Based on a True Story

We can understand Based on a True Story as an exhibition essay from northern Europe and the Baltics. It focuses on narrative and documentary tendencies that are very well represented in contemporary art from this region. What are the motives behind visual artists’ need to tell stories? How do they work with facts and transmit their experiences?

The exhibition admits to a fascination with stories based on real events. In three narrative lines, it allows the artists to speak of frustration, routine, and mysticism in the life of social groups often operating on the edges of social acknowledgement.

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The atmosphere of a court trial connects two stories which take place at different times. Jaanus Samma’s (born 1983 in Estonia) historical project is developed around the character of the “Chairman”, still shrouded in mystery today, whose dandyish lifestyle made him a victim of the socialist regime, forced exile, and finally murder.

The ongoing court case between the brother of artist Máret Ánne Sara (born 1983, Norway) from the indigenous Sámi tribe and the Norwegian government stood at the beginning of her long-term art project. Sara’s main goal is to draw attention to the critical state of the traditional Sámi way of life, which is based on reindeer herding. The adverse situation is brought about to a large extent by the laws of the Norwegian government and its distribution of the land for building development.

Her long-term art research project, Keep Frozen, took Icelandic artist Hulda Rós Gudnadóttir (born 1973 in Iceland) to the Reykjavík docks, where she earned her first pay checks as a teenager. This artistic and anthropological study into the dock workers’ labour routine explores physically exhausting labour, uncovering its layers of meaning. One of the many outputs of this research is a study of the workers’ movement routine and its re-enactment in the gallery space.

Artists: Hulda Rós Gudnadóttir, Máret Ánne Sara, Jaanus Samma
Curator: Eva Riebová
Exhibition Architect: Matěj Al-Ali
Exhibition opening: 23rd November at Public House
Entry: Free
Foto: gallery from the opening Katarína Hudáčinová, Libor Galia, exhibition view Tomáš Souček
Video: Ivan Svoboda

Curatorial Text 

The exhibition is not suitable for children under the age of 15 years old. 

Additional events: 
9 December, 5 pm guided tour 
17 January, 6:30 pm guided tour 

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Opening hours:
opened daily 13:00–20:00