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About punk

Roberto Cocconi / Compagnia Arearea
2022

Following “Noi siamo il tricheco” (2020) — an “urban” work exploring the phenomenon of psychedelia in 1960s rock music — and “Cosmic Dancer” (2021), which revisited the glam movement of the early 1970s,

the third chapter of the Rock Revolution project, once again conceived by Roberto Cocconi, stands as the final stage of the trilogy on protest music.

The overarching project aims to revisit the youth movement that, between the late 1960s and 1970s, brought about radical changes in customs — from music to cinema, fashion, social and interpersonal relations, and the dynamics between fathers and sons.

It is 1977. Elvis Presley, the king of rock’n’roll, dies in Memphis. In Italy, the Student Movement’s protest explodes; violent clashes erupt between marches and law enforcement in major cities; Radio Alice is shut down; terrorist attacks take place; the Red Brigades kill and maim.

At first, those young people with pins and studs were regarded as fascists or at least suspicious individuals — because of their look, or their rejection of mainstream currents of thought.

On the musical front, punk rock is an authentic revolution shaking the foundations of the pop-rock world of the time — marked by the pomposity of progressive rock, the clamor of glam-rock, and the dark cosmic tendencies emerging from Germany.

Within the broader realm of art, the “do it yourself” approach is characterized by the use of low-cost means and partly improvised techniques.

Artists bring forth powerful, shocking, ironic, nonconformist, and irreverent images — images that break with the existing order.

The source of inspiration is often drawn from artistic avant-gardes, such as Dadaism.

Punk artists seek to criticize and ridicule power and dominant culture — just as the Dadaists had done before them, in the face of the horrors of World War I.