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

Dec 14, 2024 - Apr 21, 2025

Multiple Realities: Experimental Art in the Eastern Bloc, 1960s鈥1980s is an extensive survey of experimental art made in six Central-Eastern European nations between the 1960s and 1980s. Including both rarely seen and newly reconstructed works, the exhibition weaves together a complex story of artists questioning how, when and where art could exist, and exploring the varied meanings it might hold for society. Despite their geographical proximity, the artists featured in the exhibition encountered different conditions for daily life and artmaking, as they confronted varying degrees of control and pressure exerted by state authorities. Charting a generation invested in experimentation, Multiple Realities sheds light on ways that artists refused, circumvented, eluded and subverted official systems. Often infused with wit and irony, the works on view demonstrate both conceptual and formal innovation, often underpinned with an unfettered spirit of adventurousness.

Drawing on visual art, performance, music and material culture, this interdisciplinary exhibition brings together works by nearly 100 artists from East Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania and Yugoslavia. While it presents select canonical figures from the region, Multiple Realities places additional emphasis on lesser-known practitioners, particularly women artists, artist collectives and those exploring embodiment through an LGBTQIA+ lens. Though rooted in the recent past, the exhibition鈥檚 themes resonate today, foregrounding the question of the relationship between art and politics, and the roles that institutions play in society. How do artists negotiate their daily lives, in which authority and power are made manifest through control and surveillance? What can we learn from the production, circulation and reception of art outside of capitalist economies, and how did restrictions imposed by authoritarian regimes inform artist practices?



Multiple Realities: Experimental Art in the Eastern Bloc, 1960s鈥1980s is an extensive survey of experimental art made in six Central-Eastern European nations between the 1960s and 1980s. Including both rarely seen and newly reconstructed works, the exhibition weaves together a complex story of artists questioning how, when and where art could exist, and exploring the varied meanings it might hold for society. Despite their geographical proximity, the artists featured in the exhibition encountered different conditions for daily life and artmaking, as they confronted varying degrees of control and pressure exerted by state authorities. Charting a generation invested in experimentation, Multiple Realities sheds light on ways that artists refused, circumvented, eluded and subverted official systems. Often infused with wit and irony, the works on view demonstrate both conceptual and formal innovation, often underpinned with an unfettered spirit of adventurousness.

Drawing on visual art, performance, music and material culture, this interdisciplinary exhibition brings together works by nearly 100 artists from East Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania and Yugoslavia. While it presents select canonical figures from the region, Multiple Realities places additional emphasis on lesser-known practitioners, particularly women artists, artist collectives and those exploring embodiment through an LGBTQIA+ lens. Though rooted in the recent past, the exhibition鈥檚 themes resonate today, foregrounding the question of the relationship between art and politics, and the roles that institutions play in society. How do artists negotiate their daily lives, in which authority and power are made manifest through control and surveillance? What can we learn from the production, circulation and reception of art outside of capitalist economies, and how did restrictions imposed by authoritarian regimes inform artist practices?



Artists on show

Contact details

750 Hornby Street Vancouver, BC, Canada V6Z 2H7

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