University of Hertfordshire Art and Design Gallery

September 10 – October 16, 2010

The Kiss Kiss Kill Kill Archive in collaboration with UH Galleries

are delighted to present Kiss Kiss Kill Kill, an exhibition celebrating the unique graphic art and forgotten spy films of Cold War Europe.

Centred on the designs produced across Europe during the Cold War, Kiss Kiss Kill Kill is the first exhibition of a collection of newly restored posters from Belgium, Czechoslovakia, France, Italy, Poland, Romania, Spain, the U.S.S.R, West Germany and the UK. The different graphic styles in the East and West provide an expansive portrait of European taste, national identity and politics of the period with the brash super kitsch of Italian cinema posters juxtaposed compellingly with the lo-tech golden age of non commercial Czech film poster design.

The posters relate to an entire legacy of films tarnished by state control in Eastern Europe and overkill of the Spy Genre in the West. The exhibition will include both leaden communist propaganda and the epically trashy fruits of European co-production.