Exhibition “RAVE NATION. Dancing to the Sounds of Freedom. 1992–2004”
Rave Nation is not exactly an exhibition about parties. Or rather, not merely about parties.
It is, in fact, an archive and a cartography of the turning point at which rave emerged as a form of culture, a machine of resistance, escape and (trans)formation. This machine is presented in the exhibition solely through the small fragments – flyers, photographs and archival video snippets – left behind in the wake of an intense ‘battle’ on the dance floor.
In the West, rave culture originated as an illicit infrastructure of collective ecstasy and post-industrial mourning or dissatisfaction with life. But in Lithuania, between 1992 and 2004, it mutated into something else entirely: a form of rave carrying the imprint of local history and political tensions, along with the entirely novel taste of hard-won freedom. The term rave, borrowed from English, signifies ecstatic expression and is used to describe an intense party, with the word’s roots reaching all the way back to the Middle English period when it meant an ‘elevated state’. By the late 20th century in Western countries, this term was used to refer to illegal electronic music events that had come to symbolise collective euphoria, offering an alternative experience of time, space and sound through ceaseless dancing. The term’s semantic field also encompasses the notions of transcendence, community, and resistance to social norms.
The exhibition’s title, a nod to German music producer DJ Hooligan’s famous track ‘Rave Nation’, is a tribute to a nation’s desire to exist in a newly reborn state, rejoicing in it while simultaneously wanting to be part of a global world, a community without borders. Rave emerged in Lithuania immediately after the declaration of Independence, acting almost as if it were the nation’s cultural subconscious: not as a business venture, but as a project of sound, pleasure, and experimentation. For the younger generation, it offered a novel form of freedom: not a constitutional liberty enshrined in law, but rather a vibrating, rhythmic and collectively experienced liberation, creating its own spaces, its own experiences, its own fashion, and its own DIY rules.
The question of how Lithuanian rave differed from its Western counterpart leads to a broader understanding of rave as not only a style of music or fashion but also as a technology of entertainment and identity-making across time. Western rave was illegal and hedonistic, while in Lithuania, rave was more legal than illegal, yet still radically alternative and euphoric, operating on the threshold of legality within the society’s underground. Moreover, within the still-living memories of Soviet times, any form of Western culture carried an aura of the underground. Therefore, during the first decade of Independence, rave in Lithuania meant both a celebration and an experiment, a kind of laboratory for distilling a new form of subjectivity. Those participating in it fought for their freedom to be different, to listen to a different kind of music, to surprise, even to shock, often risking their own safety in order to belong to the rave community.
The first rave-like parties in Lithuania would take place in woods, bunkers, community halls, or newly designed clubs. These raves united tribes who favoured different electronic music styles that didn’t always get along, yet these tribes all broadcasted signals into the same shared electronic music and dance space. This exhibition brings together, for the first time, the various factions, or tribes, of the ‘rave nation’: from happy hardcore to house, from Vilnius to Marijampolė, from more pop-orientated discos to parties in bomb shelters.
Rave Nation unfolds in layers. At its core lies the history of Lithuanian rave from 1992 to 2004, tracing its evolution from a post-Soviet phenomenon into a Western model. Artefacts displayed in the exhibition’s galleries – flyers, photographs and other documents – chart the rise of the DJ movement, the emergence of club culture, the intersections of dance and psychoactive substances, and journeys made across cities: Klaipėda, Kaunas, Vilnius, Marijampolė, Panevėžys, and Šiauliai. The historical material is complemented by contemporary artworks, some created specially for this exhibition, others revealing rave as a field for exploring imagination, body, sound and community.
A field of freedom.
