We are living in interesting times – and what a mixed blessing it is! The optimism that swept across the western world after the fall of the Berlin Wall has been replaced by bewilderment. ‘What the [beep/fuck/f**k] is happening?!’ would sum it up nicely. In a response to political turmoil and the return of History as we know it, American artist Brad Downey shifts his attention from the street to the state. Reverse Culture Shock, at MU from Friday 2 March to Sunday 29 April, is his most engaged exhibition to date because, as he says, sometimes poetry is not enough.