Disco fever returns in nightclub exhibition
● The world’s most famous nightspots will be recalled in landmark show
Dundee’s new V&A museum is to play host to the first major exploration of the history of nightclubbing around the world.
Five decades of club culture will be celebrated in the show, Night Fever, which will featured iconic venues in New York, Paris, Turin, Berlin, London and Manchester.
It will explore how nightclub owners and operators have combined architecture and interior design with sound, light, fashion and visual effects to shape and influence pop culture as far back as the 1960s.
Original outfits, furniture, architectural models, film footage, photography, posters and record covers will all be on going on display as part of next year’s exhibition.
Night Fever, which will open in October 2020 and run until February 2021, is expected to be accompanied by a number of special events in Dundee.
It will follow an ongoing exhibition on computer gamesandaforthcomingcelebration of robots, which opens in September.
The exhibition will explore how nightclubs evolved during key periods in history, including the cultural and lifestyle revolution of the 1960s, the disco explosion of the 1970s, the New Romantic and acid house eras which shaped British music in the 1980s and the downfall of the Berlin Wall in the 1990s.
It will also examine the problems nightclubs have faced since the turn of the century, including how they have been adopted by global brands and music festivals, but have also been “pushed out of the city” in many places.
Among the famous venues it will celebrate are Electric Circus, Studio 54 in New York, The Hacienda in Manchester, Ministry of Sound in London, Berghain in Berlin and Les Bains Douches in Paris.
Developed by the Vitra Design Museum in Germany and the Adam Brussels Design Museum, the exhibition is billed as the first largescale examination of the relationship between club culture and design.
Publicity material for the show states: “Based on extensive research and featuring many exhibits never before displayed in a museum, Night Fever brings together a wide range of material, from furniture to graphic design, architectural models to art, film and photography to fashion.
“The exhibition takes visitors through a fascinating nocturnal world that provides a vital contrast to the rules and routines of our everyday life. The multidisciplinary exhibition reveals the nightclub as much more than a dance bar or a music venue – it is an immersive environment for intense experiences.”
Sophie Mckinlay, director of programmes at V&A Dundee, said: “We will shine a spotlight on a design environment with endless possibilities in Night Fever, an exhibition looking at club culture through the lens of design.”
V&A Dundee director Philip Long said: “We are developing our role as an international centre for design and we’re delighted to be working with colleagues from across the V&A and institutions internationally to bring the most ambitious exhibitions to Dundee and Scotland.” V&A Dundee has secured its first ever blockbuster fashion exhibition.
More than 200 garments and accessories will feature in the celebration of Mary Quant, the groundbreaking British designer best known for her 1960s miniskirts and hot pants.
The show, the first major Quant retrospective for half a century, will be heading north in April after its current run at the V&A’S longrunning attraction at South Kensington in London.
The display, which will focus on Quant’s work between 1955 and 1979, will explore how she “democratised fashion and empowered women through her determination, ingenuity and unique personal style.
Sophie Mckinlay, director of programmes at V&A Dundee, said: “V&A South Kensington has groundbreaking fashions shows so I’m thrilled that Mary Quant will be the first we bring to Dundee. As well as showcasing influential designs it also explores ideas of brand and identity at a time when people were eager for change.”