Into the Night: Cabarets and Clubs in Modern Art

Into the Night: Cabarets and Clubs in Modern Art, was an exhibition held in the Barbican Centre 2019 Oct-Jan The Barbican is a multi-arts centre, known for a wide array of different shows from artists, makers, designers and technologists. Shows there are known for being bold, immersive, interactive, multi-disciplinary and varied, even within a show. This exhibition would connect with a large audience and would excite people with an interest in theatre, culture from different countries, history and fans of the early 1900s aesthetic. Commissioned shows at the Barbican are free, this and it being a multi-disciplinary space, brings in a large and varied audience. This space promotes it's self through a email newsletter, as well as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter

There are many different opportunities for artists, makers, etc, at different stages of their career to curate shows at the Barbican. They do this through open calls, which anyone can apply by filling in a form for a brief. They also have a programme called ‘Young Barbican’, in which 14-25 year olds can become members and suggest ideas for a Young Barbican Night or Event. Also, The Barbican is one of the few institutions in London commissioning artists and not just showing it. They choose artists that haven’t had a big exhibition in London before or haven’t had exposure in a long time. 

The show is promoted on the Barbican website by giving quite a lot away, but, just on one room. This gives a good feel of what someone will see. The website tells how they recreated the room that is a recreation of one club, Cabaret Fledermaus. Explaining that they had little visual reference to work with and so collaborated University of Applied Arts Vienna. It shows a black and white original photo and with your computer mouse you can reveal the newly constructed room. In many ways the website creates a feeling of the large amount of work, from start to finish the curators put in, from showing sketches of some of the tiles that made up the reconstruction. to a time lapse of the installing of the tiles. On certain days of the week there would be a live Jazz performance. This works as a promotion but is also a way of making the space more immersive. 

The show is also made immersive through the wide variation of displays. The exhibits on display range from life-size recreations of clubs to using original props from the 1880s as decoration in a room to reassembling an old print exhibition. One small installation is of a uniquely designed chair and table, that seem to be inspired by the old painting next to it. I like this mix of modern and old. Each room has its own time and city it's based on, e.g. Vienna 1907, Mexico City 1920s etc. This creates more impact on the viewer as it gives a more drastic change. Each room is crammed full of details to really bring it to life, along with archive film playing.