EXHIBITION

Podmladek: If I can’t dance, I don’t want to be a part of your revolution

Podmladek is celebrating its sixth year of creativity, which has manifested itself through various events and exhibitions. From one-day popups to exhibitions in various spaces and galleries, the collective members question the idea of forming groups, entering the art scene, and emphasising collective solidarity in both. This year, they are joining FeKK with a new exhibition that aligns with the festival’s maxim.

The phrase Don't go gentle belongs to Dylan Thomas' poem of the same title and stresses the importance of rebellion and constant battle. Podmladek responds to this title with another citation: "If I can't dance, I don't want to be a part of your revolution." It's a quote from American anarchist Emma Goldman that emphasises the belief that fighting for revolution doesn't have to mean giving up one's sense of playfulness. It also rejects the notion that revolutionary activism can be legitimated only through seriousness and an objectivised approach to challenging topics.

As a result, the collective members appropriate the citation to deal with the question of resistance, which serves as the exhibition's contextual and visual guideline. Intersecting various artistic expressions, from painting to graphic design, illustration, photography, animation, and sculpture, and drawing from various obstacles within their practice, the artists spark dialogues with one another and construct a whole, unified by a collective goal—an exhibition. Each individual responds to reality with their uniquely lively and often extremely humorous expressions, while the exhibition dresses itself in the citation and responds to the festival's maxim. And like the referential poem, which is inspired by the desire to resist until one’s last breath, the collective's desire for a community, fuelled by creative need, fights against the entropic environment to which it belongs.