A VIBRANT AESTHETIC

The exhibition is arranged chronologically: The Correspondence Scene presents some of the early artists who incorporated zines into their creative practice from the 1970s onwards, with artistic exchanges between specific groups spread across various cities in North America; The Punk Explosion expands on the iconography typical of the punk movement that developed at the turn of the 1970s and 1980s, challenging institutions and access to distribution channels. Queer and Feminist Undergrounds instead reports on homophobia, transphobia, sexism, racism, white supremacy, ableism, HIV/AIDS activism and classism. It draws attention to marginalised communities struggling to find the strength to make their voices heard, with the intention of establishing a clear control over their own self-representation. Hence the careful reflection on the relationship between zine and video, an interaction that began to emerge in the 1990s and early 2000s. Therefor, Subcultural Topologies investigates the time span in which the production of zines reached art galleries and alternative exhibition spaces, becoming accessible to an ever wider public; Critical Promiscuity describes how these examples manage to be an important means of communication for queer artists, who employ this medium to reach a wider group of people and make their social discomfort or difficulty less and less blurred. A Continuing Legacy concludes the exhibition by focusing on today’s vibrant practice of the development of new zines by individual artists, movements or collectives, and how they are an important catalyst for social change. They still remain a tool to push critical discourses to the surface of debates, and to give people control over their own histories and representations, allowing them to unite within ideas and find common ground, rich in shared values.