The Collection of Other Media (OM) is the youngest and least extensive SNG collection (ca. 250 works). Since it is probably most closely bound to current art, it is also the collection with the greatest acquisition potential. It was created after 1989 within the framework of the new concept of the Gallery of Contemporary Art. The fragment of the famous teamwork of a trio of artists: Filko – Laky – Zavarský Biely priestor (White Space) (IM 001) is its first work. In the second half of the 1990s, OM acquisitions were frozen, but they were “re-opened” based on the initiative of Zora Rusinová after 2000.
In terms of the collection concept, we can talk about three lines. One is constituted by the historical reconstruction of the art of “other creativity,” as this art has been developing in Slovakia from the beginning of the 1960s in various positions and non-classical media outputs, predominantly within the framework of the underground – unofficial art scene. The aim of the acquisitions is to record (collect, protect and provide access to) works that are the best and most important in terms of concept, action or other non-classical art (environment, body art, etc.) either through artefacts or in the case of ephemera – through intermediating photographic documentation. The collection’s second line is connected with the art of new media (experimental film and video art, or video installation) and the third relates to “contemporary” installations or site-specific art. So, in terms of media, the collection maps all non-classical positions and forms of art; its aim is to intermediate the experimental trace of contemporary art within the framework of its possibilities.

Curator of the Collection of Other Media: Petra Hanáková