Museum of Values – A Pictorial Report on Slovakia

Vernissage: June 16, 2026, 6:00 PM Curator: Alexandra Kusá Exhibition duration: June 17, 2026 – January 31, 2027 Alžbetina 22, Košice

The project, which originated from a successful presentation in Banská Bystrica, has arrived in Košice in an expanded form and raises a question that has become increasingly urgent in recent years: What is “Slovak” in our art? A question that is increasingly politicized and forms the basis of a topic at the intersection of art, sociology, and current populism. We want to offer an answer through art, using a sober, critical, but above all, value-based language. The author of the exhibition deliberately chose a topic that has been constantly emptied and misused for trivial propaganda and demarcation in recent months – despite the fact that it is a topic that has the potential to unite us all, and we build on that. So what will be the mythical essence of "Slovakness" and how is it manifested in the pictorial motifs of our art, what is its background in collections and in the pictorial reservoir of our art? What is a cliché and what becomes a value. After a stop in Banská Bystrica, we move to Košice, which enriches the exhibition with new themes, such as the image of urban life or industrial landscape. Slovakia is not just meadows and mountains, folk costumes and quiet prayer, but also a diverse urban society, sitting in a Košice cafe and contemplating the broader meaning of existence. The collection of the East Slovak Gallery is one of the most cosmopolitan thematically and focuses on authors of the increasingly appreciated East Slovak modernism. Later, the reality of a factory the size of a small town was added – a completely new and modern phenomenon that transformed people's lives and the character of the landscape – not by destruction, but by adding a new layer of value.

"At a time when the concept of nation is being emptied and identity is being misused as a tool of division, when the 'Slovak' becomes a criterion of exclusion and not a common ground, the Museum of Values shows that the 'Slovak' is multi-layered, contradictory, funny and painful – and certainly not the property of one group of people. We are situating the Košice edition of the exhibition in the building at Alžbetina 22, where since 2022 we have been actively verifying the themes that shape the profile of the East Slovak Gallery: inclusion, ecology, memory, war, human life. I am very glad that in cooperation with the team of Kultúrne koncepty – curators and gallery professionals who stood behind many fundamental exhibition projects in the "old" national gallery – we can open a temporary museum, I believe with a lasting legacy," says Dorota Kenderová, director of the East Slovak Gallery.

The curator chose the form of a thematic exhibition arranged as an experiential spatial composition, and the halls on Alžbetina Street will be an artistic model of Slovakia for half a year – an exhibition and an experience. The exhibition will be complemented by the Office of the Museum of Values, a new exhibition-educational genre – an exhibition, workshop, and studio aimed at deepening the experience and developing related themes for those for whom looking is not enough. The Museum of Values is an exhibition that will show the Slovak story without pathos, historically and provocatively. It does not present history as a finished and given museum exhibit, but a living dialogue that asks what values we had and what values we pretend to have. Instead of a classic narrative about “great” history, it focuses on the intertwining of genres and approaches, commented clichés, but also exhibits that strengthen healthy pride and patriotism.

The exhibition includes the premiere of an interactive and experiential story of Professor Hamster. This popular figure, who has eaten “all the wisdom of the world,” this time tells the story of the history of the Slovak nation. This wise but somewhat grumpy rodent sometimes dares to ask an uncomfortable question, sometimes offers a game or a joke, and always reminds us that history can be taken with a sense of perspective. The gallery's remote workplace – Alžbetina in the center of Košice will be transformed into a place where people come to think, laugh, and leave their own legacy.

Directly for the project, the large-format composition Slovak Epopee by Ivana Šáteková was created. The author glosses collective ideas about our culture, which despite efforts always end up with traditional shoes, dumplings, folklore, and a peace-loving nation. She is thus a chronicler, bulletin board artist, and therapist of her surroundings, and perhaps her own. The triptych is based on themes where she deals with the everyday clichés of female reality, stereotypes, and the “holy trinity” of bad Slovak traits – alcoholism, domestic violence, and sanctimoniousness. She usually works with “traditional” “female” techniques and formats, thus building on the contrast with harsh content. The author uses the platform of art to communicate and serve unpleasant truth, to briefly name what is so difficult to live, but does it in a way that makes us smile. Her irony and sarcasm also have a positive side; they force us to realize and accept them, thus giving us all hope that we will overcome them together.

