| when: | - |
| place: | Kafkův Zámek Siřem, Czech Republic |
| official web: | saliva.live |
| curator: | Žaneta Reková |
The exhibition is composed of selected works by contemporary artists and mirrors the characteristic elements of Franz Kafka's literature, with individual artists exploring different aspects of identity, isolation and the search for meaning in an absurd world. Kafka's novel "Metamorphosis" led to a transformation of the exhibition's environment - the space illuminated by red light transforms both the relationship of the objects inside and the very attitude towards the reality that can be observed outside the windows - it resembles a landscape shrouded in red dust. A common tendency of the selected works is their reaction to alienation and oppressive systems of power - Prokop addressing ecological themes through speculative installations, the escape to subjective solitude in Staňková's paintings, or the aesthetics of sci-fi genres and fantasy objects by Žufníček. The artists' reasoning is often directed towards primitive imagination through the line - Zapletal sprays a diagram of Kafka's "Castle" on the gallery floor, or the simple line in Kutná's work, which brings us back to looking through a child's eyes. The attic plays an important role in Kafka's work, in his "The Trial" it is a symbol of death and decay - just as macabre elements appear within the film Sharp, which can also be found in the gallery attic - the knowledge that life will soon end and that we are powerless against fate.



