EUROSPYMEXISPYBOLLYSPYBLAXSPYBOSSASPYASIASPYARABSPY SOVIETSPY
EUROSPYMEXISPYBOLLYSPYBLAXSPYBOSSASPYASIASPYARABSPY SOVIETSPY
COLD WAR SPY FILM MULTI-DIMENSIONAL PROJECT
COLD WAR SPY FILM MULTI-DIMENSIONAL PROJECT

Reception 9th September 2010

Art and Design Gallery, Hatfield UK

 

 

University of Hertfordshire Galleries (UH Galleries) and the Hertfordshire Film Consortium are delighted to present Kiss Kiss Kill Kill, an exhibition, symposium and a series of film screenings celebrating the unique graphic art and forgotten spy films of Cold War Europe.

 

Centred on the kitsch 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.

 

An international symposium: The Forgotten Spy Films of Cold War Europe - the first of its kind ever staged, accompanies the exhibition. Taking place at UH Galleries in Hatfield on Saturday 18 September 2010, this full day event will include contributions from British and international specialists who will debate the ‘Eurospy’ genre across three thematic strands: Real Life Spies, Kitsch and Transnational Appropriation. The day will also include a showing of the forgotten spy classic Danger Route (Seth Holt, GB 1968).

 

A showing of Danger Diabolik (Mario Bava, IT 1968), a cult classic combining the master criminal, super-spy and psychedelic film genres, will take place at the Weston Auditorium on Tuesday 5 October at 7.00pm with an introductory talk by the curator of Kiss Kiss Kill Kill.

 

A public lecture, The European-ness of Eurospy by curator Richard Rhys Davies will take place on Tuesday 19 October at 5.30pm as part of the Critical Dialogues programme jointly organised by UH Galleries, UH School of Creative Arts and SSAHRI, the Art and Design Research Institute.

 

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