GROTESK – The common language of Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe has been a geopolitical buffer zone for centuries and, as a result, the people who live here have had to learn to communicate by reading between the lines and laughing at their own impossible situations, giving rise to an unmistakably unique form of expression, the Eastern European grotesque.
Rather than focusing on the differences between the many peoples across the region – and the forgotten East–West divide left behind by the Cold War, which is becoming less and less relevant with globalization – the G.R.O.T.E.S.K photo project draws attention to what connects us. Through this publication and exhibitions in Czechia, Slovakia, Poland and Hungary in 2025, it highlights our common values by showcasing the best absurdist photographs from Eastern Europe!
The project is co-financed by the governments of Czechia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia through Visegrad Grants from the International Visegrad Fund. The mission of the fund is to advance ideas for sustainable regional cooperation in Central Europe.
GROTESK – The common language of Eastern Europe
October 4–12, 2025
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Opening Event · October 4, 2025, 6:00 p.m.
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Artists ·
Hungary · Csilla Klenyánszki, Hórusz Archive (Sándor Kardos), Éva Szombat, László Török, Zsuzsi Uj
Czechia · Oskar Helcel, Dita Pepe, Iren Stehli
Slovakia · Andrej Balco, Martin Kollár, Zuzana Pustaiová, Viktor Šelesták
Poland · Zbigniew Libera, Natalia LL, Rafał Milach, Agnieszka Sejud
Romania · Mihai Barabancea, Tamás Hajdu
Ukraine · Alexander Chekmenev, Julie Poly
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Curators ·
István Virágvölgyi, Capa Center (Budapest, Hungary)
Sára Jeleňová, OFF Bratislava (Bratislava, Slovakia)
Světlana Malina, Fotograf Zone festival (Prague, Czech Republic)
Marta Szymańska, Fotofestiwal (Łódź, Poland)
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Venue · Holešovice Market, public space
(near Hall 24 on the Market Square side)
Bubenské nábř. 306, 170 00, Prague 7 Holešovice
Open Group – Repeat After Me 2022
The project Repeat After Me 2022 by the creative collective Open Group works with sound as the primary carrier of wartime experience. Instead of images of destruction, it focuses on the acoustic trace of conflict—on the sounds of weapons, explosions, sirens, and silence, which inscribe themselves into the bodies and memories of people living through war or forced exile. The ability to recognize these sounds is not a matter of artistic or sociological experiment; however experimental its aesthetics may be, it signals an effort to survive.
Too close to remember
The exhibition explores the theme of synaesthesis – i.e. a reaction of the body and mind and an experience that melds the sensory modalities of diverse entities existing in the digital, posthuman and technological environments. The project develops the discourse on various approaches to perception, especially in reference to the crisis of authenticity of human sensory perception that finds itself under pressure from contemporary power structures, surveillance and production.
Chaeyeon Kang – 28 days
We warmly invite you to the opening of Chaeyeon Kang – 28 days, an exhibition project installed in the gallery window of Fotograf Zone. The exhibition presents the winning project of the Fotograf Zone Gallery Open Call 2026.