The global ecological and economic crisis caused by the long-term plundering of natural resources has made us increasingly aware not only of the unsustainability of this system, but also of the possibility of a post-collapse era. In a post-truth world full of social and societal uncertainties, disinformation and conspiracy theories, rationality is being subverted.

The theme of the exhibition is related to broader developments within the contemporary cultural scene and focuses on the current form of romantic tendencies in the visual arts. As the first show in the new MeetFactory exhibition dramaturgy, the exhibition also looks back in part to the international project Afterbirth of a Dream by curators Christina Gigliotti and Jan Zálešák from 2017, which was one of the first to introduce some of the artistic approaches and themes whose significance for the current direction of art has only become apparent in subsequent years.

The artworks selected for the Kingdom of Hex exhibition, however, do not have the character of anthropocene art, which tries to warn us of an inevitable catastrophe. They transport us to a world where rationality has been replaced by magic and the beings that exist in this world are no longer human capitalists plundering nature in pursuit of endless profit. They are a new, more perceptive and sensitive species, living in an age for which the laws of another reality operate. This world is dominated by the power of nature, timelessness, supernatural phenomena and magical rituals, fairy tales full of mythical heroes and magic, the return of romance, horror, decadence and psychedelia. At the same time, however, some of the exhibiting artists hint at a more civil form that the so far highly decorative aesthetics of the new romanticism might take.

Exhibiting artists: Timur Aloev, Anna-Marie Berdychová a Samuel Stano, Nela Britaňáková, Štěpán Brož, Veronika Čechmánková, Dominika Dobiášová, Kateřina Kábová, Masha Kovtun, Matyáš Maláč, Kateřina Rafaelová, Anna Slama & Marek Delong, Šimon Sýkora
Curator: Ján Gajdušek
Production: Petra Widžová
Performance at the opening: Nela Britaňáková
Exhibition architecture: František Hanousek & Jakub Hájek, Marko Čambor
Graphic design: Matúš Buranovský & Jiří Macků

Gallery MeetFactory