In 2014 I began working on a project to create photographic portraits of figures from the unofficial Czech cultural scene – the subculture, the underground. I realized that it was high time to make a conceptually systematic visual record of this unique community of people – a generation that is sadly now beginning to disappear.

The project has created a kind of visual gene pool, consisting of unstylized studio portraits of exceptional cultural personalities, juxtaposed with their parents and children.
I think that during the eight years I’ve spent working on the project, I’ve succeeded in documenting and mapping this unique community – which has never previously been documented in this way.

Rudo Prekop

The project presents studio portraits of cultural figures who have made a major contribution to Czech society’s development – in cultural, social, mental, moral and general human terms. Rudo Prekop has expanded the set of portraits to include generational shifts – incorporating both an “upward” shift (the subjects’ parents) and a “downward” shift (their daughters, sons, or partners).

Jiří Jůza

The opening was taken place on Tuesday 31 January at 5 p.m.

Curator: Jiří Jůza
Text: Rudo Prekop, Jiří Jůza
Translation: Christopher Hopkinson
Graphic design: Katarína Jamrišková
Promotion: Jana Malášek Šrubařová, Magdaléna Staňková