Javier Panera

As Pera Museum celebrates its 10th birthday this month, it also welcomes a great exhibition. This is not a Love Song: Video Art and Pop Music Crossovers which emphasizes the important moments where video art and pop music crossed roads from the 60s onwards. Lasting until the first week of February, some works in the exhibition are more familiar than the others, while some have a grand surprising effect. We got a chance to sit down with the man behind the curtain, the name who brought all these works together; curator Javier Panera, and talked about this exciting exhibition.

First of all, how did you decide on the idea of focusing on the relationship between video and pop music?

I am an art history teacher in Spain. When I need to speak of music and its relationship with art, I realized that there were not worthwhile researches on that subject. But actually, the history of video art and pop music go hand in hand. There- fore, to fill the void, I worked on researching about the history of the two, and took part in Video Killed the Radio Star. A History of Music Video and Rock My Religion exhibitions took place in DA2, Domus Atrium in Salamanca. This is how “This is not a love song” was born.

You brought works from Nam June Paik, Andy Warhol, Yayoi Kusama, Vito Acconci and John Baldessari’s along with many other successful artists for the exhibition. How did you pick the artists and their works?

This exhibition consists of 26 works by 28 artists. It tries to figure out video art and experimental cinema’s relationship – both conceptual and stylistic- with the iconographs of pop and rock music. I chose artists that collaborated with musicians, some who even made their own albums, and musicians who took art classes before beginning their music career such as John Lennon of The Beatles, Damon Albarn of Blur, Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth and so on.

There are five chapters in the exhibition. What is the diffe- rentiation between them all

The names of the chapter are “Pop in Art / Art in Pop”, “Hys- teria and Religion” , “Not musicians v Not artists. Rock and Conceptual Art”, “Rock and its double. Pop Music as a tool set” and the “Politics of Dance Music”.

To explain very shortly; Art in pop / Pop in art looks at Psychedelia by pioneers of video art like Yayoi Kusama and Jud Yalkut.

Hysteria and Religion is based on Dan Graham’s visual and literary essay Rock My Religion and addresses the failure of rock’s utopias.

Rock and conceptual art. “Non musicians” v. “Non Artists” focuses on the lack of diversity in the 70s rock industry and includes stereotype parodies.

“Rock and its Double”. Pop music as “box of tools” brings together video installations by artists such as Candice Breitz, Adel Abidin, Tony Cokes whom are interested in post-pr duction strategies.

And finally, The Politics of Dance Music, analyzes the emancipating power of dance music and its ability to create visible identities and issues of race, gender, class.
This exhibition consists of 26 works by 28 artists. It tries to figure out video art and experimental cinema’s relationship – both conceptual and stylistic- with the iconographs of pop and rock music.

Does the name of the exhibition, “This is not a Love Song” come from the song of Public Image Limited? And if yes, what makes this song so special for you?

Yes, it does. Released in 1983, it was the band’s biggest commercial hit. Yet, I find it states a fantastic critic to both the rock scene at the time, in which the bands were giving up their artistic principles for commercial success, and to capitalism, in general.

 

When you consider the relationship between today’s pop stars and video artists, how do you think their relation has evolved throughout history? And can you name some music videos you like?

Today’s ecosystem of the contemporary art and music is obviously based on the internet. Youtube is a very important platform to show your works and discover others’. I am very excited to see new collaborations on online platforms. My latest favorite music videos are of Bjork, FKA Twigs and David Bowie. They made interesting collaborations with important contemporary video artists.

I heard you also are a DJ. What kind of music do you play?

Psychedelic music. I should add that I admire Turkey’s 70s psychedelic music scene.