Gen X: Tales from the Forgotten Generation

The DESTE Foundation has just launched a brilliant new exhibition called Gen X: Tales from the Forgotten Generation, offering a fantastic opportunity to dive into the world-renowned Dakis Joannou Collection. Curated by Massimiliano Gioni from New York’s New Museum, the show brings together an incredible array of artists born between 1960 and 1980. This is the exact cohort that grew up suspended between analog childhoods and digital adult lives, navigating the rise of the twenty-four-hour news cycle, the explosion of MTV, and a rapidly commercialised world.

What makes the show so gripping is how these creators reacted to their shifting environment with a trademark mix of raw sincerity, irony, and "slacker" cynicism. You will see everything from lowbrow aesthetics and deconstructed fashion imagery to mutant figures capturing the anxieties of the HIV/AIDS epidemic and early technological shifts. Whether they were turning inward to create private imaginary worlds or using collaborative art to connect with society, these artists built a unique visual language that still feels remarkably relevant today.