Boris Dondé Mancastroppa was born in Zurich during the Youthful Revolution in 1968. He carries that revolution in his mind, heart, and hands. An athlete and a professional footballer in Basel and Schaffhausen, he first made a name for himself in the sports headlines and later in cultural columns.
When he retired from football in ‘96, he didn’t dissipate his energy but channelled it into the art world. Modern and innovative, with one foot in Europe and the other reaching toward the New World, he embarked on international experiences after studying at the New York Academy. From there, he soared to Monte Carlo, Tokyo, Dubai, and other prestigious locations.
He is a star in the world of art, a prestigious and established name, but today he returns with a new art collection entirely dedicated to the nightlife of the 1980s. In our homes, as old black and white televisions were being replaced with colour ones, even in our everyday lives, much brighter colours began to emerge, especially among the young. Maestro Dondé’s art precisely echoes these chromatic radiations that emerged forcefully from the first colour cathode ray tubes. The artist draws inspiration primarily from the TV series of that era, particularly Miami Vice, an icon that perfectly embodies that period’s bold spirit and iconic aesthetics.
The artworks result from the colours offered by this new technology: an electronic, chemical, and physical mix stimulated by electric impulses interacting with experimental phosphorus components. Chaotic explosions and orderly implosions of bold, fluorescent colours emanate from screens and impose themselves on the fashion of the 1980s. From the three preceding decades, characterized by the poetic contrast of black and white, there was an enthusiastic transition to modern, vibrant hues, from bright pink to electric blue.
Today, in the digital age and the metaverse, the emotions inspired by the essence of the typical nightlife areas of Miami Vice have not faded. His works are the inert and harmless reenactment of that radioactive screen that radiated and burned the eyes, tiring them but never boring the heart; works that are a window to the past, where the glamour, style, and rebellious spirit of 1980s culture come to life. The new collection, “80’s Nightlife,” is a nostalgic and simultaneously pleasurable revival of that era. Millions of souls, eternal adolescents, have always been tied to that period, unable to break free from the magnetic tapes of audiocassettes, vinyl records, newspapers, and all that pop culture packed in boxes and stored in attics.
Boris Dondé-Mancastroppa captures photographs of those years and reopens the grey boxes that hold our most colourful memories. The new collection rekindles recognizable memories in the flickering nightclub areas, chromatic imperfections and the sounds of the brightly coloured, vibrant, and flickering magnetic tapes. The stuttering neon lights are the twilight of an era that the loquacious glow of LEDs will replace.
Art is a necessity, and the need that drove the creation of this exhibition is to open a door that allows us to return to the future of that decade… 80’s Nightlife!
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Article edited by Prof. Luca Caricato
Luca Caricato – The World of Art
Leonardo Da Vinci Scholar
Art Historian – Art Expert