The New Dictionary of Old Ideas zrušeno / cancelled

Dear fans,
due to the current measures taken by Czech government in reaction to the global pandemic and state of emergency, we have to close the galleries at MeetFactory as well as to cancel additional program.

Thank you for your understanding. We have to be responsible. Please, take care of yourself and of each other.

 

The New Dictionary of Old Ideas project widely explores the phenomenon of Central Europe by examining its urgent political topics, history, geography, and visual culture. Among a number of notions, the project refers to Identity Paradox and the definitional challenge of Central Europe, asking if it is “a fact, a utopia, a concept of thought, or just a chimera?”

 

The exhibition, which presents itself under the same title, takes the above-mentioned worry as a starting point. Its extended scope brings together artists based in the Czech Republic, Georgia, Poland, and Spain. In the exhibition, ever-changing ideas about Central Europe are considered not only subject to a physical location, but also influenced by socio-political, economic, and cultural factors. For this reason, defining Central Europe usually generates disagreements, creating dichotomous divisions such as center and periphery, giving more privileges and attention to some countries over others, and often creating further detachments.

Central Europe can also be seen as an idea, a metaphor of connection between the presumed West and East. However, this contact should not be understood in absolute terms, but relative to the specificities of each context. Historical and global processes, the existing threads between locations and ideas, must also be considered, since they contribute greatly to the shaping of opinions and beliefs tied to this concept.

How, then is it possible to define “central” when aspects beyond geographical location intertwine, and when boundaries and definitions are not seen as fixed entities, but rather in flux? In search of this, the exhibition addresses issues that are critical in many countries of Europe and beyond, such as oppression, the distribution of power and resources, the dismissal of perspective, and historical reenactment. 

Diverse ways of artistic investigation concerning socio-political matters are linked here. The artworks invite us to contemplate how the world is seen from near and afar, and how its perception can be (re)defined through movement, time, and beliefs. The production of dominant images and narratives in Europe has legitimized new forms of persecution of minorities and underprivileged groups, both within its territory and beyond. Consequently, a collective image of hatred has been created against “others” who don’t fit normative views.

The repetition of repressive practices, connected to the totalitarian history suffered in Central and Eastern Europe, can be observed in capitalist systems, once desired and considered, by many, utopian. Nowadays, the polarization of societies and violence are found again within borders that have been changing and appearing around, or even inside different places. The works also expand upon various contested economic relations and their effects, seemingly one-sided in whom they benefit. A dialogue between the addressed ideas and contexts, imagined and real, physical and social, may suggest what repeats and what is new in today’s world, as well as what could change.  

Each artwork explores particular topics and opens possibilities to understand new meanings, which may also emerge when the connections between them are drawn. The exhibition creates a space with a complex web of definitions, providing a new dictionary, allowing itself to always update.

Artists: Erick Beltrán, Verónica Lahitte, Elena Lavellés, Irmina Rusicka, Adéla Součková, Katharina Stadler, Sandro Sulaberidze, Nino Zirakashvili, Jiří Žák
Curators: Data Chigholashvili and Alba Folgado
Authors of the project: Lucia Kvočáková, Piotr Sikora 
Exhibition architect: Lukáš Machalický 
Opening: 20. 2. 2020, 19:00  

 

Press release  Photos: opening (Libor Galia), exhibition (Katarína Hudačinová) 
video Jan Vidlička 

 

Additional program:
22. 2., 14:00 guided tour with Data Chigholashvili and Alba Folgado
4. 3., 18:00 guided tour with Piotr Sikora + artist Jiří Žák 
17. 3., 18:00 guided tour with Lucia Kvočáková + artist Adéla Součková 
26. 3. Book launch  

 

The exhibition will continue in TRAFO Center for Contemporary Art (Szczecin) (9. 4.–17. 5. 2020) and than it will continue in center CentroCentro (Madrid) and Silk Museum (Tbilisi). 

The New Dictionary of Old Ideas is co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union. The project is organized by MeetFactory / Prague (CZ) in cooperation with TRAFO Center for Contemporary Art / Szczecin (PL), hablarenarte / Madrid (ES), and The State Silk Museum / Tbilisi (GE).

Free entrance

Opening hours: 
Monday–Sunday 13:00–20:00