Practices in the Margins of Design History – Forschungs-Mittwoch #142

Practices in the Margins of Design History: Club Culture and Graphic Design in Belgium (1970-2000) with Katarina Serulus and Robert Lzicar.

Graphic design is a vital component of club culture. Although not made for longevity, flyers and posters are often the only physical mementos left after a club night. This lecture focuses on graphic design of Belgian club culture, from its emergence in the 1970s to the pioneering of electronic music festivals at the turn of this century. A closer look at these graphic ephemera reveals the wide range of lifestyles, graphic strategies, subcultures, music genres, identities and creativity that flourished in the Belgian club ecosystem. However, club graphics also shed light on alternative practices of graphic design created outside of the institutional frameworks that are frequently absent from general overviews, both Belgian and international.

Katarina Serulus studied Art Studies and Design Cultures at KU Leuven and the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. In 2016, she defended her PhD «Design & Politics: The Public Promotion of Industrial Design in Postwar Belgium (1950–1986)» at the Faculty of Design Studies at the University of Antwerp. It was published in book form in 2018 by Leuven University Press.

Program:
19.30 - 21.00h: Lecture by Katarina Serulus and panel discussion, moderated by Robert Lzicar
from 21.00h: Bar + DJs: Kong DJ (Brussels) and Elektro Herrmann (Bern)

Please note that the lecture and panel discussion will be held in English!