This Word Doesn't Exist in America

The normalization housing estates of the 1970s and 1980s – paradoxically built largely under Western license of the Larsen-Nielsen system – became after 1989 a site of collision between socialist utopia and the aesthetics of early Czech capitalism. Privatization began to aggressively graft itself onto the grey blueprint of civic amenities: improvised businesses lit by neon were meant to mediate for residents a touch of the "big world" and fulfill the collective desire to live like the West.

In the spaces of the former Galaxie multiplex, artists Vladimir 518 and Epos 257 examine the phenomenon of estate entertainment – situations where imitation of American models met the eccentric ethos of the era. The polished dream of that transformation carried within it from the start a darker face: addiction, exploitation, and gradual disillusionment with unfulfilled visions.

Even after three decades, we encounter fragments here that seem to belong to no one anymore – monuments to a different conception of public space and private ownership. The exhibition annotation draws from the scholarly text by Tomáš Pospiszyl.

Opening: May 28 at 6:00 PM. Exhibition open Thu–Sun: 2:00 PM–7:30 PM.