Karl Philips – Drive in You Tube

Using activism as a frame of reference Karl Philips explores the margins of social order. He does so by subtly infiltrating the public space and the various structures of capitalist society. Is the concept of an ‘underground’ culture still possible and if not, what are the alternatives?

The artist drew his attention to a bridge in Nederzwalm and the indefinable area beneath it. In this non-space, on the edge of the art parcours, he creates a modern cave of Plato. To achieve this he combines two phenomena: The American Drive-in Cinema and YouTube, the wildly popular website for the free sharing of videos. Here Philips references the underground scene within the film industry, which is mainly to be viewed on the Internet in the form of streaming files. Drive-In-You-Tube incorporates the entire area: the bridge, movies, Internet, electricity, the project Kunst&Zwalm and even the visitors…