On the 2nd of May 1989, Hungarians demolished the barbed wire between Hungary and Austria, while the police watched them do it without paying the slightest attention. High in the watchtowers, the soldiers didn’t shoot. On the 10th of September 1989, the Hungarian government decided itself to open its boundaries with Austria. The Berlin Wall fell two months later. In 2008, Hungary, The Czech Republic and Slovakia joined the Schengen countries. In 2013, the high-speed train (TGV) will connect Paris to Bratislava in four hours fifty minutes.
In 1992, Nadine Gandy left Paris and opened the first private space dedicated to international contemporary art in Prague. The Czech public had not seen any western art since the beginning of Communist military control. She invited Lawrence Wiener, Joseph Grigely, Jochen Gerz, Wim Delvoye, Matali Crasset, Daniel Buren, Annelies Strba, Nan Goldin, Douglas Gordon and many others to play the game of the art market in a place where such a market did not exist yet. The first contemporary art exhibitions gave rise to long queues. Step by step, Czech artists (Vaclav Stratil, Jiri David), Hungarian, Slovak, Serbian, Bosnian, and Romanian artists mixed with the French, German, Spanish, American or Swiss key figures among the artists represented by Gandy Gallery. The projects became a collection of multiples and publications which reflect the ideas of insertion and cultural migration. In 2005, Nadine Gandy moved her gallery to Bratislava, opposite the Danube, in the heart of the Europe; this way she is closer to the Balkans and gets to meet some new artists.
In connection with the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Cneai introduces Exposition Fleuves, a dialogue between two collections of multiples and artists’ publications that span the territories of Central and western Europe. The Gandy Gallery’s collection and the Fmra’s collection were born during the years that contemporary art was at a crossroads.
The Cneai’s collection began in the sixties, when the Cneai itself and numerous other publishing houses meant to break away from institutions and to free themselves from market networks, at a time when editorial practices were breaking down the closed boundaries of Europe and America. The growth of the Gandy Gallery’s collection in the nineties was a new impulse on the artistic scene of Central and Western Europe. Both collections are made up of multiples, artists’ books, booklets, posters, journals, videos, flyers, postcards, DVD, Webpages….
These form of expression that cross cultural influences through actions, information and representation, split up the cultural territory itself and become a melting pot of fine arts, music, graphic design, design, dance and literature researches. These media works suggest that the time has come to stop thinking of art in terms of marginality, isolated and insulating. The publishing practices are specifically organised as a project open to intervention, reproduction and free distribution, they reveal a sharing of the authorship between the various protagonists of the artistic process and express the possibility of mutual copyright and mutual right to read. Matali Crasset French designer and a widely represented artist in the Gandy’s collection, is always searching for new territories to explore: scenography, graphic design, architecture, furniture, or handcrafts, fair trade, the textile industry…, naturally took part in this project’s screenplay and created the exhibition’s design.
LIST OF ARTISTS
