In the exhibition What the modern era has gained in civility it has lost in poetic inspiration artist Joris Lindhout and curator Maaike Gouwenberg deconstruct the romantic and mythical image Hollywood has created of the Southern States, which are labeled ‘failed’ by neo-liberalism. Starting from Southern Gothic literature a three-month long road trip led them through the sun-suffused darkness of the chubby underbelly of America, which bulges over its bible belt. In their shiny raven Ford Explorer they examined the grounds described by writers like William Faulkner, Flannery O’Connor, James Dickey, Cormac McCarthy, and Harry Crews in terms of discrimination, fundamentalist Christianity, xenophobic hillbillies, cultural deserts and poverty. To name but a few.

What the modern era has gained in civility it has lost in poetic inspiration shows the Southern States through the eyes of artists, musicians and documentary filmmakers from the South, or with years of fascination.

With: Brad Benischek & Case Miller, Chris Cogan, Greely Myatt, Howard Finster, Jeremiah Day, Joris Lindhout, Maaike Gouwenberg, Michel Varisco, Paul Thomas, Ricky Needham, Sanne Peper

Full invitation here