Agit-Punk: Exhibition about The Pop Group concert in Helsinki in 1980
by Rab-Rab Press
at Paja Gallery (Kalasataman Seripaja), Vanha Talvitie 9, Helsinki
Opening at 18:00, on the 12th of May 2023

In August 1980 the leading British post-punk band The Pop Group played in Helsinki at a festival organised by Spartakiadit, an association linked to the Communist Party of Finland.  

The exhibition at Paja Gallery actualises this rare encounter between Punk and the left, emphasising the immediate, nonconformist, frontal agitation as a new form of poetics. 

Whilst in correspondence with The Pop Group’s singer and songwriter Mark Stewart, before his sudden passing, he suggested focusing on the lyrics, which are the key to what he called “the praxis” of The Pop Group. The title of the album they performed at the Spartakiadit festival tells much about the urgency of their practice: “How much longer do we tolerate mass murder?”

Reworking the slogans of The Pop Group, the exhibition suggests that the anti-war and anti-capitalist messages of the band are as relevant today as in 1980 during Nato’s militarisation of Europe. 

With silkscreen posters and archival materials, Rab-Rab Press (featuring Lilou Angelrath, Sezgin Boynik and Samu Elmeri Montonen in collaboration with Ott Kagovere and Jan Konsin) presents this unique history as a teaser to the forthcoming book in Punk Research Series.