Gandy gallery, Bratislava

“Thirty-plus years old…”

For ART-O-RAMA 2013, Gandy gallery will show pieces by four young artists who were born in Central and Eastern Europe thirty-plus years ago. Each artist brings to our attention an artistic language that has been influenced by their social and political environment from countries which have been witnessing economical, intellectual and visual art «emergence» for the last 20 years.

Zbynek Baladran (b. 1973, Prague) is a writer, philosopher and artist who exploits dominant epistemological models using several media, sometimes unexpected ones.

Oto Hudec (b. 1981, Kosice) is a multi-media artist. His paintings, drawings and prints explore both personal and social themes. He produces documentary videos and works/interventions in public spaces about immigration and refugees. He is interested in imaginary countries without traced borders and in the impact of globalization on the environment.

The Catalogue of Opportunities by Nikita Kadan (b. 1982, Kiev) consists of six light boxes with photographs of cityscapes from old Soviet architecture magazines. The artist transformed the original images by cutting out the parts of the buildings that nowadays are covered with commercial advertisement. The motivation behind the work comes from the artists’ awareness of the prevailing spirit of change in the post-Soviet society. As the artist states, “In a way the Soviet public sphere is helpless, it cannot protect itself from aggressive privatization such as the invasion of liberal commercial advertisements in the streets.”

Adam Vackar (b. 1979, Prague) has worked in France and Japan. Besides Czech, French and Japanese, he also speaks German and English. Far from being anecdotal, his foreign languages skills enable the artist an intimate knowledge and awareness on cultural and historical contexts, sometimes antagonistic. In his most recent practice, he uses text, and explores an «altered reality».

Then, Gandy gallery will also show Róza El-Hassan’s work.

Born in Budapest (Hungary) in 1966, of Syrian and Hungarian origin, Róza El-Hassan studied at Budapest University of Fine Arts  and Frankfurt Städelschule. She stopped her conceptual works to focus, since 1999, on performances, objects and collages. Her drawings are still open and temporary, “between ornament and protest”, dealing with issues such as artistic autonomy, political issues and aesthetic ambitions. Róza El-Hassan represented Hungary at the Venice Biennale in 1997.