Multiple Realities: Experimental Art

Multiple Realities: Experimental Art in the Eastern Bloc 1960s–1980s

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Multiple Realities offers a sweeping survey of experimental art made in six Central Eastern European nations―GDR, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania and Yugoslavia―during the 1960s to 1980s. Despite their geographical proximity, artists working during this time encountered different conditions for daily life and art-making, confronting varying degrees of control and pressure exerted by state authorities.
Embracing conceptual or formal innovation and a spirit of adventurousness, Multiple Realities sheds light on ways that artists refused, circumvented, eluded and subverted official systems, in the process creating works often riddled with wit, humor or irony. While it presents select canonical figures from the region, the exhibition foregrounds lesser-known practitioners, particularly women artists, artist collectives and those exploring embodiment through an LGBTQ+ lens.