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Are | are-events.org (Are) is a curatorial organization founded in 2013 in Prague. It is currently run by Zuzana Blochová, Edith Jeřábková and Denisa Langrová. Are responds to the need for more flexibility and diversity in the field of contemporary art and related areas. It prioritizes a collective approach over individual projects, develops international team work and collaborates with academic, cultural and art institutions, and independent initiatives.
Since 2016, Are has been developing a series of projects that explore the multifaceted and interconnected oeuvre of Ester Krumbachová — costume and set designer, screenwriter, author, artists, and director. Through diverse exhibition formats, curatorial screenings, publications, and the open online Ester Krumbachová Archive, Are continues to uncover and recontextualize the work of this key figure of the Czechoslovak New Wave.
Woods – Community for Cultivation, Theory and Art (Woods) has been organized by Are since 2019. Woods observes places where the interests of art, agriculture, and environmentalism intersect and studies how contemporary art relates to the land, human health, and interspecies coexistence. It follows an ethical and sustainable model for humanity and a regenerative role for humans, not just on the land. Woods is a free association of people from the spheres of art, activism, theory, ecology, and permaculture with a core and a variable community. We work with a forest and meadow on a 2.8-hectare plot in Orlické Mountains, where we also care for a small herd of sheep and goats. We use the principles of permaculture care and keep note of other methods of regenerative agriculture like pastoralism, silvopasture, and syntropic systems. Our most popular public event is the annual (with occasional gaps) interdisciplinary and intergenerational forest symposium, which is always devoted to a particular topic and alternates formats between art, performances, lectures, seminars, readings, facilitative workshops, and more.
From 20218 to 2021, Are provided a background for the Institute of Anxiety, an initiative founded by Are members and artists Barbora Kleinhamplová and Eva Koťátková. The Institute of Anxiety creates space for examining anxiety that spreads across society, taking the form of sleeplessness, stress, estrangement, loss of empathy, inequality and violence. The Institute wants to communicate this anxiety and turn it into a power strong enough to radicalize itself and enforce structural changes in the existing order of things.
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Are's projects are currently supported by the European Union, the Ministry of Culture, the State Cultural Fund Czech Republic, and the European Union – Next Generation EU, the Czech Recovery Plan and the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic.
Special thanks to The Emblem Prague Hotel
Website designed by Jakub Samek.