterns of representation. Other countercultural movements looked at the position of women and their role in these alternative networks and activist groups. Though radical at their inception, the unfolding of these microhistories also reveals the shift from an open-minded society to a more individual, closed society.

Thinking Back. A montage of Black Art in Britain 16.04 – 25.09.2016
Curator: Nick Aikens, Van Abbemuseum
In 1980s Britain a powerful conversation emerged amongst black artists, filmmakers, thinkers and institutions. It was the outcome of artists trying to understand their relationship towards Britain’s colonial legacy, an increasingly divisive contemporary politics and the use of culture as a space from which ideas of resistance, expression and identity formation could coalesce. Thinking Back presents a number of key artworks, films and archival material from this pivotal moment in British culture outside the country for the first time.

NSK: From Kapital to Capital. An Event in the Final Decade of Yugoslavia 16.04 – 26.06.2016
Curator: Zdenka Badovinac (Moderna galerija, Ljubljana)
This presentation follows events of the different Neue Slowenische Kunst (NSK) collectives, with a focus on multimedia group Laibach (est. 1980), visual arts group IRWIN (est. 1983), and the theatre group Scipion Nasice Sisters (1983-87). NSK is often associated exclusively with the context of failing Yugoslavia and socialism. This research highlights the power of the collective’s artistic faculty and its fundamental goal: to construct a new artistic constellation that would allow them to propose a different society and to enter an international dialogue. The presentation was first shown at Moderna galerija and has been especially adapted for the Van Abbemuseum.

Video-Nou / Servei de Video Comunitari: videointervention in the Spanish Transition 02.07 – 25.09.2016
Curator: Teresa Grandas, MACBA, Barcelona
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.

How did We Get Here? Turkey in the 1980s 02.07 – 25.09.2016
Curator: Merve Elveren, SALT, Istanbul
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.

Archivo Queer? Screwing the System (Madrid 1989 – 1995) 02.07 – 25.09.2016 Curator: Fefa Vila Núñez, independent researcher, i.c.w. Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid
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 heterocentric 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 - developed over a yearlong residency at Reina Sofia.