America Doesn't Exist exhibition presents outsider art on the American Dream

The Art & Marges Museum, Brussels' temple to outsider art, is presenting a fascinating collection of looks at the American Dream by artists from around the world.

The show is entitled: "America Doesn’t Exist. I Know, I’ve Been There." The first phrase is from Henry Miller's classic novel Tropic of Cancer and the second is from Alain Resnais’ movie Mon Oncle d’Amérique.

"I wanted to show the influence of the American imagery on artists of the world: Asian, African, European and American artists," says curator Matthieu Morin. "For instance we have photographs by a French photographer which show us American imagery in the French suburbs. From Ghana, which has a modern tradition of personalised coffins, we have a coffin in the shape of a Nike shoe."

Morin adds: "Ten years ago I took a road trip across the United States to visit the works of twelve outsider artists. I didn’t want to do a classic art book so I wrote a biography of each architect and the result is an art/road trip/biography hybrid."

The book Des Pépites dans le Goudron (Gold Nuggets In The Tar) is being published in conjunction with the show and the two complement each other perfectly.

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