Beard, Gerboc, Lenkiewicz: Argus & Medusa: Between Despair and Hope I

Why does Géricault's Raft of the Medusa remain a source of inspiration for contemporary artists two centuries later, and how does it speak to today's world? A discussion with artists Tom de Freston and Conrad Botes, whose work is featured in the exhibition Argus & Medusa, moderated by curators Michaela Šilpochová and Otto M. Urban. The programme lasts 60 minutes, takes place in English, and includes entry to the exhibition.

Conrad Botes is a South African visual artist based in Cape Town who works in painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, and comics. His work combines comic stylization with grotesque imagery, dark humour, and religious motifs, exploring themes of violence, gender, racial relations, guilt, and power. He studied illustration at the Koninklijke Academie voor Beeldende Kunsten in The Hague and visual arts at Stellenbosch University. In 2004 he received the Absa l'Atelier Award; his work has been exhibited at the Sydney Biennale, the Havana Biennale, and in the exhibition Impressions from South Africa (2011). Since the early 1990s, he has co-published the magazine Bitterkomix with Anton Kannemeyer, dedicated to South African society, politics, and power relations.

Tom de Freston is a British visual artist, writer, and illustrator based in Oxford. His work combines painting, film, text, and performance, drawing on literature and myth while exploring themes of human vulnerability and loss. He studied visual arts at Leeds Metropolitan University and art history at the University of Cambridge. He is the author of Wreck: A Story of Art and Survival (2022), a personal text inspired by Géricault's painting. With his wife, writer Kiran Millwood Hargrave, he has published the illustrated books Julie and the Shark (2023) - awarded Waterstones Children's Gift of the Year and shortlisted for Waterstones Book of the Year - and Leila and the Blue Fox (2023), which won the Wainwright Prize for Children's Writing.

Otto M. Urban is an art historian and, since 2020, chief curator of DOX. He works with contemporary art and art history.