Dystopian Realism

DIS, Max Göran, Jakub Choma, Sarah Lüttchen, Agnieszka Polska, Jonáš Strouhal, Dušan Zahoranský

Curated by Václav Janoščík
Venue: Cursor Gallery, Prague, The Czech Republic
Date: July 15 – September 6, 2020

Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artists and Cursor Gallery, Prague

Following the investigative search for a shared world, the series of four exhibitions for the full year program of the Cursor Gallery, continues with a second episode about the future, possibilities and dystopias, which have seemingly narrowed the comforting distance of tens or hundreds of years, and are getting closer and closer to the present. One of the most repeated sentences of contemporary philosophy is: “It is easier to imagine the end of the world today than the end of capitalism.” But is our imagination truly that limited? Customarily, it has always been art that continuously expanded the horizon of imagination, possibilities and the future. This is not about another wave of apocalyptic threats and experiences; this is about overcoming the spirals of work and entertainment, activity and apathy; this is about questioning the old language, looking for new points of orientation and reconciliation with the time of catastrophes and political crises, with a life without answers, but many challenges on the fluctuating horizon.

Click here to read Dystopian Realism Publication.pdf

Dystopian Realism is the second exhibition in this year’s cycle being curated by Václav Janoščík at the Cursor Gallery. This time round there will be four exhibitions, each with its own publication. Together these will form
the series POP-PHILOSOPHY, an attempt to insinuate pop-cultural forms into more complex questions regarding
the possibilities and limits of our shared world. The first exhibition and publication took the detective story or
whodunit as an investigation of our contemporaneity. This second exhibition is concerned with the dystopias
linked with realism. The second half of the cycle will look at issues surrounding the narrative of the superhero,
and club and party music. These publications will mark the start of a completely new series devoted to POP-THEORY published by the Center for Contemporary Arts Prague and overseen by Katarína Hládeková and Václav Janoščík. The series will include cutting-edge foreign and Czech contributions expanding and democratising the spheres of contemporary thinking and art.