Zvuky Prahy / Sounds of Prague

Undeniably me, The theme of “Me” is on various levels and locations spread-out from the now iconic installation “Menschlich” from Christian Boltansky – the covering of the walls of the room with hundreds of black and white photographs of people who disappeared long ago, to the “Memory Lapse” a video from Dutch artist Fiona Tan, which captures, using a very impressive, almost a film method the problem of the loss of one’s own self and forgetting oneself as a result of Alzheimer’s disease. In the space between these two fields of human existence, the selected artists explore in various positions the theme of Me, from self-projection in film roles in the world-famous images of American photographer Cindy Sherman, through ironic commentary on racial issues in the videos of Bruce Nauman, Rineke Dijkstra’s extremely sensitive portraits of ordinary people perceiving the transformation of identity in adolescence, questions of identity determined by belonging to a particular social group from Richard Bellingham, Marlene Dumas’s vibrant paintings on the theme of sensitive questions related to gender issues, double portraits from the Hidden Image series by Jiří David, the question of the loss of identity in the Communist regime of North Korea, in addition referring to the dehumanization of work in a developed Western society in monumental photographs by Andreas Gursky, the fictitious portraits of Thomas Ruff, to the completely unique work that forms the climax of the entire exhibition – an iconic set from German painter Gerhard Richter entitled “48 Portraits”. The exhibitions also includes masterful drawings of faces referring to the still hidden identity of babies by American artist Robert Longo, a series of drawings entitled “Where am I?” by Russian conceptualists Viktor Pivovarov, a video by Garry Hill, as well as other works by Gerhard Richter entitled “Onkel Rudi”, whose importance in the context of Czech origin arises from the Lidice collection