Private Nationalism #3
Private Nationalism, the series of four exhibitions and four debates in Open Gallery in Bratislava is a follow-up of the international project comprising of four eponymous shows in Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Germany that took place in 2014. Every series of the project focused on a different theme. #1 – identity – patriotism – nationalism, #2 – national symbols – freedom of art – flag scandal, #3 – idea of statehood – borders – political extremism, #4 – fear – origin of state – Ukraine and Russia. The focus of the report lies in the third series of the project.
- The whole cycle of Private Nationalism00:00:00.000
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- began in Prague in Divus, then we moved on00:00:04.230
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- to Kunsthalle in Košice. There we have shown00:00:08.316
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- the works of forty artists coming from various European countries.00:00:12.305
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- And then, based on the show in Košice,00:00:16.339
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- there was a scandal of the Czechoslovak flag00:00:20.439
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- that shaped the whole of our year 2014 because it concerned us.00:00:24.571
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- The scandal was incurred by an artwork by Dalibor Bača00:00:28.606
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- who has exhibited the Czechoslovak flag from 1991;00:00:32.797
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- he placed it on the floor and the whole scandal00:00:36.942
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- was about its misinterpretation.00:00:40.850
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- That’s how the Bratislava show have come about.00:00:50.392
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- Open Society Foundation with then director Marek Kapusta00:00:54.632
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- offered us to repeat the show in Bratislava00:00:58.836
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- also as an opportunity to recount the story00:01:02.995
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- of the scandal and to refocus the whole debate on the issue00:01:07.160
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- the show was originally focused on – the phenomenon of nationalism.00:01:11.475
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- We decided to organize four shows and four debates.00:01:15.561
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- And that shall be the cycle we would like to use00:01:19.816
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- for the explanation of the original intent00:01:23.845
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- of the whole show. So we have divided the show00:01:27.868
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- into four parts and each of them was initiated by a debate.00:01:31.809
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- Every debate took place on Tuesday and the show00:01:35.991
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- with all the exhibited artworks became a part of the debate.00:01:39.945
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- We wanted those artworks, eg. video projections,00:01:44.057
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- to be on during the debates for the artists to be able00:01:48.241
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- to enter the discourse through their artworks.00:01:52.397
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- The third part of the show focused on00:01:56.453
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- growing extremism in Europe. For that reason,00:02:00.726
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- we have invited Péter Krekó, a Hungarian sociologist, to the debate.00:02:04.826
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- In his longitudinal research he focuses on European extremism.00:02:08.904
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- Drawing from the Political Capital Institute research00:02:20.597
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- by Péter Krekó Jonathan Ravasz created00:02:24.548
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- a piece that visualizes the current situation00:02:28.410
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- through deformations of outlines of European countries00:02:32.659
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- rendering each country's depth in accordance00:02:36.845
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- with the rate of local extremism.00:02:40.975
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- Readymade by Michal Moravčík was an important milestone00:02:49.864
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- of 2006 when the Donau Monarchy exhibition00:02:53.995
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- took place on billboards in Bratislava.00:02:58.020
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- In this show, he exhibited a sticker00:03:06.194
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- he had bought in Hungary in 200600:03:10.261
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- depicting the Kingdom of Hungary.00:03:14.433
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- He hasn’t done anything besides enlarging the sticker00:03:18.778
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- to the size of a billboard.00:03:22.941
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- This has inspired some commentators to claim00:03:26.952
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- his artwork influenced the general elections of 2006,00:03:31.087
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- the last elections that brought the Hungarian Party00:03:35.157
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- and the Slovak National Party into parliament.00:03:39.415
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- It’s an interesting thing to imagine one artwork00:03:43.496
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- to influence elections in Slovakia.00:03:47.400
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- We have exhibited this artwork to show that art00:03:51.723
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- can have an influence in society. Because we believe00:03:55.854
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- that even our exhibition can have an influence00:04:00.150
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- on thinking of those who have seen it.00:04:04.512
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- The piece by Hungarian artist Csaba Nemes00:04:08.731
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- that employs a remarkable method of puppetry in the video00:04:12.732
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- where he narrates a sad story of Roma boy00:04:16.924
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- taking a walk in woods who gets accused by forester00:04:21.109
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- of an intent to steal. The artwork somehow reflects00:04:25.280
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- the prejudices we entertain when we think that00:04:29.322
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- certain groups of society are against us or00:04:33.391
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- that they are guilty solely by the fact of their existence.00:04:37.480