[artinfo] The Slovak State in Contemporary Art, Kunsthalle Bratislava

[e-artnow]

Look What Is Back

The Slovak State in Contemporary Art

Kunsthalle Bratislava

<http://www.kunsthallebratislava.sk/en>www.kunsthallebratislava.sk/en

Kunsthalle Bratislava (KHB) opens an exhibition 
on the reflection of the topic of the Slovak 
State in contemporary Slovak visual arts. The 
first floor of KHB will offer the visitors the 
works of more than twenty male and female 
artists, some of whom focus on the topic 
consistently.

The exhibition under the title Look What Is Back 
/ The Slovak State in Contemporary Art responds 
to the topical subject matter that is sensitive 
not only in the field of visual arts - the 
controversial time in the history of Slovakia.
The curators Katarína Bajcurová, Petra Hanáková, 
Bohunka Koklesová and Nina Vrbanová have selected 
authors from the whole spectrum of the current 
art scene. There are the classics of the Slovak 
fine arts of the latter half of the 20th century 
(Juraj Bartusz, Jozef Jankoviã , Rudolf Sikora), 
as well as the established representatives of the 
middle and younger generations (Ilona Németh, 
Svätopluk Mikyta, Martin Piaãek, Jaroslav Ky”a). 
The exhibition title refers to the famous novel 
by Timur Vermes who reveals, in a playful form 
but with a chilling result, the traps and 
treacherous subliminal mechanisms of fascism.

The exhibition in KHB is clearly defined in terms 
of the theme, and also has its dramaturgy logic. 
It reflects the engaged art which represents one 
of the important lines of contemporary art in 
Slovakia. It simultaneously follows up on the 
past projects whose ambition was to mediate the 
actually discussed topics. (Fear of the Unknown, 
2016; Fem(inist) Fatale, 2015; both exhibitions 
were prepared for KHB by the curator Lenka 
Kukurová).

The individual works were not created on a 
commission (with the exception of one 
adaptation), they had all been already exhibited 
or published, and they are a part of the current 
artistic discourse. They only confirm the fact 
that contemporary art does not avoid this complex 
social and political theme; on the contrary, it 
repeatedly reflects it in the spectrum of several 
generations of artists.
The exhibition clearly demonstrates that artists, 
too, ask questions that are similar to those 
asked by the majority of citizens: what to do 
with the legacy of the clerical-fascist Slovak 
State? Should we study it? Ignore or deny it? Try 
to understand it? Disdain it? Apologise for it? 
The artists answer many of them through the 
language of art, and offer the (not only) 
perceptive viewer an experience as well as food 
for thought.

More information: <http://bit.ly/LookWhatIsBack>bit.ly/LookWhatIsBack

Opening: November 3rd 2016, from 6 till 8 pm

Duration: November 4th 2016 - February 26th 2017

Kunsthalle Bratislava
Námestie SNP 12
811 06 Bratislava
Slovakia