In September, there will be a performance and video art festival in Prague
The theme of his second year will be self-presentation in virtual space. The program will offer a selection of world video art and live performances – some of them will take place directly at selected locations in Prague, while others will be created remotely via live transmission.
“After reflecting on the lived period of isolation and the new forms of artistic potential emerging in the context of the pandemic, we explored as part of last year’s first year Re-connect Art festival, this year we will deal with the issue of the duality of the online environment and reality,” say project curators Jitka Hlaváčková and Elis Uniqueová . The festival is organized by the Prague Biennale Foundation, its director and founder Helena Kontová is also a member of the curatorial board.
According to the curators, a shift in self-perception through social media, the phenomenon of influencers and imaginary identities is evident in society, which is related to people’s psychological condition. According to them, all these topics have in common escapism – escape from reality. “The questions that these topics bring are being asked by people all over the world in different variations, because the digital network forms its own, non-geopolitical structures. Artistic contributions to these topics can thus provide references from many different environments of the world’s art scenes and a comparison of diverse artistic approaches of given different cultural contexts,” the curators say.
The Prague Biennale Foundation was established due to the organization of the international contemporary art exhibition Prague Biennale, which was held for the first time in 2003 in the Trade Fair Palace of the National Gallery. After a few years, the founders withdrew from organizing the biennial, as similar exhibitions of contemporary art were created in the country. In 2017, the foundation participates in the European creative platform Magic Carpets and prepares locally specific, participatory and community-oriented projects.