An Uncertain Season 13. 5. 2021 – 31. 10. 2021
Curators: Magdalena Juříková, Jitka Hlaváčková, Jakub Král, Olga Malá
At first it seemed that we would not have enough material to realize this ambition but, surprisingly, it is a motif relatively close to the thinking of many artists of different generations. We decided to go in this direction partly for a reason that is obvious and which has haunted us for more than a year, without any guaranteed turning point to indicate the end of our critical pandemic situation. We wanted to spare artists the disappointment of investing their energy in a monographic exhibition here that would eventually not be open to the public. This gave us the opportunity, after a long period of time, to look at the content of our collections from a certain, as yet untested, angle.
Exhibited authors:
Karel Nepraš, Stanislav Kolíbal, Vladimír Janoušek, Jitka Svobodová, Karel Malich, Radoslav Kratina, Pavla Sceranková, Matěj Smetana, Petr Lysáček, Jiří Beránek, Aleš Veselý, Jindřich Wielgus, Hana Wichterlová, František Hodonský
We have been wracked by uncertainties and a degree of hopelessness since last spring. However, we have to experience this condition during our lives many times, with varying intensity and under various circumstances. References to it therefore appear in art just as naturally and inevitably. Sometimes it is a very inward and traumatising experience that permeates the final work, other times, it is a more general reflection on the meaning and nature of our existence or a manifestation of the search for spiritual harmony or faith. It is characteristic that this topic appears in acute social situations (e.g. in the so-called “magic 8 years” – years ending with the number 8 in modern Czech history), but also in the traumatizing years of normalization or post-revolutionary disillusionment. We present a particular sample of views, which are connected both with fateful social movements and with the personal dilemmas of each of the artists, or both at the same time.
