Art exhibits look at the fall of communism
October 2009 - November marks the 20th anniversary of the fall of communism in Czechoslovakia. Several art exhibits in Prague look back at the communist era and at the changes in society since then.
Tomorrow Starts Yesterday features propaganda and advertising posters from communism and capitalism (photo: DOX Centre for Contemporary Art)
At the DOX Centre for Contemporary Art, three exhibitions mark 20 years since the collapse of the communist regime. The exhibitions address the present-day moral and political crisis in the Czech Republic, and ask how much the ruling generation and the mentality it inherited from the communist past are responsible for the current situation in the Czech Republic.
The main exhibit, Tomorrow Starts Yesterday (Oct 8 – Nov 23), juxtaposes the methods of communist political propaganda with those used by today’s commercial advertising.
Two accompanying exhibits (Nov. 6 – Feb. 28) look at realted topics. The StB Registry of Persons of Interest exhibition (the acronym StB stands for Státní bezpečnost, the former State Secret Police) uses contemporary art to explore the divisive topic of providing access to the Secret Police archives, and draws attention to the increasingly ubiquitous phenomenon of surveillance.
On the Road Together: The Union of Artists Projects in the Period of ‘Normalization’ presents posters and catalogs published by the official Union of Artists in the 1970s and 1980s, i.e., the late years of the Communist regime. The exhibitions run at the DOX Centre for Contemporary Art, Poupětova 1, Praha 7-Holešovice.
Another gallery to look commemorate the 20th anniversary of the fall of communism is the Stone Bell House on Old Town Square.
Once Upon a Time in The East features famous, forgotten, or previously unreleased photographs documenting many aspects of everyday life in Czechoslovakia from 1948-1989. The photographs come from many public collections and archives, as well as the estates of both living and deceased photographers. They show the transformation of political and social life, the official communist celebrations and gatherings, the ever-present ideological propaganda, and the devastation of the environment under single party rule, as well as the „internal exile“ chosen by many people as they escaped into their own private lives, cottages and local pubs – worlds less official but more real and spontaneous.
The exhibition runs from October 28 to January 3 at the Stone Bell House, Old Town Square 13.
