“Forbidden Castle” presents a selection of work by Xu Zhen, one of the most radical and humorous artists working in China today. The exhibition will include installation-sculptures, video-films and photography. The works pre-date the founding of Xu Zhen’s MadeIn Company in 2009, after which he ceased to produce work under his own name.

MuMo is particularly proud to present the last work Xu Zhen produced under his own name “Untitled”, a house-of-cards made of over 160,000 custom playing cards in the form of the Potala Palace in Lhasa, the castle-like former residence of the god-king, the Dalai Lama.

The Museum Montanelli lies below Prague Castle, the largest castle in the world and for many centuries the seat of the powerful. The function and location remind us of the Potala Palace. For us, this analogy was the trigger to bring this unique artwork “Untitled” to Prague.
Other important works to be shown include the video “Rainbow”, first exhibited at the Venice Biennale, a video of the now infamous “8846 – 1.86”, which documented the decapitation of Mount Everest’s summit, and “It”, an installation of the world’s smallest sculpture.

Xu Zhen has exhibited at many leading museums and biennales around the world, including Venice Biennale (2001 and 2005), The Museum of Modern Art (New York, 2004), ICP (2004), Yokohama Triennial (2005), Mori Art Museum (Tokyo, 2005), MoMA PS1 (New York, 2006), Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen (Rotterdam, 2006), Tate Liverpool (2007), Istanbul Biennale (2007), Ikon Gallery (Birmingham, 2009), S.M.A.K (Ghent, 2010), Bern Kunsthalle (2011) and Kiev Biennale (2012).

“Forbidden Castle” is Xu Zhen’s first exhibition in Central Europe.

Text Chris Moore

After the success of the Anatomia Metamorphosis exhibition, the Montanelli Museum, in collaboration with the ABCD civic association, is preparing another project focused on the presentation of original spontaneously created works of art known as art brut. The aim of this project is to show a selection from the important collection of Czech, Moravian and Slovak naive and folk art and art brut belonging to the collector Pavel Konečný in confrontation with works by Karel Havlíček. Whereas the items from the Konečný collection range from raw plastic art and wood carvings by folk artists, through charming depictions of bucolic idylls, whimsical landscape scenes and as far as the magical drawings of spiritualist mediums, Havlíček’s creations – even though they are being presented as art brut – evince an aura of art nouveau, symbolism and surrealism.