Before settling permanently in Czechoslovakia in the early 1980s, Viktor Pivovarov was at home in the environment of unofficial artists in 1970s Moscow. Five decades later, how does he see the lack of artistic freedom in contemporary Russia, where artists and poets are systematically silenced and imprisoned if they speak out in support of Ukraine? What do the muses say in times of war? What are the motives behind the creation of a work of art – be it literary or visual? And what happens when a painter is visited by poetic muses? Viktor Pivovarov will speak on this topic at his current exhibition Metaphysics and Despair, where he will also present his first collection of poems. Hosted by Otto M. Urban.

Viktor Pivovarov is an artist and illustrator as well as one of the founders of the Moscow conceptualist movement, which united Russian unofficial artists in the 1970s. He is known for creating the original art form of the album and for his conceptual cycles combining text and image. His work blends criticism with nostalgia and autobiographical elements. Pivovarov has lived in Prague since 1982 and is actively involved in the Czech cultural scene. He received the Revolver Revue Award in 2000. He has had solo exhibitions at renowned institutions such as Galerie Rudolfinum (1996), National Gallery Prague (2021), ifa Gallery Berlin (2001), and the Moscow Museum of Modern Art (2006 and 2011). His works are held in important galleries around the world as well as private collections. His exhibition Metaphysics and Despair, currently on view at DOX, features a new series of paintings dealing with, among other things, the war in Ukraine.

Otto M. Urban is a curator and art historian. His main professional interest lies in Czech and international art of the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries. He has lectured on the history of Czech modern art at various academic institutions in the Czech Republic and abroad. From 2012 to 2016 he headed the Department of Theory and History of Art at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague. From 2017 he was the curator and later the director of the Collection of Nineteenth-Century Art and Classical Modernism at the National Gallery Prague. He has written a number of books and monographs and curated many group and solo exhibitions. He has been the chief curator of the DOX Centre for Contemporary Art since 2020.