The Yverdon-les-Bains Contemporary Art Center (CACY) explores the 1980s between glamor and social distress. On the program of the “Sunglasses at Night” exhibition, eleven artists’ proposals, visual and audio, to be seen until December 22, 2024.
High-waisted pants, bright colors, economic growth, geometric shapes and even synthesizers: so many images that come to mind when we talk about the 1980s. However, beyond this glittery nostalgia, the decade turns out to be more complex and dark. This is what the exhibition at the Center d’art contemporain d’Yverdon-les-Bains (CACY), “Sunglasses at Night”, attempts to show, the title of which is inspired by the Corey Hart song released in 1984.
For Rolando Bassetti, director of CACY, these contradictions are still relevant today. “The economic growth of some caused the social distress of others. For example, in Great Britain, Margaret Thatcher raised the economy while causing disasters at the social level. Then, the image of hedonism inherited from the 1970s was prolongs, but the tragedy of AIDS arrives and brutally stops this freedom,” he explains in the Vertigo show on September 30.
Three generations of Swiss artists meet
To open up perspectives on the 1980s, three generations of artists are brought together. For example, the young visual artist Oriane Emery drew on her family archives which document the massacre of Algerians in 1961 in Paris, just before Algeria’s independence.
On the other side of the generational spectrum, the exhibition’s senior artist, photographer and director Edo Bertoglio, presents photographs taken in New York while he worked for Andy Warhol. He presents a glamorous and legendary city, between parties filled with celebrities like singers Grace Jones and Debbie Harry or singer David Bowie, and his project featuring the artist Jean-Michel Basquiat.
A tailor-made soundtrack
Throughout the exhibition, visitors can listen to a soundtrack created by French-speaking producer and DJ Mandrax. This sound work mixes extracts of recognizable songs from the 1980s with speeches and statements delivered by influential figures of the time.
The DJ was a young adult in the 1980s. He too remembers the contrasts of the decade. “It was the Cold War and street art […] The 1980s had a huge impact on me and I realized it well afterward.”
Musically, the decade stood out for its stylistic diversity and novelty, with the arrival of machines, drum machines and electronics which created a break with the music of the 1970s and 1960s.
Radio subject: Florence Grivel
Web adaptation: Myriam Semaani
“Sunglasses at Night” exhibition, Yverdon-les-Bains Contemporary Art Center (CACY), from September 22 to December 22, 2024.
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