The protagonists of the exhibition “Thank you for your service” are animals, machines, minerals, fungi, and bacteria. All of them are indispensable to human society, whether because they feed us with their bodies, perform hard and tedious work for us, generate electricity, build our homes, or break down substances in our bodies and around us. Yet we rarely think about how to repay them for the work they do. As the title of the exhibition suggests, it would at least be appropriate to realize that this exploitative approach is not a given and to reevaluate the age-old approach to our more-than-human companions as to resources intended for consumption.
 
For centuries, Western civilization has constructed an image that separates humans (or rather white men) as rational beings from the natural world, placing them in a position superior to animals, plants, and other organic and inorganic elements of nature. The current posthumanist view, on which David Přílučík's exhibition is based, reevaluates the anthropocentric approach and rejects not only human superiority, but also the clear divide between humans and animals or machines. In his exhibition, David Přílučík pays tribute to the more-than-human actors of our shared ecosystem. He creates reliefs—monuments to those whose work determines our society, yet who are not perceived as its full members. He explores new possibilities for attributing rights to subjects that fall outside the human definition, thereby challenging the modern concept of humans as the sole proper subjects. He offers new perspectives on our role in a more-than-human world, which could lead to greater interspecies empathy and thus open up space for more sustainable forms of coexistence.

About the artist: David Přilučík graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague and the Dutch Art Institute. He collaborates with Artyčok TV. In his long-term project Divoká Šárka, he explores the concept of nature reserves and the rights of nature. He has presented his work at the Fotograf Festival, the National Gallery in Prague, the National Film Archive, MeetFactory, the Brno House of Arts, the Hraničář Gallery, the Plato Gallery, the Nida Art Colony, Performing Arts Forum, and CENTRALE FIES, as well as through the Q21 residency program at MuseumsQuartier in Vienna and Residency Unlimited in New York. He won the main prize in the Other Visions section at the PAF 2017 festival for his work Blind Bidding, and in 2022 he became one of the laureates of the Jindřich Chalupecký Award.

Curators: Zuzana Štefková, Lenka Kukurová

CGI - Viktor Eichler

Photo of the exhibition at Artwall: Martin Micka

The project is supported financially by the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic, the City of Prague, and the Prague 7 municipal district. The project's media partners are Artmap, Radio 1, and GoOut.