FELICITAZIONI! CCCP-FEDELI ALLA LINEA 1984–2024

A great exhibition marking the fortieth anniversary of one of the most intriguing musical experiences in the history of punk.

CCCP, 2022, foto di Michele Lapini Courtesy SMK Factory

Born (physically) in Reggio Emilia, conceived in Berlin and reborn to the world in that Emilia Paranoica of the 1980s, before falling along with the Wall at the end of the decade, CCCP – Fedeli alla Linea have shown themselves to be a phenomenon that far from died out in those long-forgotten years, a band that has remained capable of continually rediscovering its relevance thanks to intuitions that provide a reference point for a multitude of fans to this day.

From 12 October 2023 to 11 February 2024 at the Chiostri di San Pietro in Reggio Emilia, CCCP – Fedeli alla Linea (aka Giovanni Lindo Ferretti, Massimo Zamboni, Annarella Giudici and Danilo Fatur), forty years after the release of their first EP Ortodossia, reopen the drawers of a collective archive of images, sounds, texts, clothes, stage sets and experiences to let visitors relive those moments that marked their existence and that continue to create cultural links between opposing eras and places.

Luigi Ghirri_Villa Pirondini, 1990 © Eredi Luigi Ghirri

The exhibition, which will emphasise the disruptive power of the texts and the almost mythological aura surrounding the group, will retrace their entire history. A career that crossed paths with some of the most characteristic names of the 1980s, from Pier Vittorio Tondelli to Luigi Ghirri and Amanda Lear.

A chronological and anthological path will lead visitors on the discovery of the records released by CCCP, a behind-the-scenes look at the preparation of each of them, the story of the world around them and which inspired them, and then the universes generated through the sounds, lyrics, clothes and performances they created. The chronological narrative will also leave room for immersive settings – through sound installations, videos, words and images – so as to reconstruct the chaos of being CCCP, along with the daily experiences linked to the various creative phases, experiments and concerts.

Starting from Reggio Emilia, the exhibition will project the visitor into a boundless human space, linking East and West Berlin, the European frontiers, Beirut, the Arab world, the USSR and its satellite countries, China, Hong Kong, Mongolia, Kabul, Palestine, Israel, Moscow and Leningrad, while transforming those places into the peripheries and nodes of a single mental network.

A couple of generations have come and gone, yet since then, “I don’t study, I don’t work, I don’t watch TV, I don’t go to the cinema, I don’t do sport” and “Produce, Consume, Die” continue to be slogans for those struggling to come to terms with contemporary society.