BAZOOKA at The Anti Design Festival

MEDIA RELEASE COURTESY OF: Aubin Gallery

BAZOOKA
Curated by Stuart Semple
The Aubin Gallery, Shoreditch, London
16th September – 3rd October

During London’s inaugural Anti Design Festival we are pleased to announce the first ever exhibition of Bazooka, a trailblazing ‘commando’ style cell of radical French illustrators.

“Arguably the greatest punk artists this side of Jamie Reid” – The Guardian

“Influential” Macolm McLaren

In the late 70s mainstream French punk was played out for socialites and was resultantly impotent of any real social consequence. Meanwhile on the fringes of the art world Bazooka channeled New York and London energies into some of the most politically subversive work on the planet.

This work, in the summer of 1977, saw Bazooka shoot to infamy when they were invited to art direct Libération - France’s original leftist Newspaper founded in 1973 in the wake of the 68’s protest movements. At just 21 years of age and splitting their salary 6 ways, their nocturnal missions started at 6pm and ended at 10pm.

They would subvert every inch of white space, often sending it to print at the last minute so their plans couldn’t be foiled. Their direct communication with the Baader-Meinhof gang (aka the red army faction) made for gripping next day reading.

Their fascination with Suprematism, Constructivism and totalitarian propaganda upset more than just the leftist hippies, the paper’s photography department and France’s war veterans (as planned), quickly reaching fever pitch. In the end a beating ensued for Kiki and Loulou Picasso and the publisher thought it best to give them their own magazine, reclaiming control of the paper after about 6 months.

During this period, the members of the “graphic commando” lived together in a gigantic flat. A mixture of Warholian factory and an open all hours Bauhaus production facility that resulted in numerous album covers, including Elvis Costello’s Armed Forces, covers for Iggy and the Stooges and the first ever art collaboration with Swatch watches.

Loulou and Kiki Picasso are still working together and still celebrating the modern in their unique retro-futurist way. Their rejection of the highbrow vs lowbrow dichotomy has lead them into new works that challenge the zeitgeist with their truly postmodern hybrids.

For their first ever show in London, Loulou and Kiki have dug deep into the Bazooka archive to present some legendary works from the Libération and Punk period. They will also show some of their new illustrations and paintings and collaborate for the first time with Neville Brody on a series of works to be displayed as a unique installation "Decoration Kit for Disturbed Teenager", aiming to show the relevance of free expression and instinctive graphic design in a world of outdated communication.

Running parallel to the London Design Festival, the Anti Design Festival will attempt to break twenty-five years of cultural deep-freeze, and reverse the model of culture=money, providing an outlet for new risks and creative exploration in art, image, design, product, film, fashion, performance and sound through a series of events, publications and venues.

The Anti Design Festival 18-26 September 2010
In and around the Londonewcastle Project Space
28 Redchurch Street, Shoreditch, London

For further info visit:
http://www.aubingallery.com