Artists: Anna Nowakowska, Asmus Soodla, Aurelia Grace Talmon, Barbara Slusarczyk, Eke Ao Nettan, Eliasz Hułas, Elise Marie Olesk, Eva Maria Põldmäe, Inessa Saarits, Jakub Hons, Jan Jaworski Brach, Jana Svobodová, Jerzy Mróz, Julia Grabowska, Justyna Sewczuk, Kacper Kokoszka, Kail Timusk, Katarzyna Kalicka, Mattias Jürgen Veller, Matěj Liška, Michael Bublík, Michalina Kaza, Nela Pietrová, Rafał Kruszka, Sirel Tammisto, Sonja Sutt, Tereza Šrámková, Vavřinec Vyoral, Yana Makukh, Štěpán Kus

Curator: Šárka Koudelová

The theme of personal or imaginative archaeology, along with an emphasis on the non-linear perception of time, is a frequent creative method and the implicit background of many recent artistic outputs. The search for the remains of civilization in the material assemblage, reminiscent of a soil discovery site or the ruins of human activity, can be understood as a social portrait in absence, demonstrated by the composition of the finds. Sculptural installations of this type have already touched on personal and museum collecting, culture wars and decolonization before the covid pandemic. In recent years, increasingly marked by climate change, the radicalization of society and, above all, war and the possible threat of nuclear catastrophe, these installations have reconciled post-apocalyptic scenes of civilizational disruption, but also of escapism returning to nature or sites of atavistic rituals. Intuitively, their artists*ky use trash aesthetics or directly residual or waste materials, building on the contrast of disorganized matter with craft or digital artifacts. The theorist Ewa Domanska, whose online lecture greatly influenced our initial thinking about the exhibition, summarized this line of thinking under the term “anticipatory historical thinking,” an anticipation of future ruins that can enhance our capacity for adaptation.

Opening on 19 October 2023 at 18:00

The project was supported by the Erasmus+ programme.

The End of Eternity