Alternative Realisms

The January Exhibition recommendation of Kontur Magazine

From January 2025, the Kontur Magazine’s new series will regularly recommend exhibitions relevant to the local context, primarily from Slovakia but also from other European cities. Our first exhibition recommendation spans from Berlin to Košice, covering the first half of the 20th century through to contemporary art, with a range of genres from traditional painting to multi- and interdisciplinary projects. It features exhibitions of completed life works, artistic trends, research-based projects, and works by art university students.

Július Schubert – Last Chairman of the Bratislava Art Society // Bratislava City Gallery

Bratislava, 05. 12. 2024 – 18. 05. 2025
Curator: Zsófia Kiss-Szemán

Július Schubert (1888-1947), born in Bratislava, had a close connection to the city and the Bratislava Art Society (Bratislavský umelecký spolok / BUS), where he served as the last president. This exhibition showcases the works of Schubert and members of the association in the broader context of Bratislava’s art scene.

Csilla Nagy: Nature Rules // Institute of Materials and Machine Mechanics, Slovak Academy of Sciences

Bratislava, 11. 12. 2024 – 31. 01. 2025
Curator: Zuzana Duchová

Csilla Nagy’s work is characterized by a research-based artistic process. In the exhibition Nature Rules, she presents paper clay objects reminiscent of ceramics, created through 3D printing as part of her research at the Institute. These works explore natural phenomena such as repetition, symmetry, and randomness, while also referring to the fusion of human and machine processes, and the ancient human desire to understand and replicate nature. The project highlights the intersection of science and art, both thematically and in the exhibition’s context at the Institute.

POV YOLO WIP TBA 2 // tranzit.sk

Bratislava, 09. 01. 2025 – 28. 01. 2025
Curators: Zuzana Jakalová, Hana Ontkocová, and Fanny Elisabeth Pekarčíková

This three-part exhibition series reveals the principles and internal workings of the Intermedia Studio at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava, led by Jana Kapelová and Roman Bicek. The exhibition explores social and cultural practices of storytelling, featuring works that reflect on experiences of marginalized groups, rural life aesthetics, and cultural traditions. Art interventions engage the audience in creating the spirit of the studio.

Exhibiting artists: Norbert Kuki, Kristína Vavrová
Exhibiting artists in the video section: Viktória Gajdošová, Norbert Kuki, Vivien Kvasnicová, Tatiana Takáčová, Alexander Zigo.
Art interventions in the reading room: Tomáš Brichta, Roman Bicek, Dominika Hoštáková, Jana Kapelová, Milli Keil, Vivien Kvasnicová, Július Majerník, Michaela Prablesková

Péter Kazai Sajó – Return // Ernest Zmeták Art Gallery

Šaľa, 12. 12. 2024 – 01. 02. 2025
Curator: Helena Markusková

Painter Péter Kazai Sajó (1909-1994) graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Budapest and was a founding member of the GANZ Shipyard Workers’ Art Circle, remains relatively unknown in the region. His work includes traditional genre scenes, as well as elements of abstraction and surrealism from the 1960s-70s. This is the first solo exhibition in Slovakia that presents his work, which holds special significance as a symbolic return to his homeland.

New Realisms // East Slovak Gallery

Košice, 03. 10. 2024 – 02. 02. 2025
Project Leaders: Anna Habánová, Ivo Habán, Helena Musilová

The New Realisms exhibition, created through collaboration between the East Slovak Gallery and the Peter Michal Bohúň Gallery in Liptovský Mikuláš, is based on a research project and exhibition held at the Prague City Gallery.
The exhibition showcases Czechoslovak modern realist artistic tendencies from the interwar period, summarized under the term “new realism.” The “new realism” aims to bring art closer to people by going beyond elitist views, striving for an as objective as possible depiction of everyday reality through sculptures, paintings, films, and photographs. While the latter two mediums are displayed at the Peter Michal Bohúň Gallery in Liptovský Mikuláš, the former are featured at the East Slovak Gallery in Košice. The exhibition, realized through the cooperation of these two major Slovak institutions, explores the lesser-defined presence of this artistic trend in our region through the works of over fifty artists.

HOLLOW – Archive III (Baby) // Šopa Gallery

Košice, 11. 12. 2024 – 31. 01. 2025
Curator: Natálie Drtinová

Hollow embodies the shared hallucinations of dancer/choreographer Viktor Szeri, media artist/game designer Tamás Páll, and curator/writer Gyula Muskovics. They have been working collectively since 2018, and have staged immersive performances and installations in theaters and exhibition spaces across Europe. The performance Aura, presented in 2023 at the Trafó House of Contemporary Arts in Budapest, raised the question of what exists beyond the sum of the members of a group. The majority of the objects in the Archive III (Baby) multimedia installation, exhibited at the Šopa Gallery in Košice, belong to the imaginary place called Aura. In these works, the three artists reflect on their own micro-community, exploring art as a process of world creation and investigating the functioning of communities.

Salt.Clay.Rock: On Nuclear Pasts and Radiant Futures // nGbK

Berlin, 30. 11. 2024 – 09. 02. 2025
nGbK Working Group: Katalin Erdődi, Marc Herbst, Julia Kurz, Virág Major-Kremer, Vincent Schier

SAL.T.CLAY.ROCK is a two-year (2023-2024) artistic-curatorial project that examines the past and future of nuclear infrastructures in Germany and Hungary. The members of the working group and the artists visited places and communities that operate uranium mines, power plants, and waste storage sites, or that have played an important role in anti-nuclear resistance. The title refers to materials – salt, clay, granite – considered most suitable for storing radioactive waste. The exhibition explores the differing situations of Germany and Hungary in terms of nuclear industries and infrastructures. The project aims to investigate how we can approach people’s experiences through artistic research. Among the exhibiting artists are the Slovak multimedia artist András Cséfalvay and intermedia artist Csilla Nagy. Other participating artists include Ana Alenso, Krisztina Erdei & Dániel Misota, Rita Süveges, Sonya Schönberger, Marike Schreiber, Katarina Šević, Dominika Trapp, and Anna Witt.

Cover Image: Detail from the Hollow – Archive III (Baby) exhibition (Source: Facebook, Šopa Gallery)