Museum of Values works with works by authors such as Anton Jasusch, Július Bukovinský, Vladimír Vestenický, Ján Hála, Maria Bartuszová, Juraj Bartusz, Ľudovít Čordák, Ján Hála, Maximilián Kurth, Ján Mathé, Ján Vasilko, František Klimkovič, and especially in Košice, works by classics such as Martin Benka, Miloš A. Bazovský and Ľudovít Fulla due to the specificity of the collections only in homeopathic quantities. The interactive projection was created by the author duo Fuczik – Kakalík, who have been dedicated to popularizing art for years and are behind the popular Story of Art History of Professor Hamster in the national gallery. They try to disrupt the usual perception of cultural themes as elitist, pathetic, or incomprehensible, and to erase the barriers that make us shy and reduce our desire to discover and learn things. We think we know the history of Slovakia “like the back of our hand,” but in an era of fluid facts, such a quick course can be something that comes in handy and properly grounds us.

The author of the exhibition's graphic design is Branislav Matis. The clenched valaška (shepherd's axe) in the iconic “thonetka” (Thonet chair) is not only an ironic comment on ideas about Slovak identity but also a promise and hope that we all need now. In the Košice version of the exhibition, it also gains another, urban and modern layer.

The exhibition project on Alžbetina Street will run until January 31, 2027. It will then travel to the Ján Koniarek Gallery in Trnava and possibly also as a derivative to the Museum in Dubnica nad Váhom.

Exhibition curator: Alexandra Kusá Graphic design: Branislav Matis Exhibition production: Kultúrne Koncepty, Mária Bohumelová Exhibition administration and coordination: Valér Bakajsa, Michal Štofa Technological solutions: Samuel Antol Interactive installation Brief History of Slovakia according to Professor Hamster & AI: Fuczik - Kakalík Expert cooperation: Dorota Kenderová Voice of Professor Hamster: Robert Roth Map is not a country — realization: MAKO kovovýroba, s.r.o., Marián Kozic Exhibition installation: Richard Tomory, Peter Vrábeľ, Adriana Štetiarová Restoration and treatment of works: Iveta Gombošová, Adriana Štetiarová Realization of large-format photography and texts: Boris Vaitovič — COPYVAIT Marketing and PR Kultúrne Koncepty: Bohdana Hromádková East Slovak Gallery: Soňa Stano Jambrichová Accompanying programs: Viera Ballasch Dandárová, Petra Tušan Filipiaková Application for the exhibition: Michal Ballasch, Kristína Bertičová, Gavin Cowper We thank the lenders Matej Fabian, Ivana Šáteková, Tatranská galéria, Zuzana Pustaiovej, Marvin Bohumel and private owners, owners and collectors. Special thanks to Firma DiB Ho and Master R S for their help and support.

We thank our partners for their financial support: Nadácia Tatra Banky, Zenith Media, Ernst&Young.

Guided tour of the exhibition

We invite you to a guided tour of the exhibition Museum of Values – A Pictorial Report on Slovakia, which will take place on June 17, 2026, at 5:00 PM at the East Slovak Gallery at Alžbetina 22 in Košice. Visitors will have the opportunity to get acquainted with the concept of the exhibition, its thematic areas, and selected works through expert interpretation.

June 17, 2026, 5:00 PM – 6:00 PM, Alžbetina 22, Košice, Admission: 5 €

We will continuously inform about accompanying programs and events related to the exhibition at: @muzeum_hodnot @kulturne_koncepty / Tel.: +421 915 786 714, Bohdana Hromádková

Press release:

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Invitation:

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