UNIVERSAL HOSPITALITY 2
Artists:
FUTURA:
Tomáš Rafa, Pavel Sterec, Michal Moravčík, Csaba Nemes, Lörinc Borsos, Gülsün Karamustafa, Anca Benera / Arnold Estefan, Selda Asal, Dante Buu, Ferenc Gróf, Yevgeniy Fiks, Damian Le Bas, András Cséfalvay.
MeetFactory Gallery, Kostka Gallery:
Artur Zmijewski, Société Réaliste, Oliver Ressler, Anca Benera / Arnold Estefan, Victor López Gonzáles, G.R.A.M., Halil Altindere, Rafani, Marina Naprushkina, Hito Steyerl, Martin Krenn, Núria Güell, Szabolcs KissPál.
Curators: Edit András, Birgit Lurz, Ilona Németh, Wolfgang Schlag
Universal Hospitality 2 is the continuation of Universal Hospitality held in the frame of Vienna Festival 2016.
The exhibition is in the collaboration with Centrum současného umění Futura.
The joint exhibition in MeetFactory Gallery, Kostka Gallery and Futura Gallery is an adjusted and updated version of the Universal Hospitality exhibition (AltePost, Vienna, 2016) curated within the Into the City program of Wiener Festwochen. The Vienna show focused on migration in accordance with the political situation of the time.
The Prague exhibitions, just a year later, are facing a much more devastated landscape of political turmoil after Brexit, the Turkish coup and its retaliation, and when populism is becoming mainstream even in affluent countries. The European Union is crumbling; threatened by Brexit, the agendas of far-right parties in Western countries and by Eastern European nationalisms and corruption. Dismantling of elements of democracy, authoritarianism and state control are emerging in different countries on both sides of the Atlantic. The title of the exhibition refers to the humanistic ideas of enlightenment and elaborates on the Kantian idea of cosmopolitanism. This exhibition intends to address the inherent paradox of being hospitable within the framework of the nation-state by analyzing the structure of nationalism and populism, but also trying to keep alive the need, even if only symbolically, for ‘absolute hospitality’-with Derrida’s words-in order to foresee a better solution for living together with a ‘stranger.’ Derrida’s reading of Kant and his notion of absolute or radical hospitality offers an alternative way outside of the inner paradox of hospitality, encompassing it unconditionally to all human beings, including the total stranger. By directing the attention to the shared etymology of the word with its opposite, hostility, he confronts us with the reality of existing hospitality limited and mastered by the institutions of border patrolling, policing and the administrative control over exclusion and inclusion.
Socially committed artists are looking behind the Potemkin wall, and search for interconnections and driving forces behind the recent downward social spiral. The exhibitions aim to stimulate the deeper understanding of the elements behind the present events offering a sort of visual analysis of the complex social processes of our turbulent times. Besides providing criticism they wish to fortify resistance and to galvanize progressives as well. Though the exhibitions focus mostly on Europe and partly on the Middle East; Syria and Turkey (G.R.A.M., Oliver Ressler, Halil Altindere) they still offer some outlook to the worldwide scope of the issues at hand (Victor Lopez Gonzales, Anca Benera and Arnolf Estefan).
The opening of the exhibition will be on March 3. It starts in Centrum současného umění Futura at 6 pm and it will be opened by Dante Buu The Winner Takes It All / Vítěz bere vše performance.
The opening night will continue in MeetFactory where Ferenc Gróf /Société Réaliste/ performance Universal Anthem will be hold at 8:30 pm.