curatorial
SK/AT
2014 onwards
The past of almost 100 km long border between Slovakia and Austria
has been marked by changes, its releasing and reaffirming, by political
(mis)deeds and unclear situations.
Current situation in this region is not describable anymore with the
language from the 1990s. However, we can still observe its usage in the
media and in the society’s discourse on this topic.
Although the exhibition project SK/AT is based upon these presumptions,
it confronts them with the aim to examine the contemporary border’s
status quo; to identify the actual stereotypes, to open a discussion
about them and ask if these stereotypes persist or have merely become
a part of our historical consciousness.
SK/AT started as a cooperation between Ateliér o fotografii, Vysoká
škola výtvarných umení, Bratislava and Fachbereich Kunst und Fotografie,
Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien and freelance artists, initiated
by Martina Šimkovičová and Pavol Truben. Since its start in 2014,
it developed into an open platform for reflection of the border topic,
reaching out of the local specifics. The activities consisted so far from
a workshop, exhibitions, public space intervention in public space and
publications. Accompanying blog and facebook site should, beside informing
about the events, provide the public with background context.