Ackermann Rita (HUN), András Lengyel (HUN), Art Keller, Artpool (HUN), Attalai, (HUN), Avram Ana Maria (ROM), Balka Miroslaw (POL), Bambič Milko (ITA), Barsi Joze (SLO), Bejenaru Matei (ROM), Beke László (HUN), Ben, SUI, Bonnenfant Katya (FRA), Boyadjiev Luchezar (BUL), Bratescu Geta (ROM), Bratkov Sergei (UKR), Brzeżańska Agnieszka (POL), Bukovec Vesna (SLO), Bule Agnese (LAT), Bureau de la poésie (POL), Bzdok Henryk (POL), Cadere André (POL), Cantor Mircea (ROM), Cargo Ivan (SLO), Carmelich Giorgio (ITA), Celmins Vija (LAT), Černigoj Avgust (SLO), Černigoj Karlo (SLO), Chatrný Dalibor (CZE), Chrischa Oswald (GER), Ciuchta Jagna (POL), Costaperaria Josip, (SLO), Crasset Matali (FRA), Csernik Attila (SRB), Cygielska Krystyna, Dakic Danica (BIH), Danubian Dreams (SVK), de Ganay Sébastian (FRA), Deisler Guillermo (BUL), Delak Ferdo (SLO), Dev Aleksander, Dudek-Dürer Andrzej (POL), Dumitrescu Iancu (ROM), Ďurišin Igor (CZE), El-Hassan Róza (HUN), Ezawa Kota (GER), Faigenbaum Patrick (FRA), Farocki Harun (CZE), Fatur Dragotin (SLO), Fichta Pavlina (SVK), Fishkin Vadim (SLO), Földényi László (HUN), Friedman Yona (HUN), Gajewski Henryk (POL), Galerija Nista (SRB), Gerz Jochen (GER), Goldin Nan (USA), Gomulicki Maurycy (POL), Gontarski Steven (USA), Gordon Douglas (GBR), Gradinaru Cosmin (ROM), Grigely Joseph (USA), Grigorescu Ion (ROM), Grigorescu Emil (ROM), Grospierre Nicolas (SUI), Grygar Milan (SVK), Hampl Josef (CZE), Headmade (POL), Hus Herman, Jakac Božidar (SLO), Janos Sugar (HUN), Januškevičiūtė Virginija (LTU), Jauksz Jean-Michel, Jermolaewa Anna (RUS), Jugnet & Clairet (FRA), Kabakov Ilya (RUS), Kafka Franz (CZE), Kamerić Šejla (BIH), Kapler Wladyslaw (POL), Kazanevsky Vladimir (UKR), Keser Ivana (CRO), Kessler Leopold (GER), Klivar Miroslaw (CZE), Knížák Milan (CZE), Kocman J.H. (CZE), Kowalski Piotr (POL), Kozlowski Jaroslaw (POL), Krasiński Edward (POL), Krystufek Elke (AUT), Landsberg Maciej (POL), Lehocká Denisa (SVK), Leiderman Yuri (UKR), Lengyel András (HUN), Łojek Piotr (POL), Mäetamm Marko (EST), Magun Artiom (RUS), Makhomet Dmitri (RUS), Mekas Jonas (LTU), Melus Boris (SVK), Milivojevic Era (SRB), Mir Aleksandra (POL), Mühely Pecsi (HUN), Muresan Vlad (ROM), Nanca Vlad (ROM), Netzhammer Yves (SUI), Novgorod Ivanov (POL), Ondák Roman (SVK), Opalka Roman (FRA), Orlac Dimitry (LTU), Osiatynska Natalia (POL), Osmolovsky Anatoly (RUS), Ostojic Tania (SRB), Ovcacek Eduard (CZE), Paci Adrian (ALB), PAS (CZE), Patterson Simon (GBR), Penzin Alexei (RUS), Pérez Javier (ESP), Perjovschi Dan (ROM), Perkovic Slavica (CRO), Perneczky Géza (HUN), Petasz Pawel (POL), Planwerk (ROM), Pogocar Tadej (SLO), Pozarek Vaclav (CZE), Raidpere Mark (EST), Robakowski Józef (POL), Rogalski Zbigniew (POL), Ropiecki Waclaw (POL), Rumas Robert (POL), Rypson Piotr (POL), Sacilowski Tomek (POL), Sala Anri (ALB), Šarčević Bojan (BIH), Schwartz Johannes (GER), Sedláček Zdeněk (CZE), Sedlecký Zbyněk (CZE), Serebriakova Maria (RUS), Sicilia José-Maria (ESP), Skalický Zdenko, Skidan Alexander (RUS), Solakov Nedko (BUL), Sosnowska Monika (POL), Stamenkovic Marko (SRB), Stratil Václav (CZE), Štrba Annelies (SUI), Subic Vladimir (SLO), Sugár János (HUN), Šušteršič Apolonija (SLO), Swierkiewicz Robert (HUN), Szmuc Anna, Szombathy Bálint (HUN), Tavčar Ciril (SLO),The Irwin group (SLO), Todorović Miroljub (SRB), Tomazic France (SLO), Tot Endre (HUN), Tóth Gábor (HUN), Tusek Mitja (SLO), Uklanski Piotr (POL), Urnamo (SUI), Vačkář Adam (CZE), Valoch Jiri (CZE), Van Caekenbergh Patrick (BEL), Vanga Gabriela (ROM), Vassileva Maria (BUL), Vidokle Anton (RUS), Vilensky Dmitry (RUS), Vlah Josip (CRO), Vlatko & Zlatko (CRO), Vlček Václav (CZE), Von Lapschina Lena (ROM), Vurnik Ivan (SLO), Wawrzyniak Martynka (POL), Weiner Lawrence (USA), Wielgosz Andrzej (POL), Wisiakova Lidija (SLO), Wojnar Jan (CZE), Xhaferi Rudina (KSV), Yakimovitch Alexander (RUS), Zaslavsky Dan (POL), Zastrozny Piotr (POL), Žižek Slavoj (SLO).
Exposition Fleuves at cneai From 14 September to 17 December 2009 Ile des impressionnistes - 78400 Chatou, near Paris
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