The Gallery of Modern Art in Hradec Králové presents two exhibitions by artist Matěj Smetana (b. 1980), organized as part of the city’s celebration of the 800th anniversary of its founding. The first, titled We Are the World (2008–2015), consists of flags installed in various public places around the city. The second, Moonlight Sonata (2025), can be seen in the gallery’s Black Cube exhibition space. In addition, at the exhibition opening the artist will present a performance titled Moonlight Sonata.
WE ARE THE WORLD
Smetana’s site-specific installation We Are the World consists of mysterious flags placed in various locations around the city centre. If you do not recognize any of them, that is probably no coincidence: they do not represent any internationally recognized institutions. Over the past 100 years, numerous flags have been designed by organizations that have aspired to be universal representatives for all inhabitants of our planet, including environmental and religious movements, sects, or also the authors of science-fiction and fantasy books and movies.
Leaving aside questions as to who created the flags, we are confronted by fifteen different versions of something that was supposed to represent us all. Symbols indeed usually serve to represent, but who is this we that is being represented? Smetana’s answer is right there in the title of his installation, which is a somewhat tongue-in-cheek reference to the global musical hit We Are the World from the year 1985. This pop song, recorded for a good cause by nearly all of the era’s mainstream music stars, can also be seen as a kitschy prefiguration of the coming onset of globalization. But some of Smetana’s found flags had far greater ambitions. More than merely proclaiming to the world that we are all live on the same planet, they seek to represent us beyond our planet’s limits, meaning out into space. The choice of flags and their large number makes clear that the desire to unify the whole world is one giant utopia.
MOONLIGHT SONATA
Matěj Smetana has transformed the Black Cube exhibition space into a laboratory. A large-format real-time projection depicts events on the Moon, while the exhibition space resounds with music. Over the years, Smetana has made numerous videos characterized by the use of drawings reminiscent of scientific illustrations or technical manuals. Another thing they have in common is that, on a general level, they touch on the subject of time – the perception of time, its flow, or its effects on living organisms and non-living structures. In his more recent videos, he has moved away from traditional forms of animation and towards the tools and methods of nature documentaries. For the exhibition at the Black Cube, Smetana has chosen a live broadcast. The animated components are left to “actors” from the animal kingdom, specifically tardigrades.
At the exhibition opening, Smetana will present a performance titled Moonlight Sonata, which combines live music with a conceptual approach to the interpretation of classical music. For this project, he has asked an experienced pianist to play the first movement from Beethoven’s famous Moonlight Sonata through an intermediary – via the hands of a “non-musician.”
The direct transmission from the life of tardigrades colonizing the “gallery universe” and the chance to play Beethoven’s sonata without any preparations are both characterized by an essentially optimistic vision of the world and faith in humankind and progress – especially but not exclusively technological and scientific progress. It may be a form of escapism, but it allows for distance and deeper contemplation. Perhaps it is one more call to arms, so that people won’t become involuntary “painters of the end of the world” as in Smetana’s older video The Last Painters on Earth (2012–2017, GMU collection), producing good art only after catastrophe or nuclear war.
The exhibition is held as part of 800th anniversary celebrations of the town of Hradec Králové.
