Shown simultaneously at four major European venues - Centre Pompidou Metz (Metz, France), Le Fresnoy (Tourcoing, France), ZKM (Karlsruhe, Germany) and Les Champs Libres (Rennes, France) - this virtual exhibition, curated by Jean-Jacques Lebel, delves deep into the Beat Generation, a cultural and literary movement that began in San Francisco in the 1950s and would have worldwide impact. Its leading protagonists were Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs.

Presented on screens, the exhibition takes in live performance, film, texts, photography, interviews, reports and reproductions of artworks and handwritten documents, including previously unpublished material.

The adventure of an entire generation of youth is relived in searing, forceful, touching images; a generation who invented a new form of rebellion and literature, a way of life, and a poetic vision of the world that continues today, mirroring the civil rights movement and opposition to the Vietnam War, carried by the voice of Bob Dylan and the existential verve of their countless heirs, and which are more vibrant and alive than ever.

The exhibition will be shown at Centre Pompidou-Metz in the Studio, a 400 sq m space for cultural events.