This Is Art, Too 2017

An interactive visual exhibition, whose aim is to make visible the forgotten works of art, sculptures and buildings located in the public spaces of Nitra, with the help of the mark This is art, too. #memory #art

 Authors: Association Divadelna Nitra, Juraj Novák and Richard E. Pročka

The fourth year of the This is art, too project reacts to this year’s theme of the International Theatre Festival Divadelna Nitra, #fundamentals – the search for values, and selects a number of derelict architectonic works in Nitra that allow us to raise questions about the foundations of our own lives.

Architecture and artworks can embody the fundaments of human existence. While such fundaments may persist for ages, architecture and artworks as their bearers have a limited lifespan, if human beings allow it. This is why those artworks that still exists demand our protection; and those that have been destroyed in the course of history should at least be remembered. Remembering an artwork that someone once created here with his or her own hands often breathes new life into the reasons for its conception, the motivation of the author, its function/purpose and thus recalls the fundamental principles of our culture, formed by our ancestors over the centuries. This is why in 2017 the label This is art, too marks out those architectural works that were once important elements of the city of Nitra:

1. The ancient Parish Church of St. Jacob the Elder, the heart of the city and doubtless a great architectural and artistic jewel, which once stood on what is currently Svätopluk Square and whose earliest mention dates to 1232.
2. The Orthodox Synagogue that was built in the district of Párovce in 1818 in Classical style, which quietly fell, damaged by war and plundered by the people, even before the city district was razed.
3. The City Theatre, which was built in 1882 – 1883 on what is currently Svätopluk Square and whose fate was sealed by an air raid on Nitra on March 26, 1945.

Our task today is to remember these works as more than just material features in the city’s history, but as the disappeared media of important immaterial values – as representative of the fundamental values of religious, cultural and mutual social coexistence. Especially in the age we live in.

In 2014 – 2016, Association Divadelna Nitra marked out 24 works of art within the city. The wood pallet sign with its characteristic banner can be found in front of the listed objects every year, from spring to fall. The public has an opportunity to propose other artworks to be marked, and the Association offers this project as an original format to other cities across Slovakia.

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