Ibiza: Moments In Love

Fox Reading Room

Free entry

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'the ICA is now giving a breath of life to [Ibiza's] sexed-up, sun-kissed former style' - The Guardian

Ibiza: Moments In Love creates a picture of Ibiza as it was in the eighties through a collection of club posters, books and original photographs.

Few places in space and time can have been more fantastical and inspiring than Ibiza in the early 1980s. The island was home to three of the most important nightclubs in the world. Ku was the world's largest outdoor discotheque, built around an Olympic sized swimming pool. Amnesia was the late night / early morning club where DJ Alfredo played Beethoven, Kate Bush and whatever he liked until the sun came up. Pacha was the boutique discotheque that became a global superbrand.

Ibiza had long been an island of freedom. It was a haven for liberal and alternative Spaniards during Franco's rule. In the early seventies it was a key point on a global hippie trail. In the early eighties it was both a favourite destination of the Club 18-30 holidayers as well as Europe's yachting fraternity. Ibiza was Europe's most treasured ‘pleasure island.'

In 1987 four British DJs, including Danny Rampling and Paul Oakenfold, visited the island and were entranced by the Balearic beats. They were so inspired that on their return to London they launched the club nights Shoom and Spectrum, put the acid into house, and went a long way to creating the dance music industry as we now know it.

The exhibition highlights the work of two great and almost completely unheralded visual artists. Yves Uro was the freehand illustrator and graphic artist of hundreds of posters for Ku. Armin Heinemann was the owner of Paula's Ibiza, a maverick fashion boutique based on the island. Uro and Heinemann's work was world class but created solely for local purposes. It has rarely been exhibited before.

The exhibition also features a set of previously unpublished pictures by the British photographer Derek Ridgers taken at Ku in 1984.

Curated by IDEA Books with the support of 2manydjs and the Wild Life Archive.

Music supervision for the exhibition by Phil Mison and Paul Byrne for TestPressing.org

The Fox Reading Room was made possible by the generous support of the Edwin Fox Foundation.