Dream × Reality. Art & Propaganda 1939 - 1945

The era of the Slovak (War) State (1939 – 1945) is one of the most controversial periods of our modern history. Many recently published books deal with the development of Slovak society in this period from various aspects (political, economic history, Holocaust); however, to date, no publication or expert treatise has comprehensively dealt with the history of fine arts and visual culture of this period.

This exhibition and its accompanying catalogue will map the status and transformations of the forms and functions of art, visual culture and propaganda during the era of the Slovak State. The aim is to show the paradoxes of how visual art functioned in the network of more or less tabooed contexts and the ideological and sociocultural links within the existing regime in the entire range of genres (painting, sculpture, drawing, printmaking, photography, film, applied arts and design), and to reflect the possible dependence – in-dependence (autonomy) of art on society (state, power), the specifics of artistic operations, issues related to propaganda and the visual culture of everyday life.