In the past 50 years, pop has travelled around like an infection, accompanying revolutions, coups and the steady trudge of modern history – a balm for a spiritually lost world. Pop expands beyond its musical resonances as a constellation of social spaces, infiltrating the realm of politics and aesthetics.
The contagion of Pop is part of its radical potential – its ability to influence counter-cultures and political movements, but also its power to obscure and distract – a universalism appealing to capitalist forces.
Is Pop an emancipatory machine or does it exploit the desire of the masses? Featuring experimental moving-image works by Cuban, Palestinian, Japanese, American-Indigenous, Asian American, Thai and Ghanaian-American artists from 1968 to present day, the global programme is seeking and questioning what is a ‘pop’ image?
