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 read from his first collection of poems in his current exhibition Metaphysics and Despair.

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.