Mythropolis
David Fesl, Eiko Gröschl, Li Ran, Kazuna Taguchi,
Jiřina Hauková and František Hudeček (Skupina 42/Group42)

A.M. 180 Gallery, Prague, Czech Republic

26.11. – 24.12. 2021

Exhibiting Artists: David Fesl, Eiko Gröschl, Li Ran, Kazuna Taguchi,
Jiřina Hauková and František Hudeček (Skupina 42/Group 42)

Curator: Monika Čejková

Photos: Jan Kolský

The exhibition Mythropolis plays out the motif of the contemporary world mythology, in which it is not just difficult to be an individual, but it has never been harder to be part of a crowd. The selected contemporary artists, David Fesl, Eiko Gröschl, Li Ran and Kazuna Taguchi, move from their Surrealist starting points to a new version of (magical) Civilism, presented here through the daunting aspects of urban existence as well as an emphasis on the social aspect and interest in the human figure. Their works – paintings, photographs or objects – feature the mundane, timelessness, isolated human beings, and the ordinary objects of civilization and scenery. Ideological impulses mix together with different formal types of the transformation of reality.

These artists are featured in the exhibition together with the Czech painter František Hudeček and the poet Jiřina Hauková, members of the famous Group 42 that was formed at the turn of the 1930s and 1940s in Czechoslovakia and ended its activity in 1948. This group is not characterized by any particular artistic style or binding program, but represents the spiritual view of a generation looking for artistic themes in the topical reality of modern civilization. 

The exhibition does not try to draw a direct analogy between the works of the selected contemporary artists and the works of Group 42 (which would not be possible because with the exception of the Czech artist David Fesl, artists abroad were not familiar with Group 42), but it does draw attention to certain similarities in terms of subject matter and, ultimately, of form.

Full exhibition text.