The Fetishes of Today

As the visitors follow the exhibition through different rooms, they can explore, see, feel and enjoy various kinds of fetishes: cult and magical objects of the past and present; bodily, erotic and fashion fetishes; design as a fetish; voyeuristic fetish; fetishism of human needs; fetishes of collecting and religion or the fetish of smell.

As curious curators, we want to know – sometimes seriously, sometimes playfully or humorously – who are we, really? Are we who we seem we are? Are people on the outside the same as on the inside? How do we present, express and define ourselves? How do we build relationships with ourselves, our human needs and the world around us?

The curators use selected chapters of fetishes to search visually for harmless “deviations” in our behaviour that make us different from others, but, on the other hand, connect people on unexpected and subconscious levels. The exhibition offers our own interpretations of these phenomena the visitors may or may not identify with.

Over the course of the exhibition, we will publish a catalogue that will include not just curatorial texts and reproductions of the artworks, but also entries by Ladislav Čarný, Peter Krištúfek, Tomáš Sedláček, Dana Šedivá and Jan Švankmajer who looked at fetishes from various angles: theological, literary, economic, sexological and artistic.

One final advice: The Big Voyeur’s eye is all-seeing, so be careful – people are not who they seem…!