New exhibition on American suburbia opens at CCCB
“Suburbia. Building the American Dream” traces cultural history of North American lifestyle
On Wednesday, the museum CCCB in Barcelona opens its doors to the new exhibition “Suburbia. Building the American Dream”.
The exhibition explores the cultural history of the American Dream, a lifestyle that has been reproduced time and time again in literature, on television, and in cinema.
It invites visitors into the imaginary of the idyllic family home and analyzes the model’s controversies, such as the social, ethnic, and gender segregation as well as its environmental impact.
Curated by the journalist Philipp Engel, “Suburbia. Building the American Dream” includes artworks by Jessica Chou, Gregory Crewdson, and Thomas Doyle.
Effects of suburbia
The origins of suburbia began to develop massively in the 1950s in the United States, and some of the aspects the exhibition explores are the environmental consequences as people moved out of the big cities and began to use cars to get around, as well as the idea of the so-called MacMansions.
Another part of the exhibition shows how the idea of the American Dream impacted Catalonia, first in the 1960s and then in the 1980s.
“Suburbia. Building the American Dream” will run until September 8.