In the past 50 years, pop has travelled around like an infection, accompanying revolutions, coups and the steady trudge of modern history – a balm for a spiritually lost world. Pop expands beyond its musical resonances as a constellation of social spaces, infiltrating the realm of politics and aesthetics.
The contagion of Pop is part of its radical potential – its ability to influence counter-cultures and political movements, but also its power to obscure and distract – a universalism appealing to capitalist forces.
Is Pop an emancipatory machine or does it exploit the desire of the masses? Featuring experimental moving-image works by Cuban, Palestinian, Japanese, American-Indigenous, Asian American, Thai and Ghanaian-American artists from 1968 to present day, the global programme is seeking and questioning what is a ‘pop’ image?
Followed by a DJ set by Ailish
Bristol-born Ailish’s selection is shaped by her early years in the city’s clubs, her wide-spanning listening habits and her time spent living in Leipzig and Kyiv. Now based in London, she finds expression in contrast, and moves between ritualistic high bpms and unpredictable lower tempos.
