Yugoslavian Disco: Digging into an "Excluded" Musical Culture of Late Socialism

12.5.2022 from 9:30am
Fanny Hensel-Saal & Sargfabrik
no registration required

Hosted by: Juri Giannini und Magdalena Fürnkranz

This study day explores different aspects of the yet uncanonised disco culture that thrived in Yugoslavia from the late 1970s until the early 1980s. Yugoslav disco culture points to the many issues and dilemmas at the heart of late socialism: With funk pioneers and Estrada emulators, gender transgressors and male chauvinists, affluent clubbers and Roma dancers, mainstream promoters and hostile critics, disco resists the polarizing definitions of conformist or progressive, official or subcultural, repression or dissent. Operating within gray zones, it highlights the inadequacy of the outdated binary matrix typically used for the interpretation of popular culture under socialism.

Part I 9:30am – 5pm
Fanny Hensel-Saal, Anton-von-Webern-Platz 1, 1030 Wien

Contributions by Magdalena Fürnkranz, Juri Giannini, Ana Hofman, Tanja Petrović, Mojca Piškor, Marko Zubak

Presentation of Disco Heterotopias: Global Dance Cultures in the 1970s and 1980s (Palgrave Macmillan, eds. Flora Pitrolo/Marko Zubak) and roundtable with the editors, Ralf von Appen, Rosa Reitsamer and Therese Kaufmann.

Part II from 7pm
Sargfabrik, Goldschlagstraße 169, 1140 Wien

Exibition opening: Stayin’ Alive: Socialist Disco Culture curated by Marko Zubak Disco Sets by A Colder Consciousness (London/Palermo), Borovich (Zagreb), Martin Koe (Radio NamNam, Vienna), Radiovostok (Vienna)