Slovak National Gallery

As of November this year, artist Marcel Mališ will be painting his authorial replica of the lost work in the SNG atrium under a changed title ThanksSeeming of the Czechoslovak People. How precisely he will copy the origin is up to his decision. The gallery will be his "studio" and the picture will develop in front of the public eye. The painting action will become a starting point of a new experimental genre - an art undertaking which reflects our thinking about the status of the national gallery as an educational institution of today; a place of asking questions and looking for answers.

This solo exhibition of Erik Binder is a continuation of projects of middle-generation artists made for the SNG. Robustness of his oeuvre and at the same time the lightness of his creative approach enable us to present him as a creator within his own environment, within the labyrinth of his own life, where he is trying to orientate.

Project Seven Liberal Thoughts on the Arts, a collective work by curators at the SNG, responds to the flourishing of online culture during the quarantine measures because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Even prior to that, the SNG's digital footprint was relatively pronounced, and therefore under the new conditions it came naturally to us to expand our online range.

Looking at the statue 26 October 1921, destruction of the Maria Theresa monument in Bratislava (2007 - 2019) by contemporary artist Martin Piaček (1972), displayed in the window of Esterházy Palace - it is crucial to realize that we are just a couple of meters away from a place where the monument to Maria Theresa was unveiled in May 1897 and stood until its vandalistic destruction during the First Republic. Its granite pedestal stood there for another four years, without a monumental marble sculpture, silent remorse and a symbol of human vandalism.