English Disco Lovers (EDL) 2012-15, HD video with sound, 14 minutes 18 seconds, 2019
‘The English Disco Lovers' deployment of wit and fun as weapons against belligerent xenophobia is a fine tribute to disco's subversive utopian vision.’
In 2012, I founded English Disco Lovers (EDL), a protest group, which aimed to reclaim the EDL acronym of the English Defence League. Drawing upon the history and etymology of disco, as a site of musical resistance, I redeployed the genre in opposition to a contemporary iteration of fascism. English Disco Lovers (EDL) found form in online occupations (e.g. Googlebombing the ‘EDL’ acronym), street-level protests, club nights, talks and exhibitions.
Dorian Lynskey, The Guardian, Feb 2013.
In 2012, I founded English Disco Lovers (EDL), a protest group, which aimed to reclaim the EDL acronym of the English Defence League. Drawing upon the history and etymology of disco, as a site of musical resistance, I redeployed the genre in opposition to a contemporary iteration of fascism. English Disco Lovers (EDL) found form in online occupations (e.g. Googlebombing the ‘EDL’ acronym), street-level protests, club nights, talks and exhibitions.
Press:
Disco isn't dead..., Max de Haldevang, Quartz, 23/08/2017
Meeting the Founder of the EDL, Régine Debatty, We Make Money Not Art, 24/12/2014
International Disco Latin, Hito Steyerl, e-flux, 05/2013
How to disco dance the EDL off Google and Facebook, Dorian Lynskey, The Guardian, 01/02/2013
Talks:
TEDxBrighton: Losing Control, Brighton Dome, Brighton, October 2015
A New Meaning for Disco Beats, TEDxYouth@Hackney: Fountain of YOUth, November 2013
Disco isn't dead..., Max de Haldevang, Quartz, 23/08/2017
Meeting the Founder of the EDL, Régine Debatty, We Make Money Not Art, 24/12/2014
International Disco Latin, Hito Steyerl, e-flux, 05/2013
How to disco dance the EDL off Google and Facebook, Dorian Lynskey, The Guardian, 01/02/2013
Talks:
TEDxBrighton: Losing Control, Brighton Dome, Brighton, October 2015
A New Meaning for Disco Beats, TEDxYouth@Hackney: Fountain of YOUth, November 2013
English Disco Lovers (EDL); installed at the Edith-Russ-Haus, Oldenburg, DE, Sept - Oct 2015 (photos by Marcel Schwierin)
With thanks to:
Gerrard Fife
Sam Moffett
Elaine Ortiz
Muzz Khan
& many others