Society benefits and develops forward when there is mutual trust between people. All the more so when trust grows. It goes hand in hand. Until when? Until the moment when the erroneous realisation came that it was enough to weaken trust in every single way, gently and subtly over time. Individuals/people/groups/communities/nations stop trusting each other based on tiny disinfo-pulses. Gradually, the emerging distrust gnaws at the bones of everything. And it is from this mistrust that individuals are currently benefiting and profiting at the expense of the growth of society as a whole. “You don’t trust science, you don’t get vaccinated. You don’t trust finance, you diversify into cryptocurrencies. You don’t believe in the media, you run to conspiracy media. You don’t believe in democracy, you admire authoritarian regimes and populists.” The crisis of confidence is a major ideological starting point.

The main activities of the project are the research and decomposition of phenomena and themes that undermine trust. A collection of 5 large-format original paintings by artist Lukáš Matejka – portraits (160 x 100 cm) will be created. The portraits are based on real people – representatives of the church, finance, judiciary, police and medicine. An important skeleton of the emerging works is also the work with audio – interviews – monologues – the destruction of voices of trust/distrust. The author creates an acoustic collage with people who. who have lost or are losing trust. An equal part of the exhibited paintings will be this created sound environment (recordings, editing, post-processing). The viewer – visitor of the newly emerging FORMAAT Gallery in Trencin will thus find himself in a gallery with a complex authorial painting-acoustic collection Crisis of Trust, which will affect him visually and acoustically.

The aim and contribution of the project is to realize a visual reflection/authorial exhibition referring to the growing tendency of mistrust in society, which impacts directly or indirectly on each of us. The target audience of the exhibition is mainly the general public, students and the professional – artistic community.

Title of the exhibition: Lukáš Matejka – CRISIS OF TRUST

Opening date: 1 December 2022 at 19:00, Thursday

Duration of the exhibition: 1 December 2022 – 30 December 2022

Curator: Anton Šulík

Location: FOR MAAT GALLERY, Železničná 3, Trenčín

Supported by the Art Support Fund from public funds in the form of a scholarship.