Nina A. Šošková / Mainly smile

We invite to the opening of the exhibition of Nina A. Šošková: Especially smile, which takes place on Tuesday, 6 6th at 17:30 in the Artotéka gallery - premises of the City Library at Kapuchínska 1.

The duration of the exhibition: 4.6. -23.6. 2025
Curator: Zuzana Pastričák Duchová

The exhibition examines how the symbol of a smile - from Emodi to the advertising poster - became a universal sign of obedience, pop -cultural mask and cultural abuse. Who has the right to smile and who is just pretending?
Nina A. Šošková is wondering how to use humor, irony and visual culture of the Internet to decode everyday emotionality in times of permanent crisis - climate, political, urban, urban. The exhibition space serves as a scene where a smile becomes a tool of criticism and defense. Digital smileys meet serious books, the parody of parody disrupts the museum seriousness. Popcultural references are a tool of criticism: Smiley's face, meme aesthetics and advertising typography create a visual language that is as sentimental as subversive. The artist brilliantly reveals how this seemingly positive symbol has been transformed from a sincere expression of joy into a multifunctional tool that serves for camouflage, conformity and even as a weapon. Shišková discusses different layers of smile - from digital emoji, which simplify complex emotions, through advertising slogans that manipulate our feelings, to a smile as a form of autocers and survival in the ever -changing and often hostile reality. By using humor, irony and visual culture, the artist creates a space where the viewer thinks about his own smiles and what really hides behind them. The exhibition thus becomes not only a criticism of superficiality and pretense, but also a challenge for authenticity and to examine its own emotional reactions at a time when it seems that "mainly smile" is not only advice but also a quiet command.