Institut Français, Prague- Francouzský institut v Praze

The artist’s collective THE CROWN LETTER looks to the future to imagine a desirable world. Yes, there will still be reasons to dance tomorrow; if need be, we’ll invent them. The concept for this exhibition-manifesto of contemporary art was developed in June-July 2023 as part of a residency in Česká Skalice supported by Luxfer Gallery. It has been specially designed to fit in with the unique architecture of the Institut français de Prague.

The exhibition consists of a landscape of almost 150 frames laid out on the floor, original black and white graphic works that form the manifesto itself, and photographs selected from the extensive archives of The Crown Letter website.

This exhibition is the work of an international collective initiated by the French artist Natacha Nisic in the spring of 2020, in the early months of the Covid 19 epidemic. At the time, the silence was overwhelming and the solitude immense. Faced with the heightened risk of women artists being stifled and invisible, she quickly set about building a participatory platform, independent of any institution, Around fifty women artists from twenty countries, from Argentina to Japan, as well as the UK, Germany and France, swiftly responded to carry out the project. 

THE CROWN LETTER website has been online and on social networks for over three years, and it’s holding firm. Each week it publishes a letter featuring a range of original and previously unreleased works: photographs, videos, drawings and texts. In September 2023, it publishes its Letter No. 160. Its archive amounts nearly a thousand works. The artistic collective has already exhibited on many continents: Photo Days in the streets of Paris, Fondation Fiminco in Romainville (France), BienalSur in Argentina and Uruguay, Institut français in Kyoto (Japan).

To complement the exhibition, 𝗼𝗻 𝟭𝟯 𝗦𝗲𝗽𝘁𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟯, 𝗞𝗶𝗻𝗼𝟯𝟱 𝗽𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀 𝗮𝗻 𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗺𝗺𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝗿𝘁 𝗳𝗶𝗹𝗺𝘀 𝗯𝘆 𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗶𝘀𝘁𝘀 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗖𝗥𝗢𝗪𝗡 𝗟𝗘𝗧𝗧𝗘𝗥 𝗰𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲. The programme is divided in four sections: « Our Bodies », « Behind the Scenes », « Memories » and « Making Landscapes » (total length 90 minutes).
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Kino35 program : Maithili BAVKAR, Michelle DEIGNAN, Kyoko KASUYA, Ruth MACLENNAN, Maricarmen MERINO, Aurelia MIHAI, Manuela MORGAINE, Natacha NISIC, Kasia OZGA, Sudha PADMAJA FRANCIS, Catherine RADOSA, Luise SCHRÖDER.