Super Dakota

Being in a car, listening to music, is a fundamental memory—an experience most of us can relate to. Growing up in Brazil, long drives were an important part of my childhood. That's when I discovered rock and roll. As my dad’s co-pilot, I was in charge of changing the music, handing out water and snacks, and overseeing the time of arrival. These drives became the setting for meaningful conversations and shared moments, with the landscape unfolding to the rhythm of visceral guitar riffs.

In his first solo exhibition at Super Dakota, Side Tracks, Arnaud Eubelen reimagines this experience, placing visitors inside a reassembled car, where soundscapes and visual narratives heighten the feeling of an uncertain transition between where you've been and where you're headed, whether physically, emotionally, or metaphorically. By transforming the gallery into an immersive environment, Eubelen emphasizes the physicality of experience, while navigating through the relationship between sound, space, and memory.

As we descend the gallery’s staircase we stumble upon an antechamber; A door guarded by a counter table, an empty chair, and an exit sign. This set up challenges the perception of inside versus outside, engaging an ambiguity between transition and destination—mirroring the exhibition's exploration of liminal spaces.

Upon entering the main space we are greeted by a mural piece and a futuristic-looking car blasting music. Resembling the façade of a building, Sight In The City nods to architectural concepts of Brusselization and façadisme. It creates a sense of depth on the wall, suggesting that another space is emerging behind it, blending sculptural and painterly elements. The wear on the materials highlights unique colors and textures that hint at their history and life. Façadisme refers to the practice of preserving the external shell of buildings while updating their interiors—a response to the modern urban development criticized during the process of Brusselization. This term characterizes the destruction of a city’s heritage due to the lack of protection policies. These “preserved” buildings, as our memories, are reconstructed and distorted yet we long for them as structural foundations of our past—reminders of the stories and experiences that shape our identity in an ever-evolving landscape.

Eubelen's reimagined car, stripped of its mechanics, consists of just two seats, a CD rack, a car radio, and speakers. The two seats evoke that special intimacy between driver and co-pilot. The nearly obsolete CDs introduce a sense of nostalgia, contrasting with the intangible nature of today’s digital music streaming. The small gestures involved in opening the cases and playing the tracks enhance the tactile nature of the experience. Each CD plays one or two tracks from artists chosen by Eubelen— like a mixtape a friend makes to introduce you to their favorite bands. As visitors sit inside the car, they feel the vibrations and resonance of the music throughout their bodies, while others standing nearby experience the sound as it fills the room, evoking that collective memory of music's physicality close to club culture.

Eubelen draws inspiration from nightlife, the aesthetics of the 80s and 90s, and sci-fi films like Solaris and Annihilation. In these films, familiar forms are transformed, creating a sense of discomfort and intrigue—a sensation Eubelen often encounters in certain urban landscapes in Brussels. The installation, titled Compact Stories, evokes the shape of a car using minimal automotive elements. The same applies to Sight In The City and the very nature of façadisme. Even the gallery’s features are enhanced by Eubelen’s intervention; elements such as the service desk, reminiscent of a bar counter, or the parking-lot-like entryway, become thresholds that tap into unconscious memories of urban life and contribute to the liminal experience.

Arnaud Eubelen invites us to take a ride with him, cruising through town, thinking about how our relationship with time and space influences our perception of reality and our surroundings. In Side Tracks, it’s not about the destination - or the journey for that matter ; it’s about reflecting on how we’ve arrived here.

Shesna Lyra