In the course of 1999’s “steirischer herbst”, headed by Christine Frisinghelli, and as part of a major project initiated by Jörg Schlick and Christoph Gurk entitled “REMAKE/RE-MODEL. Secret Histories of Art, Pop, Life and The Avantgarde”, a group of cultural scientists, philosophers and authors investigated these “secret histories” of subcultures (Diedrich Diederichsen, Matthias Haase, Juliane Rebentisch, Martin Saar, Ruth Sonderegger). These questions were examined in an installation including a specially produced historical film by Mike Kelley, a retrospective of the freshly restored films of Jack Smith, performances by Terre Thaemlitz and Ultra-red, and above all at a symposium featuring Douglas Crimp, Jerry Tartaglia, Gertrud Koch and the participating artists, among others.
The reconstructive part of the symposium and its documentation are now featured in this book published under the title GOLDEN YEARS, a book that draws its topical impact not least from the subsequent contributions and the addition of important historical source material.