All that remains is to our advantage?

When the iron curtain fell, how many Masters and how many Margaritas were released from the minds of the teenagers of Eastern Europe?

All that Remains... the Teenagers of Socialism

Anna Baumgart, Florian Wüst, Gerda Leopold, Łukasz Ronduda, Ştefan Constantinescu, Tereza Bušková, Karen Mirza and Brad Butler

13 March - 11 April 2010

Private view: Friday 12 March 2010, 6.30-10pm

Waterside Project Space

Unit 8, Waterside

44-48 Wharf Rd

London N1 7UX

The gallery is situated between Angel and Old Str, on Wharf Rd, near Victoria Miro Gallery and Parasol Unit.

All that remains... The Teenagers of Socialism presents a young generation of artists from Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic, Romania and the UK exploring ‘all that remained’ once the political system of their childhood had disintegrated.

In relation to the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the exhibition seeks to address the complexities of the effects of the decline of Socialism in Eastern Europe, which has been disruptive - if not traumatic - for a generation of artists who were in their mid and late teens when the first bits of crumbling concrete sparked an avalanche of revolutions in Eastern Europe. This young generation of ‘Socialists’ had to transform into ‘Capitalists’ in the midst of their adulthood. For some of them socialism became a ghostly figure linked to childhood memories, social relations and oral history - living images glued into memory like photographs in a family album.

The exhibition will showcase works, many of them previously unseen in the UK, from a variety of artists based in both the East and West countries: Anna Baumgart (Poland), Florian Wüst (Germany), Gerda Leopold (Germany), Łukasz Ronduda (Poland), Ştefan Constantinescu (Romania and Sweden), Tereza Bušková (Czech Republic and UK) and Karen Mirza and Brad Butler (UK).

Exhibition curated by Maxa Zoller.

A specially devised screening of artists' film works, curated by Maxa Zoller and Florian Wüst, will take place at no.w.here in Bethnal Green on Saturday 13 March, 7pm.

Sponsored by the Czech Centre:

Tereza Buskova will be exhibiting Spring Equinox, 2009

Returning to pre-Socialist folklore rituals, this video installation paints a beautiful surreal portrait of the Moravian rites of passage celebrations, which reflect not only the change of season,but also sexuality, fertility and the powers of rural mythology. In her late teens Tereza Bušková left the Czech Republic to settle in the UK, where she started to explore her interest in folklore traditions in her artistic practice that spans film and photography. In contrast to many other artists from former Socialist Europe, Bušková’s work is celebratory rather than critical, surreal rather than documentary shedding a more positive light on the Czech condition.