Do You Know How To Recognise The Right Slav? art project

The phenomenon of Slav squatting is coming to the MeetFactory – Prague–based art gallery.

“Do you know how to recognise the right Slav? By a squat, of course. And by a tracksuit with three stripes. (…) The idea of a typical East European as an uneducated primitive in a sports tracksuit with a heavy Slavic accent took root in western Europe same as the idea of a young refugee with a luxury phone in hands here,” the Czech Radio reported about this subculture.

The project was inspired not only by post-Soviet street culture, but also by the Sigmund Freud’s book called Civilization and Its Discontents. “At present, this trend is somewhat a social status, perhaps at a first glance a simple pose that is loaded with many meanings and thoughts”, a curator Piotr Sikora explains. “It’s a powerful visual language that was originally part of a low culture to become a leitmotif, a sign of era or an internet memo.”  

The question of subcultures, the ironic playing with the features of material culture, pop culture versus subculture, the role of the individual and generation in the newly created conditions, politics and power … These are the themes that connect the work of eight artists involved in the exhibition.

More info:

Slav Squatting and Its Discontents

22 September–4 November 2018

MeetFactory Gallery

Artists: Lenka Balounová, Norbert Delman, Alina Gutkina, Max Lysáček, Oleg Kulik, Irenka  Kalicka, Olexander Pavlov, Gregor Rozanski (in cooperation with Mateusz Klazula)

Curator: Piotr Sikora

Opening: 21 September 2018 at 19:00 the part of Public House event

Special thanks to: Anton Litvin, Kulturus Festival and Hinda Weiss

Additional Events:

Tuesday Squats

• 9 October – Slav Squatting and Its Discontents – discussion with Agata Pyzik, Polish cultural theorist, and Jan Bělíček, Czech journalist + performative lecture
• 16 October – Oleg Kulik: Artist’s Talk
• 23 October –  performative lecture w/h curator Piotr Sikora and Max Lysáček
• 30 October – performative lecture w/h curator Piotr Sikora and Lenka Balounová

Free entry

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