Revisiting Zurichs 90s Techno Scene In Pictures
Zurich quickly embraced techno, and when the music reached its peak in the 1990s, the city became the leading European destination for the genre. Techno parties started as one-off events, then expanded to underground occupations and warehouses, and developed into an established club scene with regular events.
The Swiss city's techno scene was celebrated with a street parade in 1992 that was described as a "demonstration of freedom, love, generosity and tolerance." From fewer than 1,000 members, it has grown steadily and now attracts 1 million visitors a year, three times the city's population.
Photographer Jules Spinach photographed individuals and small groups at protests in the mid-1990s, often on the fringes of moving crowds.
Spinat says: “In the painting, people find their individuality scattered in the crowd. “Because even the most colorful people seem gray from a distance. This isolation stops time, takes away some of the flow from the action and creates air and distance from the action.”
The photographer's current work is intended to resemble a multi-channel slideshow installation of images and personalities.
“The pictures were taken at a time when a lot had changed, and not just in Zurich. The Cold War is over, boring Zurich has become a party city - more colorful, louder, more international, more dense. Street demonstrations were an expression of this and had a political dimension.
“[The protests] called for peace and tolerance, and unlike today, they were fun, hedonistic and spread easily and without ideology.” But what is the part of the opposition and the party? How much activity or avoidance?
“I felt like I was part of something new. But at the same time, I wasn't interested in photographing demonstrations; the crowd is not the decoration of the dance, the political movement in the photo is not a force. These are the people on the fringes of the show who embody these ideas with their presence and style.
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“I usually photographed the moment when the person was looking at the camera, but their facial expression had not yet responded to me, to capture an unexpected, unexpected look, the look of me and the people I was photographing.”
“Today, 30 years later, the audience looks from the past, from the side of exhibition visitors, from the side of what we know and what we don't yet know, and looks to the future with questions. At the same time, we see this time as if we can communicate to answer their questions. This is how we relate to our past. Reconnect with the past.
“The first year I took photos, it seemed like everyone in attendance was dancing on or near the Love Mobile. From 1996 to 1997, when attendance increased from 150,000 to 475,000, I noticed significant changes. Street marches became a spectacle that allowed spectators to watch the love mobiles pass by, dividing participants into spectators and activists.
“This transition from politics to entertainment could be a prerequisite for the inclusion of Zurich technoculture in the UNESCO list of intangible cultural heritage.” And in 2017, the Federal Office of Culture included it in the list of Switzerland’s living traditions.
“I wonder which Swiss culture this refers to: a neutral observer or a participating activist?
