3rd PRAGUE BIENNALE 2007
24 May - 16 Sep 2007
3rd PRAGUE BIENNALE
24 May - 16 September 2007
PRAGUEBIENNALE is already in its third year. Having established itself as the only nationally and internationally acclaimed biennale in the Czech and Slovak republics, it has become an international reference point, especially with regards to painting and art as social catalyst. Eschewing the path taken by those biennales that, over the years, have turned into mere politically correct ‘group shows’ with infl ated budgets often reaching sixty million dollars, PRAGUEBIENNALE has remained a strictly low-budget affair.
This choice, albeit one that risks being derided, refl ects a fi ercely original character: much like the decision to explore painting in all of its possible variations and to represent a world-view of art as a form of transgression and cultural upheaval. The two main themes of PRAGUEBIENNALE 3, then, are painting and socially-committed art. However, a historical revisiting and an in-depth exploration of the contemporary art scene in the Czech and Slovak republics, Romania, Hungary and the Baltic regions are also essential. In order for a survey of this kind to be effective it has to not only touch on international trends: it has to delve into the very heart of the country it is representing, probe the surrounding areas, and uncover and analyse hidden or little known phenomena about these cultures. This was the pervading sense during PRAGUEBIENNALE 2, as well.
For, even though that year’s focus was international painting and the new Chinese contemporary art scene, its ‘trump card’, so to speak, was the exploration of Czech and Slovak art. It is the exploration of the concept of ‘Glocal’, the dialectic confrontation between local and global realities-that distinguishes and defi nes PRAGUEBIENNALE. After all, in order for a country or territory’s culture and global culture to integrate with and benefi t from each other, they fi rst have to meet. This is PRAGUEBIENNALE’s aim: to display both ‘Genius Loci’ and ‘Genius Globi’, so that each may grow, feed off of and complete each other.
Giancarlo Politi, Helena Kontová
24 May - 16 September 2007
PRAGUEBIENNALE is already in its third year. Having established itself as the only nationally and internationally acclaimed biennale in the Czech and Slovak republics, it has become an international reference point, especially with regards to painting and art as social catalyst. Eschewing the path taken by those biennales that, over the years, have turned into mere politically correct ‘group shows’ with infl ated budgets often reaching sixty million dollars, PRAGUEBIENNALE has remained a strictly low-budget affair.
This choice, albeit one that risks being derided, refl ects a fi ercely original character: much like the decision to explore painting in all of its possible variations and to represent a world-view of art as a form of transgression and cultural upheaval. The two main themes of PRAGUEBIENNALE 3, then, are painting and socially-committed art. However, a historical revisiting and an in-depth exploration of the contemporary art scene in the Czech and Slovak republics, Romania, Hungary and the Baltic regions are also essential. In order for a survey of this kind to be effective it has to not only touch on international trends: it has to delve into the very heart of the country it is representing, probe the surrounding areas, and uncover and analyse hidden or little known phenomena about these cultures. This was the pervading sense during PRAGUEBIENNALE 2, as well.
For, even though that year’s focus was international painting and the new Chinese contemporary art scene, its ‘trump card’, so to speak, was the exploration of Czech and Slovak art. It is the exploration of the concept of ‘Glocal’, the dialectic confrontation between local and global realities-that distinguishes and defi nes PRAGUEBIENNALE. After all, in order for a country or territory’s culture and global culture to integrate with and benefi t from each other, they fi rst have to meet. This is PRAGUEBIENNALE’s aim: to display both ‘Genius Loci’ and ‘Genius Globi’, so that each may grow, feed off of and complete each other.
Giancarlo Politi, Helena Kontová