Curatorial Text/MeetFactory Gallery /AFTER THE FUTURE Emmeline de Mooij (NL), Adriaan Mellegers (NL)

MEETFACTORY GALLERY

presents the exhibition

AFTER THE FUTUREEmmeline de Mooij (NL), Adriaan Mellegers (NL)

Curators: Zuzana Jakalová, Karina Pfeiffer Kottová

Performance Program: Darina Alster (CZ), Aleš Čermák (CZ), Matyáš Chochola (CZ), Barbora Kleinhamplová (CZ), Sara Maggenheimer (US), Emmeline de Mooij (NL), Janek Rous (CZ), Daniel Vlček (CZ), Kateřina Zochová (CZ) 

Production: Venuše Tesnerová, Vladimíra Mikušová

Opening: 29. 11. 7pm

Exhibition duration: 29. 11. 2013 - 12. 1. 2014

The exhibition project named After the Future shows collaborative works by two representatives of the contemporary Dutch art scene, the visual and performance artist Emmeline de Mooij and the graphic designer Adriaan Mellegers. The project titled after a book by Franco Berardi (also known as Bifo)draws on the artists' four-month residency at the MeetFactory studios, exploring the boundary between fine art, scenography and formally simplified signs. The exhibited objects, sculptures, large-format prints and installations tease the viewer through their visuality, often derived from familiar graphical and architectonic elements taken out of their original contexts. The artists manipulate with them freely, in order to create a new science-fiction narrative, built from traces of the past, present and the (possible) future.  

De Mooij and Mellegers were inspired by an eclectic mixture of the historical architectural styles, typical for the urban landscape of Prague. They have researched, documented and subsequently deconstructed diverse architectonic and graphic details of Prague's buildings and streets, from forgotten door handles to renowned symbols, which take part in illustrating the face of the city. The artists especially drew on the heritage of modernism, the relics of socialist architecture and the so-called brutalism, but also the former functionalism and other movements. The artistic duo approached such sources with courage, stripping them of the sediments of history and symbolic meaning. They investigated them as pure visual components, on which any new meanings can be projected. Deprived of their past, they are now ought to become a part of a spatial narrative on surveillance, conspiracy, hope and the myth of progress.  

The exhibition embodies a vision of the artists about a dystopian future, where human beings are reduced to giant heads on pharmaceutical diets, where bodily contact becomes a rarity and the relics of the past, such as sculpted stone, mythical figures, kings or heroes have lost their fight with sticker banners and celebrity seduction a long time ago. The individual pieces in the show may represent imaginary scenes from a fictional movie. They stand for a fundamental layer of the story, which will be animated during the exhibition several times. A couple of contemporary artists, who have been invited to take part in the performance program accompanying the exhibition, were asked to react freely on its topic or particular objects, which can be used as props or independent counterparts of their actions.  

A key element of the exhibition takes a form of an emerald-shaped object called the "Altar of Progress", the visuality of which refers both to the shape of a UFO and the futuristic architecture by Karel Prager. In some cases the altar will become a podium for this direct action, activating the otherwise static exhibition. In other times it will only suggest the notion of action, which is often being overlooked in more traditional exhibition formats. Doing so, the project opens the door to an inter-genre grasp of the individual artworks as well as the exhibition as a whole. It can be understood as a setting, a stage or a visual spectacle and, possibly, all at once.

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Emmeline de Mooij (b.1978, Delft, the Netherlands) lives and works in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. She is currently studying at Bard College, MFA program, Annandale-On-Hudson, U.S.A. (2011 – 2014). Recent projects and exhibitions include: 2013 nomination Prix de Rome, Legion TV, London, Daegu Photo Biennale, Korea (2012).

Adriaan Mellegers (b.1975, Schelluinen, the Netherlands) lives and works in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Adriaan is an independent graphic designer focusing on self-initiated projects, commissions and collaborations within the fields of art, architecture, fashion and design. He is also a tutor in the graphic design department at The Royal Academy of Arts, The Hague, Netherlands.  

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Open daily 1- 8pm 

Voluntary Admission

Guided tours for the public and special interest groups and school workshops are possible for this exhibition.

Contacts and more information:

Christina Gigliotti - PR & Marketing
christina@meetfactory.cz + 420 776 798 202

Karina Pfeiffer Kottová – Curator of Gallery MeetFactory
karina@meetfactory.cz + 420 732 464 434

For the year 2014, MeetFactory is supported by a grant of 6.500.000 CZK by the City of Prague.