So we must be ready to fight in Vietnam, but the ultimate victory will depend upon the hearts and the minds of the people who actually live out there.
Lyndon B. Johnson
Remarks at a Dinner Meeting of the Texas Electric Cooperatives, Inc., May 4, 1965

The dreams of men, the seed of commonwealth, the germs of empires.
Joseph Conrad
Heart of Darkness, 1899

Civilization and barbarism are never far apart. As the spoils from subjugating distant countries fill closets, living rooms, and dinner tables, citizens of the empire are encouraged to witness the "improvements" offered by their way of life bestowed upon the many invisible hands responsible for producing it. Employing the tools of public relations to invert standard meanings into their opposites (slavery = freedom, war = peace) the minds of those at home are massaged while villages abroad undergo “pacification”.

In the later stages of empire, as exploration paves the way for tourism, far away cultures are promoted as exotic and unpredictable, introducing "otherness" as an affirmation of the ever-expanding necessity to civilize and control. As empires engage in hot and cold wars to extract and defend resources for domestic populations, patriotism and consumerism unite in common pursuits. While new technologies offer increasingly convincing dream worlds that divert the public’s consciousness, the brutal origins of their creation remain mostly behind the scenes.

With consumerism suffering a pandemic-era blow and a diminishing faith in establishment politics haunting industrialized nations, the pursuit of hearts and minds, so critical to the narrative of empire, struggles to contain blowback from centuries of repressive measures. Filtered through social media feedback loops, governmental and corporate messaging engineered to sway popular opinion now feature distortions and fragmentation that sow confusion while veiling their source, fomenting widespread social unease and sporadic violence.

Living within a kind of informational breakdown, many are now questioning how we got here. Linking past to present through artwork and archival material that collectively address links between the diversions of consumerism and techniques of propaganda in the service of empire, Hearts and Minds, a joint project of Carriage Trade and Rectangle, Brussels, reflects on the inseparable rapport between public relations and social control both abroad and at home.

We’d like to thank all the artists and the following lenders for their loans of artwork for the exhibition:
Icarus Films (Chantal Akerman), Clearing Gallery, Brooklyn (Harold Ancart), Essex Street/Maxwell Graham (Jef Geys), Greene Naftali Gallery (Dan Graham), Ronald Guttman / Christine Martin, Frédéric de Goldschmidt / André Magnin (Bodys Isek Kingelez), Cordula Lebeck, Archiv Robert Lebeck (Robert Lebeck), Lumen Travo Gallery, Amsterdam (Otobong Nkanga), C L E A R I N G, Brussels (Marina Pinsky), and AfricaMuseum (Royal Museum for Central Africa).

Photo credit: An-My Lê, Untitled, Ho Chi Minh City, 1995.

Installation View

Hearts and Minds, carriage trade / Rectangle, photo: Nicholas Knight

Marina Pinsky

Woman and Child, Archival inkjet print on fiber paper, 11 3/4” × 15 1/2” (30 × 39.5 cm),
Courtesy of the artist and C L E A R I N G, Brussels.

Installation View

Hearts and Minds, carriage trade / Rectangle,
photo: Nicholas Knight

Installation View

Hearts and Minds, carriage trade / Rectangle,
photo: Nicholas Knight

An-My Lê

Untitled (Ho Chi Minh City), 1995, Gelatin silver print,
20” × 24” paper size; 14 7/8” × 21 1/4” image size
(50.8 × 60.96 cm paper size; 37.78 × 53.97 cm image size).

Installation View

Hearts and Minds, carriage trade / Rectangle,
photo: Nicholas Knight

Installation View

Hearts and Minds, carriage trade / Rectangle,
photo: Nicholas Knight

Installation View

Hearts and Minds, carriage trade / Rectangle,
photo: Nicholas Knight

Dan Graham

Video Projection Outside Home, 1978–1998, Architectural model, painted wood and plastic,
9 × 20 × 30 3/8” (22.9 × 50.8 × 77.2cm),
Courtesy of the artist and Greene Naftali Gallery, New York.

Momoyo Torimitsu

Nanka Igokochi Waruinda
(Somehow I don’t feel Comfortable), 2000,
Polyurethane coated fabric and electric pumps,
dimensions variable,
Courtesy of the artist.

Installation View

Hearts and Minds, carriage trade / Rectangle,
photo: Nicholas Knight

Adam Simon

Melee 5, 2019, Graphite powder on paper, 13 3/4 × 15 7/8” framed, 9 3/4 × 12 unframed (34.92 × 40.32 cm; 24.76 × 30.48 cm), Courtesy of the artist.

Installation View

Hearts and Minds, carriage trade / Rectangle,
photo: Nicholas Knight

Otobong Nkanga

Alterscape Playground (E), 2005-2015,
C-print on aluminum,
19 7/10” × 26 2/5” (50 × 67 cm),
Courtesy of the artist and Lumen Travo Gallery, Amsterdam.

Harold Ancart

Untitled, 2019, Oil stick on concrete,
21 1/2 × 32 1/4 × 2 1/2” (54.6 × 82 × 6.3 cm),
Courtesy of the artist and Clearing Gallery, Brooklyn.

Installation View

Hearts and Minds, Claudia Peña Salinas, carriage trade / Rectangle,
photo: Nicholas Knight

Claudia Peña Salinas

Tlaloc MNA, 2018, Found image adhered to metal,
48 × 66 1/2 × 13/16” (121.92 × 168.91 × 2.06 cm), Courtesy of the artist.

Installation View

Hearts and Minds, carriage trade / Rectangle,
photo: Nicholas Knight

Bodys Isek Kingelez

Sans Titre, 2001, Plastic Cardboard and Paper,
17.32 × 4.72 × 4.72” (44 × 12 × 12 cm),
Courtesy of Ronald Guttman.

Installation View

Hearts and Minds, Jef Geys, carriage trade / Rectangle, photo: Nicholas Knight

Jef Geys

32. Lamiaceae, Lipbloemenfamilie Lamium Album L. Witte Dovenetel, 1999
Diptych: ink on paper under plexiglas; dried fowers and collage on paper, wood frame and glass 19 × 14 inches (48.26 × 35.56 cm) and 20 × 15 inches (50.80 × 38.10 cm), Courtesy of Essex Street/Maxwell Graham, New York.

Installation View

Hearts and Minds, carriage trade / Rectangle,
photo: Nicholas Knight

Installation View

Hearts and Minds, Chantal Akerman, carriage trade / Rectangle, photo: Nicholas Knight

Chantal Akerman

From the East (D’Est), 1993, Color video, 110 minutes, Courtesy of Icarus Films.

Installation View

Hearts and Minds, carriage trade / Rectangle,
photo: Nicholas Knight

Robert Lebeck

Leopoldville, Belgisch Kongo, 1960, gelatin silver print,
32 × 48” (81.28 × 127 cm),
Courtesy of Archiv Robert Lebeck.

Installation View

Hearts and Minds, Hil Yeh, carriage trade / Rectangle, photo: Nicholas Knight

Hil Yeh

Do They, 2015, Single channel video, 1 minute,
Courtesy of the artist.

Installation View

Hearts and Minds, carriage trade / Rectangle,
photo: Nicholas Knight