Günther Grosser POP! Andy Warhol & The Velvet Underground

Part 3 of our series of “Conversations with Cultural Icons”

With the band RED LARGO and a cast of five actors, Pop! Andy Warhol & The Velvet Underground, attempts to provide a performative answer to the question of how Pop became Culture in the 1960s and 1970s. Following Jaws and Bowie in Berlin, we play and dance and sing the pain away!

Sixty years ago, pop artist Andy Warhol suddenly shapeshifted into a filmmaker. Flanked by his so-called “Superstars”, he shot flicks like Blow Job, Chelsea Girls and Lonesome Cowboys; crude, daring, offbeat black-and-white movies walking the fine line between pornography and arthouse film. Along with these “underground films”, he presented the ultra-wild and ultra-loud performance series Exploding Plastic Inevitable as well as produced the debut album of the rock band The Velvet Underground with the German singer Nico – the album cover featured the most iconic image of those few “underground years”, the yellow banana.

The art world responded with a collective shrug, but was more than happy to serve as a permanent guest at Warhol’s hustling, bustling factory where the art was made in the front, the shagging was taking place in the back and amphetamines were taken everywhere. Hardly anyone wanted to see the films, the performance series earned scathing reviews and no one bought the album.

Six decades later, however, they have become cherished cultural icons like the works of Picasso, Wagner or Fellini, while the Factory is now deemed a central historical site for queer emancipation. How did that happen?

Devised and Performed by Summer Banks, Priscilla Bergey, Maureen Gleason, Angharad Matthews, Kumar Muniandy

Music by Red Largo (Fredrik Kinbom, Andreas Dormann, Chris Farr, Sonja Kessner/Rosanne Adriana Klopp)

Concept and Direction by Günther Grosser

Stage Design by Tomas Fitzpatrick | Lighting Design by Katri Kuusimäki | Video Design by Rebecca Shein | Costume Design by Heike Braitmayer | Choreography by Eva Günther | Assistant Direction by Rose Nolan | Photography by Stefania Migliorati