TOLERANCE – WORLD EXHIBITION IN BRATISLAVA

The City of Bratislava and the Bratislava Cultural and Information Centre, in cooperation with graphic designer Róbert Parš, presented an exceptional traveling poster exhibition – Tolerance to Bratislava residents and visitors. From August 16 to October 7, 2020, a selection of 70 original posters by designers from around the world was exhibited on the SNP Bridge. Subsequently, the exhibition was moved to Klarisiek, where it will be open to the public until November 24.

In 2017, Serbian art activist Mirko Ilić approached 28 graphic designers with a request to create a poster on the theme of tolerance and to include their name and country of origin on the poster. “Twenty days later I received all the posters and in 10 days we had the exhibition up and running. After the success of the first exhibition in Ljubljana, I thought it would be a shame if the posters weren't seen in other countries, so a travelling poster show was created, with new posters added almost every two weeks.” It currently consists of 155 posters and the collection is constantly expanding.

Exhibition in public spaces

Slovak graphic designer Róbert Paršo, who became its curator in Slovakia, has been following the exhibition online for a long time. "It seemed to me that we needed to look at it here too. It's certainly not just my feeling that our society is having increasing problems with tolerance. This collection can be a kind of challenge for us to think."

It is characteristic of Tolerance that in other countries the posters were not displayed in museums or galleries, but in public spaces. In Dubrovnik, Croatia, the posters were placed on city buses, in Ljubljana they hung on the facades of buildings, in Johannesburg they were, for example, in the famous Constitution Hill prison. ""We were looking for an unconventional place that would be visited by many people every day - Bratislava residents, but also tourists," explains the placement of the posters on the SNP Bridge, BKIS director Katarína Hulíková. It turned out that the SNP Bridge was the right choice.

Vandalism on the SNP Bridge

The exhibition was first presented in Slovenia. During the first days, someone damaged a poster that contained Arabic symbols."I thought that if an exhibition could evoke such strong negative reactions, it must also evoke the opposite feelings," said Mirko Ilić. Vandalism did not bypass the exhibition in Bratislava either. During its duration on the SNP Bridge, some posters were stolen and a large part was spray-painted. "We are delighted that the exhibition has aroused such great interest. We are sorry that after the first few days several posters were stolen and we had to replace them. We believe that this was with the intention of spreading tolerance in other places. However, what is inexcusable is the defacement of the posters by spraying them. However, this did not deter us and we moved the exhibition to the safety of the Poor Clares,” said K. Hulíková.

Exhibition in Klarisky

In Klarisky, visitors can see 27 posters that were exhibited on the SNP Bridge and 24 brand new posters from the Tolerance collection. "I wish I had posters from artists from all over the world, because each of us can contribute to changing the thinking and behavior of others," Mirko Ilić confessed.

The exhibition also includes a poster by the Slovak representative - graphic designer Peter Javorík."My poster depicts a stylized dog and cat on the LGBT flag. The dog symbolizes the church, which should find tolerance for coexistence with the LGBT community, which in turn is represented by the cat symbol,"explains P. Javorík.

You can see the traveling poster exhibition Tolerance from Thursday to Sunday from 2:00 PM to 7:00 PM until November 24, 2020. Admission is free.

READ MORE: TOLERANCE – WORLD EXHIBITION IN BRATISLAVA, press release