Aldo Gigli · Co-founder of the Mirano Continental · set designer and graphic artist

An Aesthetic: Disco, New Wave and Handmade

His artistic vision holds in a mix few people managed to hold together: disco and new wave, glitter and punk, elegance and brutality. That tension gives the Mirano posters the look that is still recognisable today, forty years on.

The work has entered the history of Belgian design: Katarina Serulus's book “Designing the Night, Graphic design of Belgian club culture 1970-2000” (CFC Éditions, 2019) gives him a place in it, and the documentary “Mirano 80. L'espace d'un rêve”, by Thomas Purcaro Decaro and Luc Jabon (2021), revisits the era when Saint-Josse was, in the words of municipal archivist Yvonne du Jacquier, a “little Belgian Hollywood”.

For Carl De Moncharline the lesson has stayed intact: a strong visual identity is worth more than a big budget, and a handmade, imperfect image often lasts better than a perfect one made in series.

Luc Jabon and Thomas Purcaro Decaro still carry the Mirano in their hearts and in their eyes. They are happy to share with us this passion, this memory work carried out in their latest film. A daytime dive into the Brussels nightlife world, 1980s chapter. In this interview, Thomas Purcaro Decaro explains that this film was necessary: the 1980s saw major technological and social shifts, and that generation had to be given a voice, to capture the sensibility of the era before it disappeared. For Luc Jabon, the Mirano is not just the story of a nightclub: it is a human adventure that still speaks to us today. The project grew out of documentary capsules made for the reopening of the venue three years earlier; the film followed. No nostalgia here, but the desire to connect our present with that era, and to pass on the energy and humanity of those who wanted to offer something to Brussels. — Mirano 80. The Space of a Dream

Trailer for the documentary “Mirano 80. The Space of a Dream” by Thomas Purcaro Decaro and Luc Jabon. Archive footage and testimonials tell the beginnings of the Mirano Continental in the 1980s. — The Beginnings of the Mirano, Mirano 80, the Space of a Dream

Report an error