The project, which originated following a successful presentation in Banská Bystrica, has come to Košice in an expanded form and poses a question that has become increasingly pressing in recent years: What is ‘Slovak’ in our art? A question that is becoming increasingly politicised and lies at the heart of a theme straddling the fields of art, sociology and, indeed, contemporary populism. The gallery seeks to offer an answer through art, using a sober, critical and, above all, value-based language. The curator has deliberately chosen a theme that, in recent months, has been constantly stripped of its meaning and exploited for crass propaganda and self-demarcation – despite the fact that it is a theme with the potential to unite us all, and this is what we are building upon. So what, then, is the mythical essence of ‘Slovakness’, and how does it manifest itself in the visual motifs of Slovak art; what is its foundation in collections and in the visual repertoire of art? What is a cliché and what becomes a value. After a stop in Banská Bystrica, the exhibition moves on to Košice, which enriches it with new themes, such as a portrait of city life or the industrial landscape. Slovakia is not just meadows and mountains, traditional costumes and quiet prayer, but also a diverse urban society, sitting in a Košice café and pondering the broader meaning of existence. The collection of the East Slovak Gallery is one of the most cosmopolitan in terms of subject matter and focuses on the artists of the increasingly highly regarded East Slovak modernist movement. To this was later added the reality of a factory the size of a small town – an entirely new and modern phenomenon that transformed people’s lives and the character of the landscape – not through destruction, but by adding a new layer of value.

“At a time when the concept of ‘nation’ is being stripped of its meaning and identity is being misused as a tool of division, when ‘Slovakness’ is becoming a criterion for exclusion rather than a common foundation, the Museum of Values demonstrates that ‘Slovakness’ is multi-layered, contradictory, both humorous and painful — and certainly not the exclusive property of any one group of people. We are staging the Košice edition of the exhibition in the building at Alžbetina 22, where, since 2022, we have been actively exploring the themes that shape the profile of the East Slovak Gallery: inclusion, ecology, memory, war and human life. “I am delighted that, in collaboration with the team at Kultúrne koncepty — curators and gallery professionals who were behind many landmark exhibition projects at the ‘old’ National Gallery — we are able to open a temporary museum, which I believe will leave a lasting legacy,” says Dorota Kenderová, director of the East Slovak Gallery.

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