The Real Image
Since the very beginnings of the medium, artists have used the apparent documentary quality of photomechanically reproduced images as a tool for manipulation and play. Whether altered mechanically in the darkroom or digitally, the “real” image is often subsequently manipulated for a variety of purposes, acquiring a new meaning that was not part of the original intention at the moment the shutter was released. In other cases, photographic documentation appropriated from the media is used artistically in montages, serving as a medium of wordless political critique.
As part of the broader exhibition series Conversations on Reproductions, which juxtaposes the history of photomechanical reproduction with contemporary artistic reflections on it, this exhibition explores photography’s power of persuasion. The installation examines how the meaning of images changes when still photographs are incorporated into time-based media, and how the photographic image—and its seemingly documentary nature—can challenge our understanding of the world as we (seemingly) know it.
Info
Artists | Sami Al-Salamoni, Valentýna Janů, Kvet Nguyen, André Feliciano
Curator | Meghan Forbes
Duration | 9 September – 22 November 2026
Opening | 8 September 2026, 6 pm
Venue | Center for Contemporary Arts Prague, Galerie Kurzor
Address | Dukelských hrdinů 500/25a, 170 00 Prague
Opening hours | Wed–Sun; 12:00–6:00 pm
Infrastructures of Imagination
The exhibition explores how mythical and ritual narratives are reconfigured within an environment of data abstraction, distributed knowledge, and the aesthetic protocols of the present, and how digital culture shapes new forms of storytelling.
Michal Kalhous – Goosefoot and Raspberries, The Road to Victory
The exhibition *Goosefoot and Raspberries, The Road to Victory* presents a series of photographs created over the recent period. It is an experimental tool of synthesis and a search for a path to fulfillment. At the same time, it is a purposeful, captivating exploration of suddenness and their relationships. *Goosefoot and Raspberries, The Road to Victory* is once again an attempt at a dialogue between inner experience and a higher, transcendent order.
FOTOGRAF Josef Sudek
The legendary Josef Sudek (1896–1976) is now regarded as one of the great figures of world photography. After his death, a substantial part of his artistic estate was donated by his sister Božena to the collections of the Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague. It comprises approximately 21,000 original prints and around 27,000 negatives.