Kateryna Aliinyk, Michael Ayrton, Yevgenia Belorusets, Arthur Degner, Yaroslav Futymsky, Hans Grundig, Nikita Kadan, Dana Kavelina & Olha Marusyn, Georgies Kotsonis, Yuri Leiderman, Kateryna Lysovenko, M. Marizza, Ján Mudroch, Tetiana Nylivna Yablonska, Margaryta Polovynko, Anton Saienko, Ilya Todurkin

The village of Lidice was completely destroyed and its male inhabitants killed by Nazis on 10 June 1942 as an act of revenge in response to the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, Reich Protector of Bohemia and Moravia. From that day, the Lidice tragedy became a symbol of antifascist solidarity around the globe. Many solidarity campaigns were initiated. After the war, the village was rebuilt for the surviving women and children. The biggest solidarity campaign was called Lidice Shall Live. It was initiated by Sir Barnett Stross and the miners' movement in the United Kingdom. They wanted to support Lidice as a fellow mining region and proposed a reconstruction of the village. This campaign quickly became international. It included the creation of a rose garden and an art collection. They would preserve the memory of the horrible massacre and remind us of solidarity. The Lidice Collection of Fine Arts hosts hundreds of artworks donated by artists from around the world. The German gallerist René Block organized several exhibitions to support Lidice. He donated works by West German artists to the collection, many of whom later became famous. The collection also includes works from artists from socialist and non-aligned countries that are less known to the public. 

For the Biennale Matter of Art, we have invited two artists, Nikita Kadan and Marta Popivoda to create new works in Lidice. Both artists deal with the way we interpret history, political violence and landscapes, war and struggle. Both of them ask how to keep the memory of historical violence alive and how to be in solidarity with people and places that are subjected to war, humiliation, and dispossession.