Suburbia and the American Dream are perpetually connected, the former’s seemingly uniform pristineness acting as a primary signifier of all that the latter promises. For close to a century now, the two have been celebrated, criticised, performed and marketed across literature, art, film, and advertising, while the material pillars of picket-fenced neighbourhoods have been emulated by architects and city planners around the world.
‘I remember as a child being glued to the television, asking my mother why Americans lived in such big houses, surrounded by lawns, with a couple of cars in the garage,’ recalls Spanish journalist Philipp Engel, the curator behind ‘Suburbia. Building the American Dream’, on show at Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona (until 8 September 2024). ‘There was always [in these shows], the exterior shot of a house, very similar to the photos in real estate agency windows.’
