![\"Walter](\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/DANCE-DANCE--751x600.jpg\")
Walter Van Beirendonck, Hardbeat Collection,1989-1990<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Walter Van Beirendonck, Hardbeat Collection,1989-1990<\/p>\n
Summer 2016: Going to a Berlin club\u00a0is like stepping into a heady whirl of\u00a0nostalgia, where spiky hair, chokers,\u00a0baggy trousers and sportswear dominate\u00a0the dancefloor. Designers from\u00a0Cottweiler to Caitlin Price and Miu\u00a0Miu have taken their style cues from\u00a0Nineties club kids. But steeped as they\u00a0are in wistfulness for an age they never\u00a0knew \u2013 albeit with the peculiar form\u00a0of curated hedonism typical of the\u00a0Instagram generation \u2013 the kids are\u00a0not alright. If rave was indeed the last\u00a0great youth movement, as the exhibition\u00a0\u201cEnergy Flash\u201d at the M HKA in\u00a0Antwerp asserts, little has remained of\u00a0its spirit of bricolaged chaos.<\/p>\n
The exhibition takes its title from the\u00a0eponymous Joey Beltram track, and immerses\u00a0the visitor in a flurry of hi-energy\u00a0visuals, Aphex Twin videos and\u00a0dance sentimentalism. For those who\u00a0were part of this movement, the narrative\u00a0runs, their world seemed like an\u00a0alternative reality: 48 hour bursts of\u00a0utopia, enveloped in a chemical haze\u00a0and cheap lager, social divisions erased\u00a0in the sweaty unison of bodies in an\u00a0unventilated dance floor. Spontaneous\u00a0assemblies charged with an anarchic\u00a0energy, raves united informal political\u00a0protest, novel forms of aesthetic\u00a0expression and casual rejection of formal\u00a0order, with each particular location\u00a0\u2013 from the Gabber music of the\u00a0Belgian club scene to Bristol\u2019s jungle\u00a0soundtrack.<\/p>\n
Early rave hits like \u201cThe House of House\u201d\u00a0by Cherry Moon Trax and scene-making\u00a0labels such as R&S Records are\u00a0shown alongside loving displays of yellowed\u00a0fliers and event guides. Presented\u00a0like this, the artworks at times disappear\u00a0into the maelstrom of objects\u00a0and videos \u2013 but perhaps this is the\u00a0precise intention of curator Nav Haq.\u00a0After all, rave freely appropriated elements\u00a0of Afro-futurism, hip-hop and\u00a0Sixties hippie culture. And those who\u00a0attended the raves may \u2013 or may not\u00a0\u2013 remember the questionable psychedelic\u00a0murals and intricate laser shows.<\/p>\n
\u201cEnergy Flash\u201d is an anthropological\u00a0endeavour, dissecting the European\u00a0rave scene of the Eighties and Nineties\u00a0through its art, its music and its\u00a0artefacts as well as contemporary documentaries\u00a0and news programmes. In\u00a0one corner a Roland TR-808 drum\u00a0machine sits next to a shock report\u00a0by a British newspaper; in another\u00a0Ann Veronica Janssens\u2019 light installation\u00a0abuts Alexandra Domanovic\u2019s\u00a0collage of amateur videos of Serbian\u00a0teenagers dancing. This disorder reflects\u00a0the free-for-all nature of rave:\u00a0prior to mobile phones and the internet,\u00a0people found about these parties\u00a0by phoning anonymous numbers and\u00a0following mysterious convoys, or else\u00a0through word of mouth. And much of\u00a0this is translated into its postmodern\u00a0aesthetics borrowed from an array of\u00a0sources, too.<\/p>\n
![\"Aleksandra](\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Aleksandra_Domanovic_19-30_2010-2011_Courtesy_of_the_artist_and_Tanya_Leighton_Berlin-900x511.jpg\")
Aleksandra Domanovic, 19:30 2010-2011. Image Courtesy of the artist and Tanya Leighton Berlin<\/p>\n
