The exhibition reflects on the current situation of Slovak culture and its art scene, which has in recent years found itself under increasing political pressure that has threatened its institutional autonomy. The exhibition was prepared through Czecho-Slovak collaboration and dialogue that builds on mutual proximity, shared experience, and historical continuity, and develops a set of curatorial and artistic contributions that approach the current condition of Slovak art from various positions and perspectives. The project includes the works and experiences of numerous generations of artists, from respected figures in the field to up-and-coming artists and students. The individual contributions are exhibited in the halls of the House of Arts, but they also enter public space, and some have been created as part of the institution’s residency program.

The exhibition mimics the spaces of an auditorium which it considers a place for listening and dialogue, aiming to facilitate a plurality of voices and strategies. It focuses on its own institutional memory and the continuity of the House of Arts’ collaboration with the Slovak scene and its institutions; by means of an open call, it tests the boundaries of the concept of “Slovak art” and explores the topic of identity and the tension between the personal and social contexts. It also thematises the identity and resilience of more-than-human entities, focuses on the parallels between Modernist utopias and unrealised projects within the context of the grant mechanisms and systems, explores the role current digital technologies play in the instrumental stereotyping of art, as well the performativity of public political gestures, asking questions about our search for a vision of a future for Slovakia, as well as for wider Europe.

The exhibition title references the statement “Slovak and no other!”, which is understood as a symptom of a wider cultural-political situation. The exhibition does not focus on critiquing this single statement as such, but rather explores the mechanisms through which national identity becomes a tool for othering, representation, and legitimation in the sphere of culture. We understand this state as a particular social reality whose impacts have also gradually come to shape the Czech geopolitical space.

The exhibition’s aim is not so much to create a single, unified image, but rather to articulate the situation in all its complexity and contradiction. It does not so much aim at presenting contemporary art, but rather aims to read it as a tool for reflection and the sharing of experience within the Central European context. It also asks questions about the role of cultural institutions as active actors in public space and about how art can engage with the changing political and social context – what does contemporary Slovak art really tell us about the conditions in which it is being created?

Co-curators: Zuzana Janečková a Dorota Kenderová, Radovan Čerevka a Tomáš Makara, Umenie nebude ticho!, Svatopluk Mikyta a Zuzana Bodnárová, Barbora Trnková a Tomáš Kukuča

Artists: Janko Alexy, Miloš Alexandr Bazovský, Peter Barényi, Julius Barczi, Juraz Bartusz, Júlia Bartuszová, Mária Bartuszová, Olga Bartošíková, Zuzana Bodnárová, András Csefálvay, Anton Čierny, Lýdia Čepková, Anna Daučíková, Sláva Daubnerová, Matej Drlička, Andrej Dúbavský, Alexander Eckerdt, Vojtech Erdélyi, Oskar Felber, Svetlana Fialová, Rudolf Fila, Stano Filko, Drama Queer, Ľudovít Fulla, Mikuláš Galanda, Zuzana Golianová, Veroni Gyenge, Oto Hudec, Michal Hvorecký, Jozef Jankovič, Anton Jasusch, Andrea Kalinová, Gréta Kenderová, Alojz Klimo, Tamara Klimová, Bohunka Koklesová, Martin Kochan, Kristián Németh, Ilona Németh, Marcel Korec, Otto Korkoš, Katka Koščová, Patričia Koyšová, Daniela Krajčová, Bohuš Kubinský, Maximilian Kurth, Sandra Kusá, Bystrík Klčo, Ivana Laučíková, Zuzana Liptáková, Katarína Mach, Paula Malinowska, Martin Martinček, Braňo Matis, Milan Mazúr, Svätopluk Mikyta, Theodor Jozef Musson, Verona Němcová, Miroslav Noga, Sára Paldanová, Paulína Pinková, Pink Bus, Roman Poláčik, Post Bellum, Ľubomír Purdeš, Arpád Račko, Julia Rázusová, Emília Rigová, Magdalena Robinsonová, Andrej Rudavský, Mária Rudavská, Rastislav Sedláčik, Erik Sikora, Tomáš Sloboda, Lukáš Sobota, Monika Stacho, Erik Šille, Ivana Šáteková, Kristián Šmelko, Ester Šimerová Martinčeková, Štefan Skrúcaný, Ľubo Šoška, Dezider Tóth, Samuel Trnka, Olja Triaška, Rudolf Uher, Miloš Urbásek, Ján Juraj Végh, Jaroslav Vodrážka, Viktor Fuček, Ján Zavarský, Ján Zelinka, Erik Ždiľa