The exhibition PLANET EDEN: TOMORROW’S WORLD IN SOCIALIST CZECHOSLOVAKIA 1948 – 1978 will present the vision of the future depicted in the art and popular culture of post-war Czechoslovakia. Every epoch adapts the future to suit its needs. At the beginning of the 1950s, the inhabitants of Czechoslovakia were being persuaded that a Communist utopia was on its way. The launch of the first Soviet space satellites served as a propaganda weapon. It left no one in any doubt that by 2000 we would be making regular flights to the Moon. By the second half of the 1960s those dreams were shown to be unrealistic. What remains of them are novels, stories, pictures, architectural projects and sci-fi films in which technological progress did not stop, but the nature of the future social system became increasingly vague. The unfulfilled future of the socialist past is inspiring contemporary artists to reflect on their post-Communist identities.
