Exhibition at the Czech Center New York: Report on the Reconstruction of the Past

Exhibition Opening:
Tuesday, January 28, 6:30 PM – 8:30 PM
Open through January March 11, 2014

Czech Center New York
at the Bohemian National Hall
321 E 73rd Street (between 1st & 2nd Ave), New York, NY 10021

Free admission

Exhibition that transfers the gallery space into an allegoric cosmic ship
presenting two art missions by Barbora Klimova and Eva Kotatkova.

Opening reception: Tuesday, January 28, 6:30PM-8:30PM
Curated by Vit Havranek

The vanishing point of the works of the two female artists presented here is a subjective enunciation concerning the traces of the recent past. Each of them creates a typical body of interpretation of historical images, past events and conceptual references. It can be observed that the use of historical or archival traces in former East European artistic practices is motivated by urgency to reconsider newly established post-communist identities. In the region that has undergone substantial and complex political, social and economic changes in the last twenty years, the legitimization of these changes came from two sides. On the one hand the changes were motivated by the engagement of democratic principles and integration in the system of global capitalism. On the other hand this re-entry into the world of democracy took place in the context of particular historical and national narratives that were often selective and suppressive in regard to the recent past and current realities. Twenty years after the “Fall of the Berlin Wall” a critique and reconsideration of the fictive historical narratives remains an urgent issue that is not actually a “historical” one, but rather one of current options for imagining future steps.

More info: www.czechcenter.com

Organized in conjunction with the exhibition “Report on the Construction of a Spaceship Module” at New Museum, on view January 22 – April 13.