HIDDEN ARCHIVE <<<

[20230516]

SHIFTED REALITIES with works by MARWA ARSANIOS, ED ATKINS, ADÉLA BABANOVÁ, ZACH BLAS, PAUL MAHEKE and LESLIE THORNTON at GALERIE RUDOLFINUM curated by EVA DREXLEROVÁ, JEN KRATOCHVIL AND PETR NEDOMA [from 20230316 to 20230611]

[Photos: Ondřej Polák]

What is reality? And is there only one reality? Or are we offered the possibility to move between different versions
and variations of what we otherwise take for granted and describe as reality? In recent years, both global and local politics have often made mention of divided societies, with the assumption that one side refuses to listen to the other, and vice versa. Is it possible that each of the parties lives in a different reality? What about the growing digital world? Can we consider this as real? Or do we reserve that privilege for describing the physical space around us, which we can look at with our own eyes and touch directly, without the help of displays, controllers or virtual reality gloves?

With the democratization of the possibilities of self-identification through the tools of the Internet and social networking, our previously more or less compact reality has begun to shift and become layered. Everyone has the right and space to express their own opinion within the infinite digital world, and thus the role of co-creators of the world, which previously belonged to religious leaders, politicians and philosophers, is now available to everyone.

The exhibition Shifted Realities poses the above questions and supplements them with countless others, offering visitors to the Galerie Rudolfinum a range of possible instructions and hints for how we can perceive our own subdivided and scattered realities.

Whether through the interest in the boundaries between the digital and the physical evoked by Ed Atkins, the exploration of new visions of social equality with Marwa Arsanios, the pushing of the boundaries of perception in the work of Zach Blas, the confrontation of inner worlds and the environment explored by Adela Babanová, the expansion of the range of possible personal identities by Paul Maheke, or the search for a common language that is the focus of Leslie Thornton, all of the works included in the exhibition seek to expand conventional perception and to show the richness of a single, albeit stratified, reality.

With the exhibition Shifted Realities, the Galerie Rudolfinum once again offers a selection of outstanding contemporary artists, testing the perception of visitors not only with the content of the works on display, but also through their formal qualities, which, as always, transform the 19th-century architectural space into a projection surface for various visions: techno-utopian dreams, digital dystopias, new communities, surreal theatrical scenes – or perhaps rather their backstage areas, barricades of protest, and more.

[Text: Eva Drexlerová, Jen Kratochvil and Petr Nedoma]

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