From the relationship between the primary publications, Dutch Provo (first issued in ’65) and the indirect derivations, the English publications and vast flourishing American scenario, the project is a study of this vast exo-publishing, especially in the field of visual graphics, beyond their highly politicized contents. The path that starts from the beat-hippie utopias and ends in 1977, the year of Punk, the last revolution before the post-modern alienation. Starting from this research opens the show YES YES YES on contemporary graphics / printing scene. Indeed from the “master” magazines eight collective of artists / graphic designers were invited to interpret this alternate and deviant code. Interventions, dedicated and specific by Dallas, Dexter Sinister, Experimental Jetset, Will Holder, Pauline Kerleroux & Adéla Svobodová, Prill Vieceli Cremers, Studio Hato, Batia Suter translate this matter into art posters and / or printed matter projects produced in limited edition with local artisans / craftsmen of printmaking. Thus the exhibition offers two main sections: on the ground floor, a display of specific posters editions / typographic works on paper designed by contemporary artists inspired by this original material of alternative press; in the gallery basement, a chronological selection of 1966-77 counterculture publications, zines, newspapers, free presses from the European scene to the vast American east / west coast landscape. The aim is to highlight the visual-type-graphic surface of extraordinary magazines and underline the exchange between Europe-America as a central passage for a shared cultural heritage to be transmitted and document in contemporary publishing scene.

The exhibition will include the presentation of the hefty exhibition catalog, the real collection of extensive research and storage, a special project of “Concrete Provo” zine designed and edited by the Dutch collective Experimental Jetset and YES YES YES website, a project that makes available online the historical material and the “alternative contemporary works” produced for the exhibition. LINK TO THE BOOK