Moreover, Rave created spaces that\u00a0dissolved the distinction between public\u00a0and private land, if only for a day\u00a0or two. Parties took place anywhere\u00a0from caves to warehouses and fields;\u00a0the only criteria for party for the selection\u00a0of these venues was if the organisers\u00a0could get away with it. In\u00a01991, Hakim Bey\u2019s seminal anarchist\u00a0text \u201cT.A.Z.: Temporary Autonomous\u00a0Zones\u201d, emerged as the theoretical\u00a0manifestation of what every raver already\u00a0knew: the dancefloor was a place\u00a0where rules were suspended. Rave, it\u00a0seemed, wasn\u2019t just about getting high,\u00a0but dissolving hierarchies.<\/p>\n
\u201cEnergy Flash\u201d dutifully documents the\u00a0movement\u2019s itinerant nature. Irene de\u00a0Andres photographs of parties in derelict\u00a0Ibizan bullrings paint a picture of\u00a0the island\u2019s dance scene that\u2019s a million\u00a0miles away from the commercial\u00a0mega-club complex it\u2019s become. Elsewhere\u00a0installations of speaker stacks\u00a0and lasers by Matt Stokes and Ann Veronica\u00a0Janssens act as reminders that\u00a0while it attempted to transcend social\u00a0boundaries, rave was a material culture\u00a0\u2013 an aspect that the show marshals\u00a0through its fashion focus.<\/p>\n
Walther van Beirendonck clothing designs\u00a0remain striking. A member of\u00a0the Antwerp Six, the group that revolutionised\u00a0Eighties fashion, van\u00a0Beirendonck was also one of the goto\u00a0European rave designers, with his\u00a0face-masks, bright colours and use of\u00a0rubber and neoprene quickly becoming\u00a0scene staples. Eventually, this came\u00a0full circle when he named his 1989\u00a0collection \u201cHardbeat\u201d, covering his\u00a0models in neon fake fur, knitwear and\u00a0knee-length platform boots.<\/p>\n
At times, Energy Flash appears as Gesamtkunstwerk,\u00a0and for the uninitiated,\u00a0this can be daunting. Nonetheless,\u00a0while the exhibition aims to be an exhaustive\u00a0documentary of the \u2013 mostly\u00a0European \u2013 rave movements, and certainly\u00a0presents a series of entertainingly\u00a0immersive environments and nostalgic\u00a0flashbacks, it can only be a meagre\u00a0substitute for the chaotic improvisation\u00a0that characterised the era. Still, it\u00a0conveys some of the anarchist mindset\u00a0and politics that lay at the heart of the\u00a0movement \u2013 a welcome primer for the\u00a0next generation of ravers.<\/p>\n
![\"Irene](\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Irene_de_Andres_HEAVEN._Where_Nothing_Happens_2015_Courtesy_of_the_Artist_-900x600.jpg\")
Irene De Andr\u00e9s. Heaven – Where Nothing Happens, 2015. Image courtesy of the artist<\/p>\n
“Energy Flash \u2013 The Rave Movement” takes place\u00a0at M HKA \u2013 Museum of Contemporary Art\u00a0Antwerp, until 25 September 2016<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cEnergy Flash\u201d is an anthropological endeavour, dissecting the European rave scene of the Eighties and Nineties through its art<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38229,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11856,139],"tags":[5951,3513,884,5952,5953,4025,5954,4818,5955,5956,5957,5958,5959,5960,5961,5962,1882,5963,398,4820,1123],"class_list":["post-38224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sleek-art","category-art","tag-alexandra-domanovic","tag-ann-veronica-janssens","tag-antwerp","tag-antwerp-six","tag-aphex-twin","tag-caitlin-price","tag-cherry-moon-trax","tag-cottweiler","tag-eighties","tag-energy-flash","tag-gesamtkunstwerk","tag-hakim-bey","tag-irene-de-andres","tag-joey-beltram","tag-m-hka","tag-matt-stokes","tag-miu-miu","tag-nav-haq","tag-nineties","tag-rave","tag-walter-van-beirendonck"],"acf":{"main_category":null,"legacy":"1","exclude_from_ads":null,"hero_title":null,"subtitle":null,"hero":null,"teasers":null,"facebook_image":null,"related_articles":null,"next_article":null,"sleek_card_focus":null,"content":null},"yoast_head":"\n