Punk. No One is Innocent
Art - Style - Revolt

16 May – 7 September 2008, KUNSTHALLE wien

Accompanying catalogue with texts by Thomas Mießgang (curator of the exhibition), Wolfgang Müller, Glenn O’Brien, and Jon Savage will be available www.kunsthallewien.at

The exhibition focuses on the three metropolises New York, London, and Berlin as examples how "Punk" has influenced the fine arts, young people’s looks, and the ciphers of revolt in different cultural spaces and sociopolitical milieus. Punk is since more than 40 years a global style; you can find it everywhere in our world.


Punk was never a fashion phenomenon alone; it was born out of an ideology of young people in the late 60ies/early 70ies.

MUSIC: Pop theorist Greil Marcus remarked about the Sex Pistols’ song “Anarchy on the UK" - the hymne of Punk, ” ... a voice that denied all social facts, and in that denial affirmed that everything was possible. ...”

Check out the video "SEX PISTOLS RARE LIVE FOOTAGE anarchy in UK" >


FASHION: Wellknown are the fashionable styles of the Londoner Punks created by anarchist intellectual/music manager Malcolm McLaren, fashion designer Vivienne Westwood, and the graphic artist Jamie Reid.



fig.: Vivienne Westwood in “Sex”, 1975, photo: William English

Westwood and McLaren's work was developed from both fields music and fashion; a significant nature to develop Punk style. Famous products of this cooperation are a safety pin in Queen Elizabeth’s cheek, t-shirts with shock motifs, S/M fashion for the subversive flaneur, typographical solutions featuring letters cut from newspapers that imitated blackmail notes.

These products have been used as message-bombardments of the Punk movement to make the masses aware of the situation of young people who lived outside of the society (often against their will). To "shock" was the Punky way to communicate their demands. You will find in this exhibition historical artefacts of the early Punk such as flyers, record sleeves, manifestos, and photographic documentations, ...


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List of artists

LONDON: Leigh Bowery, Derek Jarman, Linder, Malcolm McLaren, Genesis P
Orridge, Jamie Reid, Johnny
Rozsa, Jon Savage, Vivienne Westwood, Stephen Willats, Cerith Wyn Evans, Bill Woodrow
NEW YORK: Vito Acconci, Lynda Benglis, Richard Hambleton, Richard Kern, Robert Longo, Ann Magnuson,
Robert Mapplethorpe, Mark Morrisroe, Tony Oursler, Christy Rupp, Alan Vega, Arturo Vega, David Wojnarowicz
BERLIN: Elvira Bach, Jörg Buttgereit, Einstürzende Neubauten, Luciano Castelli, endart, Die tödliche Doris,
Manfred Jelinski, Walter Gramming, Hormel & Bühler, Malaria!/Mania D, Martin