Ten Years After

It’s been ten years since the East European one-party regimes collapsed and were replaced by democratic governments. The new exhibition of the Open Society Archives’ Galeria Centralis will attempt to contrast the hopes and expectations of ten years before with the reality of the past decade. The first part of the exhibit will present the most important, euphoric moments of the year of transition: 1989. The decisive events, and their precedents from each East European country will be recollected with the help of photos and archival documents (most of which are in English).

The second part of the exhibition will feature a collection of 153 artistic photographs by 27 artists from 15 different countries, assembled by the Prague-based English language magazine Transitions. These photos provide insight into the process of change by conjuring up the most significant events of the past decade as well as the difficulties of everyday life and the darker side of the transition. The pictures were selected out of a thousand entries by curator Árpád Gerecsey, Director of World Press Photo, Karolína Hůlová, photo/art editor of Transitions and Kees Schaepman, executive editor of Transitions.