Virtual Biennale Prague 2019: National Identity

National Identity – Chinese student poster in connection with the international project Virtual Biennial Prague
An opening of the exhibition on Tuesday, November 19, 2019, from 6 p. m.
The exhibition until December 14, 2019

curator: Lenka Sýkorová
cooperation on workshops: Tereza Nováková and Viktor Čech
photo: Filip Vido

Accompanying program on Saturday, 14th December 2019, 2:00 – 4:00 p.m. – animation workshop for children, 4:00 – 5:00 p.m. – commented viewing of the exhibition and the exhibition activity of Klamovka Pavilion.

The international project Virtual Biennale Prague, which is based on the principles of non-verbal and inter-cultural communication. The project is a good example of incorporating an educational aspect into artistic practice through the confrontation and exhibition of artworks. The platform for an international poster exhibition called Virtual Biennale Prague was founded in 2007 and has already introduced several global topics (e.g. Global Crisis, Discrimination, Corruption, Fake News, etc.).  The project is supported by the Department of Visual Communication of the FAD UJEP in Ústí nad Labem (prof. Karel Míšek) and the Altán Klamovka Gallery in Prague (Lenka Sýkorová).  In 2018, the 10th Virtual Biennale Prague with the theme Fake News interconnected 232 artists (142 professionals and 90 students) from 35 countries from around the globe. We see drawing as a tool of non-verbal communication across continents and nations that is omnipresent thanks to the Internet. This non-profit project is sustainable; it is environment-friendly because it reduces regular costs (it minimizes printing and travel expenses). The project is based on D.I.Y. principles, eliminates large institutions’ impact and focuses on a new form of an artistic visual message that has no boundaries among nations. Posters are evaluated online by professional graphic designers. Therefore, the project easily reaches people outside the EU (Mexico, China, the USA, etc.). Using a visual language, we are developing an exhibition that shows the impact of digital technologies and the ever-present Internet, which is a permanently available visual material; however, behind these irreversible changes, it is possible to capture the author’s statement through drawing and typography as evidence of cultural legacy, national identity and diversity.

It was the theme of identity that became the core of the workshops that took place under the leadership of Lenka Sýkorová, Viktor Čech and Tereza Nováková in Autumn 2018, in China at three Chinese Academies of Fine Art (Shandong University in Jinan, Hebei Academy of Fine Arts and Shanxi University in Taiyuan) in connection with the Virtual Biennial Prague project. The output format was posters on the theme of national identity. The selection of the posters on display came from many consultations and mutual knowledge of our European-Czech identity compared with Asian-Chinese. In the end, we have come to know that the very core of identity, and that is humanity, connects us all. The Altán Klamovka Gallery is now a unique opportunity to see this collection of posters created by Chinese students.

Lenka Sýkorová