Strangers When We Meet

15. 10. – 3. 11. 2024
opening: 14. 10. 2024 from 6 pm

Exhibition of students and graduates of the Studio of New Aesthetics, Department of Photography, Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague.

Irma Briford,  Filip Doležal, Adéla Geier, Eliška Klimešová, Ondřej Konrád, Maria Koskivirta, Wiktor Marcinkowski, Jonáš Mlejnek, Natálie Pešková, Jakub Prašivka, Lucie Sasínová, Emre Saruhan, Leona Schillerová, Antoni Skwark, Eliška Suchá, Vláďa Švestka, Rosalie Tomková, Logan de Raspide Ross, Villads Rex & Hynek Alt, Jen Kratochvil and others

curators: Jen Kratochvil, Hynek Alt

Brian O’Doherty meets Camille Henrot.

white box, black box (no AI involved, or is it?), …a blue box?

cube, cubical, cubic meter of art (more or less – though how much physical space would all the digital files or text take?)

the studio of new aesthetic implements shows as organizational tools.

what do we organize, you might ask – ourselves, could be the answer.

this is the-very-beginning-of-the-semester show, with a freshly assembled group of new members and some recent graduates, given carte blanche to bring their magic.

to start the first week of semester with a show might sound risky

or like a trick

but on whom, though?

the stage is clearly set. two screens, a large static horizontal projection, a vertical portable TV screen, two studio speakers, carpet, paint, curtains, LED lights, all blue. why blue? maybe because of the dog, or maybe because we just used brown elsewhere. are there other colors? maybe next time.

the works come in various forms and stages of development, operating in different moods, paces, scales, or brainspaces. they’re only just beginning to find ways of mutual synchronization, alignment, or each other’s disruption.

we are strangers when we meet, and not just in that cute old hollywood way. we are strangers when we meet, and since the whole world keeps shouting “strangers out!” our goal is obviously to turn strangers into friends as soon as possible. strangers are friends you probably just haven’t had the chance to get to know yet – not always, of course, but …

we live in times when everything is constantly contested. words mean different things to different people. there is “freedom” as unhinged selfishness, and there is “freedom” as a path to potential gradual societal liberation. and then you have a broad spectrum of in-betweens and arounds to those two model poles.

we are strangers when we meet, and we often use this relationship status as a segregation tool. sometimes, we know each other for a very long time and still we make strangers of our neighbors. there’s an ongoing genocide based on this principle. yes, we know, but it never hurts to remind ourselves about it.

strangers could be lovers, strangers could be foes. strangers attract with their mysterious distance. strangers can scare you shitless. but who is a stranger to whom? it's obviously never a one-directional relationship. 

let’s see if this experience makes us closer as a studio.

The program of the Jeleni Gallery is possible through kind support of Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic, Prague City Council, State Fund of Culture of the Czech Republic, City District Prague 7, 
GESTOR – The Union for the Protection of Authorship
Thanks: Joinmusic
Media partners: ArtMap, artalk.cz, jlbjlt.net and ArtRevue