International DJ Ana Matronic celebrates Night Fever exhibition with V&A Dundee

International DJ Ana Matronic celebrates Night Fever exhibition with V&A Dundee

An online event celebrating the opening of Night Fever: Designing Club Culture at V&A Dundee will entertain a global virtual audience on Friday 7 May, with free tickets now available.

Tay Late: And the Beat Goes On will take guests on an eclectic night out, beginning in Dundee with virtual visits to Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dublin, New York and London, and paying tribute to the diversity and resilience of club culture across multiple cities and communities.

International DJ Ana Matronic is preparing to join the celebration from New York with an exclusive DJ set, playing tracks inspired by some of the world’s most iconic nightclubs featured in the Night Fever exhibition, from Studio 54 to Manchester’s Haçienda.

Writer-musician Kayus Bankole of Mercury Prize-winning Scottish band Young Fathers will explore dancing, communal experience and togetherness in a specially commissioned new film featuring spoken word, original sound and visuals by Chizu Anucha.

Ana Matronic is known for providing the soundtrack for crowds on dancefloors all over the world. She previously played to a sold-out live audience inside V&A Dundee as part of the University of Dundee’s Festival of the Future in October 2019 and has said she “can’t wait to bring that same dancefloor energy into people’s homes” on the evening of Friday 7 May.

Ana Matronic, Scissor Sisters performer and host of Dance Devotion on BBC Radio 2, said: “Night clubs have always been spaces for innovation and exploration, places for finding yourself as well as an escape from the everyday.

“My own personal evolution would not have been as grand or fabulous had I not spent my nights in sweaty, glorious communion with my fellow dancers, drag queens, and denizens of the disco.

“It is my privilege and honour to join forces with V&A Dundee to present Night Fever and pay tribute to the vast culture that not only allows for fun and frivolity, but also for deep connection, self-inquiry and growth.”

Nichol Keene, Creative Programmer at V&A Dundee, said: “At a time when clubs and communal experiences have been starkly absent from our lives, we are excited to be bringing together designers, DJs, artists, musicians and more to celebrate these important spaces and the people that make them. Doing this digitally means we can invite audiences to tune in from all over the world.

“The night will kick-off with a DJ set from Dundee’s very own Le Freak Records before heading over to Dublin for a special Director’s cut of the 2021 mini-documentary Clubbing is Culture - a love letter to Ireland’s nightclubs.

“Later we will have moving image work by Glasgow DJ and performance artist TAAHLIAH and Middle Eastern visual and performance artist HUSS. Artist Farah Hussain, who is studying at the University of Dundee’s Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, has contributed a short film inspired by queer spaces. The moving image works by TAAHLIAH and HUSS, and by Farah Hussain were created as part of Jupiter Artland’s 2020 Jupiter Rising Residency. Throughout the night, audio reactive visuals from designer Connor Campbell will punctuate the sets.

“We will be premiering Kayus Bankole’s newly commissioned film, featuring spoken word, original sound and visuals by Chizu Anucha.

“In an exclusive DJ set Ana Matronic, will be sound tracking our night from her New York studio before our final stop in London for an after party with award-winning virtual LGBTIQ+ hosts Queer House Party.”

Free tickets for Tay Late: And the Beat Goes On can be booked online: https://www.vam.ac.uk/dundee/event/299/tay-late-and-the-beat-goes-on

Night Fever: Designing Club Culture is a UK-exclusive exhibition at V&A Dundee, from 1 May 2021 to 9 January 2022.

Developed by the Vitra Design Museum and ADAM – Brussels Design Museum, it includes films, photography, posters, flyers, and fashion, as well as a light and music installation.

Night Fever: Designing Club Culture at V&A Dundee is supported by players of People's Postcode Lottery.