Europunk

The book Europunk serves as the catalogue for the exhibition of the same name, held in Rome: January - March 2011, and in Geneva: Summer 2011. Rather than telling a well rehearsed history that follows the path of musical influences (New York ż 1974; London ż 1976; Continental Europe & the US West Coast ż 1977/82), it starts with the simultaneous appearance of an alternative way of creating and using images in England and France around 1975-76, in the hands of graphic designers, illustrators, image makers and agitators such as Jamie Reid, Malcolm McLaren or Bazooka (a team consisting of Olivia Clavel, Kiki Picasso, Loulou Picasso, Ti-5 Dur and Bernard Vidal). It proceeds with the images and methods that began to spread all over Europe, before the advent of New-Wave and the transfer into high-culture, with emphasis on local scenes as lively as Amsterdam, Berlin, Brussels, Düsseldorf, Geneva, London, Manchester, Milano, Paris, Pordenone, Zürich.Europunk gathers a vast array of visual material for the first time, some of it well known, some under-recognized: fanzines, posters, clothes, paintings, objects, record covers, filmsż By stressing the incredible quality and vitality of these alternative artistic productions, the book shows how the visual subculture of Punk embodied both a desire for a żtabula rasaż and a cultural renewal that were synonymous with a new energy and a principle of maximized creative freedom that has had deep political bearings and far-reaching artistic and sociological effects.