Curatorial plan of Edith Jeřábková for the Cursor Gallery

I see the Kurzor Gallery as an organism whose foundations stand on the idea of continuous transformation. However, this transformation does not involve a frenetically changing, incomprehensible profusion of problems, but a cyclical structure. It is for this reason that I believe it is appropriate to reflect upon the gallery’s previous programme, create links with it and support the thematic “history” of this new platform. Having examined the seven exhibition projects organised by Václav Magid, which were based on a systematic analysis of contemporary discourses on the art scene, I have decided to continue this investigation. However, I shall not do so on the basis of multi-voiced group exhibitions, but in close cooperation with a single artist, artistic duo or within the framework of a duo exhibition. Furthermore, since Magid’s programme involved many Czech artists, I have opted to open up my programme to the international scene for broader-based discussion.

The Czech artists Daniela and Linda Dostálková, Marie Lukáčová and Jiří Žák (who also featured within the framework of Magid’s project) will present their thoughts and work, as well as their international colleagues Oreet Ashery, Sidsel Meineche Hansen, Lawrence Lek and Dan Walwin. Individual exhibitions will create a map of themes focusing on the following: the wider issue of the representation of animals and the ethical and aesthetic methods of their depiction and their status in society; interconnections and conflicts of the economic, power and magical structures of capitalist society; the irruption of irrational methods into the pragmatic age of modernity and the danger of oversimplification; physical death and the prolongation of life in virtual reality; post-human sex and bodies under the influence of the pharmaceutical industry, porn industry and technologies; an artist’s method of work as determined by the rapid development of technology; the vertigo induced by the distinction between the real, the gaming and the virtual; music and sound as a medium for sharing experiences, pop-cultural expansion, emotional learning, and intersubjective communication.

The form of the collaboration is residential, and this entails an organic link to my other work, which recently has been centred around themes being explored in the Institute of Anxiety opened last year. In general I lay greater emphasis on curatorial activities than theoretical, and so unlike Václav Magid I do not intend to produce a special catalogue to accompany every exhibition, but instead a single book at the end of the project that will connect up the themes explored by all the exhibiting artists and embed them within a continuous narrative. I am a big admirer of the form of collaboration offered by the Centre for Contemporary Art, which encourages a curator to pursue concentrated activities but does not bind them institutionally and force them to identify with the institution or risk losing their independence. It also guarantees an ethical collaboration with the artists and everyone else involved in the preparation and organisation of the programme.