Ibiza by Ku. 1986 guide to the island. Cover design by Yves Uro. © Ku / Yves Uro. Courtesy of 2Manydjs
By Sophia Satchell-Baeza
This line, from LCD Soundsystem’s 2002 single “Losing My Edge” might as well define the ICA’s exhibition of Ibiza club ephemera of the Eighties. Curated by Idea Books – Dover Street’s purveyors of rare and countercultural literature, with the support of 2manydjs and the Wild Life Archive, as well as music by the people over at Test Pressing, “Moments in Love” takes over a small room in the ICA and tries to fly you higher.
With the promise to leave your dreary job and “Fly Me High/ Ibiza Sky”, for decades Beefa’s been a pleasure island paradise for artists, hippies, club kids and drop-outs drawn to the White Island’s famous reputation for wild nightlife and “cosmic vibes”. A key stop-off point in the hippie trail of the Sixties and Seventies, it took on the role of psychedelic paradise, no doubt aided by accessible hash, potent leylines, and a string of famous bohemians and filmic representations, including Barbet Shroeder’s gruelling-though-glamorous tale of hippie heroin addiction soundtracked by Pink Floyd, More (1969).
But the Eighties was a whole different story, and what David Owen of Idea Books calls “the missed-out version” of the Balearic counterculture is the focus of this small, entertaining though understandably fragmentary exhibition at the ICA. Through club posters, booklets, Balearic mixes, trinkets (a plastic Pacha fan!) and original photographs, “Moments in Love” gathers together the souvenirs of a Beefa club hound to give a window onto clubbing history.
Home to no less than three of the most important clubs in the world: Ku, Amnesia and Pacha, the island has seen club-based ephemera come and go, and “Moments in Love” reconstructs a tiny fragment of the scene by focusing on the work of two previously unexhibited visual artists working in that scene, Yves Uro and Armin Heinemann. It also features a set of previously unpublished pictures of Ku in 1984 by the British photographer Derek Ridgers.
Yves Uro was the freehand illustrator and graphic artist of hundreds of posters for Ku, and what’s on show here reveals an eye for strong graphic design, with the hazy pastels of a washed-out swimsuit. Armin Heinemann was the owner of Paula’s Ibiza, a maverick fashion boutique on the island, whose fashions are still inspirational for designers and fashion lovers.
But this exhibition is more about the empty spaces than what’s on show – showing that those mix tapes and magazines hold the true history of the Second Summer of Love and the beginnings of Acid House. Most of what’s here has been ripped off walls and collected, so what’s missing is probably now still hiding in the wardrobe of a Hardcore Beefa fan. What have you got?
Ibiza: Moments in Love ICA, London, until 26th January 2014.