IT WON'T END AFTER ALL. Neo-Avant-Garde and Contemporary Artists from the Art Fond Collection in Bratislava
The exhibition presents the collection of Art Fond in Bratislava, in which the neo-avant-garde strategies of late modernism remain influential to this day. Here, the neo-avant-garde is not presented as a closed historical phenomenon, but as a form of persistent resistance, critical thinking, and civic responsibility that is constantly being revitalized in contemporary artistic practice.
The exhibition’s title, borrowed by the curators from one of Kristián Németh’s works, is a political and ethical statement. It asserts that art grounded in freedom, critical awareness, and the courage to question power structures cannot come to an end. In an era marked by the resurgence of ideological pressure, cultural censorship, and the erosion of institutional autonomy, the idea that “it is not over” becomes a stance against closure, silencing, and historical amnesia. In several works in the collection, the recurring motifs of boundlessness, continuity, and cyclical return form a subtle counterpoint.
The curatorial concept is based on dialogue and interaction between generations. Works by artists of different ages are displayed in pairs or triads, not to illustrate mutual influence or stylistic continuity, but to enable the viewer to better perceive the dialogue, tension, and solidarity between the works. Apparent formal or ideological contrasts often reveal shared concerns. At the center of these anxieties are the body as the site of political inscription, the trace as evidence of life experience, transcendence as a strategy of inner freedom in the face of external coercion, and memory as a form of resistance.
By rejecting linear chronology and entrenched stylistic categories, the exhibition adopts a topological approach. It interprets art as a relational field whose fundamental values—freedom of expression, ethical stance, and critical imagination—endure despite distortion, displacement, or suppression. The Neo-Avant-Garde thus appears not as a historical style but as a way of thinking that continues to influence conceptual, intermedia, feminist, ecological, and activist positions in contemporary art.
The exhibition *In the End There Will Be No End* affirms art’s capacity to serve as a space for freedom, criticism, and ethical imagination. Amid the current climate of polarization, cultural uncertainty, and the misuse of history, the exhibition emphasizes that art that takes a clear stand will not disappear. It adapts, survives, and continues to speak out. There will be no end, because the demand for artistic freedom never ends.
Schedule
About the Art Fond Collection
The Art Fond Collection is a nonprofit private collection of contemporary fine art that was established more than ten years ago as a collecting and cultural project. Its primary goal is to collect, preserve, and showcase the most significant trends in Slovak art—and, more broadly, in Central and Eastern European art—from 1960 to the present. The private collection preserves works of art that were often created outside official structures and continues to support artistic practices that challenge dominant narratives and normative frameworks.
Over the years, the ART FOND COLLECTION has evolved into an independent platform through its ongoing curatorial practice, collaboration, and commitment to artists and the art scene.
Curators: Katarína Bajcurová and Lucia Gregorová Stach
The exhibition is organized by the Ludwig Museum – Museum of Contemporary Art and the Art Fond Collection in Bratislava, in collaboration with the Art Research Center of the Slovak Academy of Sciences.
Participating artists:
Milan Adamčiak, Peter Bartoš, Juraj Bartusz, Maria Bartuszová, Milan Dobeš, Andrej Dúbravský, Svetlana Fialová, Stano Filko, Daniel Fischer, Martin Gerboc, Milan Grygar, Vladimír Havrilla, Jozef Jankovič, Magdaléna Jetelová, Peter Kalmus, Igor Kalný, Kryštof Kintera, Michal Kern, Július Koller, Milan Knížák, Matej Krén, Jaroslav Kyša, Otis Laubert, Denisa Lehocká, Karel Malich, Juraj Meliš, Alex Mlynárčik, Ilona Németh, Kristián Németh, Roman Ondak, Štefan Papčo, Emília Rigová/Bari Raklori, Peter Roller, Rudolf Sikora, Ivana Šáteková, Erik Šille, Lucia Tallová, Dezider Tóth/Monogramista T.D., Jana Želibská
Ludwig Museum
The Ludwig Museum - Museum of Contemporary Art, located in Müpa, is the first museum in Hungary to exclusively collect contemporary art. In addition to a permanent exhibition of the collection donated by the Ludwigs and a number of temporary exhibitions, the museum aims to raise awareness of the works and their creators through special publications and a variety of art education and art education programmes.
