Crusted Core

This exhibition brings together the work of Berlin-based Mona Schulzek, Ljuba Šlechta based in Prague, Ivy Chilelli—a prominent figure on the contemporary Italian scene—and Slovak artist Peter Nižňanský (1956), who lives and works in the Czech Republic. This format is part of this year’s curatorial program, which focuses on materiality and intergenerational dialogue. The central motif of the exhibition is the symbol of the shell—both organic and technological—understood not merely as a surface or protective casing but as a dynamic interface: a site of transformation, vulnerability, and encoded memory. The shell, as a protein structure, serves as a metaphor for something that can be biological, mechanical, or synthetic—shaping and mediating bodies, machines, and materials. Through this lens, we explore how materials cover and contain processes that are often invisible: growth, decay, transmission, and repair. From biological exoskeletons to artificial casings, from digital covers to accumulated mineral layers.

Berlínskej model