REALITY_chapter3: SHOWCASE
2025, curated by: Max Lysáček

Solo exhibition, Galerie TIC, Brno
Video 6:35

The exhibition REALITY_chapter3: SHOWCASE concludes the trilogy of the REALITY project, whose previous parts – WELLBEING and THE DOOM – combined formats of a reality show and a fictional documentary to address current social phenomena, especially the housing crisis, through irony, stylization, and the use of "monster" characters (vampire, ghost, witch, alien).

While WELLBEING staged a competition between four protagonists in a state of housing insecurity, THE DOOM followed their transformation into influencers, entrepreneurs, or podcasters, gradually morphing into a subliminal ad for an energy drink. Social commentary faded, empathy was lost, and tabloid spectacle took over.

SHOWCASE is not a recap but a culmination — a physical, scenographic installation that translates key motifs from the project into an immersive space. The primary medium remains the moving image, now expanded into a spatial environment reminiscent of an exhibition hall or an abandoned stage after an event. The viewer enters a space where something happened — and perhaps still echoes.

A crucial feature of the trilogy is its continuous meta-performance: REALITY repeatedly reveals its artificiality, breaks character, and exposes its own set design. It's not just fiction but a game of fiction — a game of crisis, a game of fame, a game of authenticity. Major societal themes like the housing crisis are explored with full awareness of their aestheticization and overuse in contemporary art. Rather than moralizing, the project offers distance, crystalline post-irony, and deliberate position-switching.

The exhibition space plays with familiar symbols — branding, lighting design, festival layouts — but retains an air of emptiness, something exhausted. The division between the stage and the audience is symbolic at best. The room feels deserted, even though lights and tech are still running. When the spotlight hits the visitor, roles are reversed. The lighting, its flashes, sharpness, and directionality symbolize both exhibitionism and discomfort, a breach of personal space — sensations familiar to any participant in a reality show. A show that may have been lavishly expensive — or at least pretended to be. Recently, the focus was on them — now, it's on us.


More about the project here