Living the American Dream, AZ W

Text: Eszter Götz

Photos: AZ W

Suburbia traces the history of an ideal life-style that – starting in the US suburbs – conquered the world and is constantly reproduced by popular media. At the same time, the exhibition analyzes the contradictions of this model and its social and ecological consequences such as land consumption, soil sealing, and vacancy. The American dream can be described with a timeless image: a large house with a yard, swimming pool, and two cars in the garage. A quiet, safe place for the nuclear family, close to nature and in people-friendly surroundings. Suburbia leads us into this world of ideas and images that has been hugely promoted by politics, business, and the entertainment industry. The cultural history of the single-family home has its origins in the upscale American residential areas of the early nineteenth century. After the Second World War, the typology was massively developed and rolled out on a broad scale. The exhibition sheds light on the economic, political, and social context of this rapid expansion in the USA and beyond. It becomes clear that the model is based on social, ethnic, and gender-specific segregation and devours a tremendous amount of space. Curated by Philipp Engel for the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona (CCCB), the exhibition was adapted by the Az W and expanded to include an Austrian focus. With a wealth of historical material, photographs, films, literature, artistic works, and everyday objects, the exhibition tells the story of the commercial success of single-family home and invites reflection on the future perspectives of this form of living.