Invitation to a press conference on “All Power to the Imagination!”

Infos + Einleitung

MI

The show brings together some 250 works by 51 Czech artists, spanning a period from the 1910s to the present. The contemporary art scene of the Czech Republic thus engages in a visual dialogue with classic modernist pieces. Paintings, drawings, works on paper, sculptures, installations, films, glass art and textile works: the selected pieces constitute a comprehensive cross-section of Czech art, with a wealth of shapes and colours, gentle self-mockery and a playful, imaginative streak. At the start of the 20th century, the movement was particularly heavily influenced and shaped by French surrealism – an impact that can be seen and sensed in contemporary Czech works to this day.

The exhibition starts in the foyer with two art installations by the brothers Martin and David Koutecký, transporting visitors back to Bohemian times and a café from the interwar years. In the basement, the first sight to strike the eye is an artist’s studio equipped with easels, brushes, paints, various devices and a potpourri of curious objects that fire viewers’ imagination. In the main exhibition gallery, the installation “My Light is Your Light II” by Krištof Kintera (b. 1973 in Prague), made of countless light bulbs and other illuminants, is reflected in “Resonances”, a huge work made from mirrors by Magdaléna Jetelová (b. 1947 in Semily). Radka Bodzewicz (b. 1991 in Šumperk) takes us into the world of virtual reality with her work “Dance of the Sun”. Surreal and abstract paintings by Toyen (1902−1980), Martin Mainer (b. 1959 in Havířov, near Ostrava), Bohumil Kubišta (1884−1918), Lukáš Karbus (b. 1981 in Česká Lípa) and other artists are shown alongside early kinetic sculptures by Zdeněk Pešánek (1896−1965).

The catalogue “Alle Macht der Imagination”, written in German and Czech, is being brought out to accompany the exhibition and the art festival “Czech Season in Dresden”. It is published by Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden in cooperation with the Leibniz Institute for the History and Culture of Eastern Europe (GWZO) in Leipzig and Jiří Fajt, Jan Šicha and Susanne Jaeger. 488 pages, €38, ISBN 978-3-7533-0431-1.

To the exhibition