TECHNO is an exhibition now open in Italy that’s been curated by Bart van der Heide who is the director of Bolzano’s MUSEION gallery in in South Tyrol, Italy.
It’s a unique exhibition that dives into the roots of techno and the communities that have been built as a result of the genre. It’s divided into three themed sections ‘freedom’, ‘compression’ and ‘exhaustion’ that are also three stages which could describe an invigorating night out in a techno club.
This new installation is the first in a series of exhibitions called TECHNO HUMANITIES, which is described as being a “long-term program” covering the links between humanity, music, ecology, technology, and more.
The first exhibition will focus on the communities and subcultures that have developed around the genre, and how those have influenced peoples lifestyle decisions. It gives particular focus to the local techno scene in Italy’s South Tyrol to show one such example of the genre’s impact.
Talking about the TECHNO exhibition, Bart van der Heide said: “When it comes to subculture, commitment is key. There was no such thing as a part-time Punk. Yet, in the case of techno subculture, one can enter and leave at any moment”.
Bart van der Heide then continued: “Mediated by new technologies, techno music became the soundtrack of liberation and escape. The compressed sonic architecture of the techno club forged meaningful bonds with its community, through collective and interconnected experiences of joy, exhaustion and calculated release.”
TECHNO has been open since the 10th of September, and will run until March 2022, and was launched by a daytime rave in a disused power plant that finished around the time of the exhibition opening its doors for the first time.
Along with Bart van der Heide some of the other contributors include Paul Chan, James Richards, Matthew Herbert, Yuri Pattison and Samuel Kerridge plus numerous others.
You can book tickets or find out more here.
