Duo Show “UNDERBELLY”Skyhoje and Aurora Carlucci Exhibition / One-Day Happening Berlin, 2026 Underbelly is a collaborative exhibition and one-day happening that investigates American cultural mythology through cinema, appropriation, performance, and the mechanisms of spectacle. The project presents two reinterpretations of existing cinematic references: a queer reimagining of Bruno Dumont's 29 Palms and LSD and the Search for Jesus, a fictional reinterpretation of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Through these works, we examine how American cinema constructs fantasies of desire, excess, identity, and the promise of the American dream. Rather than presenting the films through conventional screenings, we disrupted the cinematic format by transforming moving images into fragmented physical archives. 29 Palms was translated into 29 individual stills. LSD and the Search for Jesus consisted of 129 stills, referencing the Las Vegas postal code of a hotel we filmed in. The exhibition transformed cinematic fragments into collectible objects. Each laminated still was presented like a trading card, shifting the film from a linear viewing experience into a system of circulation, exchange, and ownership. Visitors were invited to purchase individual stills for $4.99 and physically remove them from the exhibition wall, becoming active participants in the production and distribution of the artwork. The one-day happening expanded the exhibition into a performative environment. Drawing from American commercial aesthetics, Las Vegas spectacle, the gallery became a space where image production, performance, and consumer rituals merged into a shared theatrical experience.
