Beginning on 20 September 2023, four artists of different generations, all represented in the Pinault Collection, explore and deconstruct American mythologies at the Bourse de Commerce.

With a fierce sense of irony, these artists criticise the flaws in American post-war society, basing themselves in particular on countercultures, which they perceive both as radical forms of protest to emulate and as loci of defeat and shattered illusions.

Each in their own way, the artists have created an oeuvre that speaks to both the personal and the collective: Lee Lozano starting in the 1960s, Mira Schor and Mike Kelley in the 1970s and 80s, and Ser Serpas in the 2010s and 2020s. Together, they have produced an acerbic portrait of America and its myths as self-mocking as it is profound, and as hard-hitting as it is poetic.

All of them specifically address society’s deformation of representations, the normalisation of dominant codes and stereotypes, how education, religion, and even television conditions are actions, how we define ourselves, how we consume, and how we behave, all subjects that extend far past the mere context in which they appear.  

Some artworks on display in Gallery 2 may offend the sensibilities of young audiences.