America, Between Dreams and Disenchantment
Elliot Erwitt, Wilmington, North Carolina 1950
An exhibition exploring America’s myths, contradictions, and evolving identity
Featuring
Valerio Geraci, Adjunct Faculty at Paris College of Art and Lecturer in the MA Fashion Film & Photography program
About the Exhibition
LAB 27 presents America, Between Dreams and Disenchantment, a show that examines what America represents today for the Western imagination—an imagination still chasing its evolutions, myths, and drifting trajectories.
The exhibition juxtaposes historical and contemporary perspectives:
The Dionisio Gavagnin Collection: A remarkable archive of 20th-century American photography featuring works by Nan Goldin, Stephen Shore, Diane Arbus, Lee Friedlander, Dorothea Lange, Edward Curtis, Joel Meyerowitz, Robert Frank, Elliott Erwitt, Joel Sternfeld, and more.
American Eden by Valerio Geraci: An authorial project developed since 2016, in which Geraci has traveled across the United States in search of its essence, contradictions, rugged beauty, and myth-making power—an enduring fascination from his childhood.
This is not a linear exhibition but an elliptical journey—a visual dialogue of counterpoints, echoes, and connections between past and present. Together, these works construct a vocabulary around ideas that for decades have fueled literature, cinema, and above all photography—ideas that today stand at a critical turning point.
Curated by
Steve Bisson & Dionisio Gavagnin
🔗 More about the exhibition
🔗 Valerio Geraci’s work
Nan Goldin, Kee in bed, E. Hampton, NY 1988 (Left)
Valerio Greraci, Lanky, Saint Martinville, Louisiana 2018 (Right)
