City trip 2
La Société du Spectacle

Cities that once grew organically around people are now often gray, busy places full of anonymity. The way we develop cities seems logical, but how did this actually come about? Tourism and city marketing have turned cities like Amsterdam and Venice into attractions, but this often comes at the cost of the authenticity of the place. From this question, the exhibition City Trip emerged.

The exhibition raised new questions, and as a result, a sequel is now coming: City Trip 2. This edition explores the city as a kind of stage, inspired by Guy Debord's book La Société du Spectacle. Instead of directly experiencing the real world, people are increasingly living in a world of representations and media images that are presented to them.

These images are often presented as reality, but they are actually a filtered version of it. Instead of directly experiencing what is happening around us, we are shown an image that is often influenced by commercial or political interests.

Debord calls this the "spectacle." According to him, this causes people to become alienated from their own lives. He describes how, in our consumer society, the real world is often replaced by media/advertising, images, and fiction. City Trip 2 explores how this dynamic becomes visible in the city, reinforced by the simplification and commercialization of complex urban stories, and how cinema influences our way of seeing.

City Trip 2 takes you through a fascinating selection of national and international artists.

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