For 50 years Portugal lived under dark times dictated by Salazar’s right wing, conservative nationalist dictatorship. Portugal was isolated and closed off culturally to the world. That was until a new sound called Acid House arrived.
With a new generation too young to remember the dictatorship and too hungry to find their own cultural expression, it wasn’t until the late 80’s that Portugal started to breath the fresh air of democracy.
By the early 90’s this generation had started to carve out a future for themselves, calling upon new ideas and a visionary way desperate to fire up their life. As they discovered the sounds and spirit of electronic music, the pleasure of dancing under the stars became their new found freedom bringing with it, hope of a brighter future.
In 1994, with the re-introduction of an existing 1992 vocal-poem song called So Get Up* (by Californian songwriter, Ithaka Darin Pappas), the Underground Sound Of Lisbon and their track by the same name achieved true international recognition through distribution by Rob Di Stefano's Tribal America label, thus jump-starting the acid house movement both in Portugal and abroad. As the release was stealthily wrapped in graphics representing the Portuguese flag few people in U.S. realized that they were indeed purchasing a domestic product.
Regardless, to celebrate this history we are putting together an exhibition at the Red Gallery, documenting the Portuguese Acid House movement and the club culture scene, that came with it, across a variety of different mediums.
So Get Up Project/Exhibition is a collaboration between Red Gallery, renowned Portuguese DJ Rui Da Silva and Portuguese music journalist Joao Xavier, Editor of the first magazine documenting the Portuguese club culture.
We are in the process of gathering material which documents such days. Of particular interest are photographs of the time, flyers, posters and any other content that is relevant to those years. Some of the imagery will be familiar to many, while other pieces will be more obscure, and it’s this unique mix that will give this exhibition the edge.
The exhibition isn’t limited to printed content either, we are also interested in any films and documentaries which capture the essence of those special times, which are fascinating for fans of the scene and curious for newcomers alike, helping to make this a very well rounded and successfully curated show.
The type of material we are looking for is – films. Photographs, memberships, flyers, fashion clothing, poems, letters etc.
So Get Up is the next stop on the global journey documented by the Red Gallery bringing music, life and sub-cultures from around the world to east London music fans. It follows in the footsteps of exhibitions like After The Wall (Berlin), La Moved (Spain), French Touch, Soviet Hippies and Tokyo Punks.
The exhibition is scheduled for July 2018
email us on: callout@sogetup.com
* The 1992 vocal-poem song called So Get Up* (by Californian songwriter, Ithaka Darin Pappas) was originally read on Rádio Comercial, Lisbon and later recorded in Manchester, England with producer Darbis (early 1993). This poem is protected by U.S. Federal copyright law.
