The Transformation Gap

Artists: Adam Trbušek, Artur Magrot

Curator: Matej Pancurák

Collaboration: Šárka Zahálková

Opening: 24 · 10 · 2026

The research and exhibition project The Transformation Gap is the culmination of long-term artistic research by Adam Trbušek and Artur Magrot. During a several-year residency under the Offcity association (2018–2025), facilitated by its co-founder Šárka Zahálková, the artists systematically mapped the transformation of Pardubice's Automatické mlýny – capturing its raw metamorphosis from an industrial flour mill into a new institution of fine art. (In the initial research and conceptualization, the artists also collaborated with theorist Václav Janoščík and performer Kateřina Szymanská in the early stages).

The exhibition radically transcends the boundaries of classical documentary character. Its central core consists of a video installation that defines a new way of "documentation" and critically re-evaluates the "before and after" situation. Through work with the sculptural sub-collection of the Gočár Gallery and a post-media holographic object, the artists create an impressive scenographic space for the viewer.

In it, the Gap becomes a critical field for exploring collective memory and the internal mechanisms of power. In the spirit of Eyal and Ines Weizman's thinking, the image here does not function as passive evidence, but as an active tool of interpretation. The project thus opens up fundamental questions: What from our past will remain accessible to the public, what will remain hidden in depositories, and how will the identity of this space continue to be shaped? What power dynamics decide all of this?