To Shift the Course

Tomáš Knoflíček and Kateřina Štroblová

“This world as we see it is passing away.”

The words that open both introductory texts of the public To Shift the Course foreshadow the theoretical and curatorial direction of the book’s authors Tomáš Knoflíček and Kateřina Štroblová.

While Knoflíček, with characteristic directness, poses questions to himself as well as to us—about how, as individuals and as a civilisation, we relate to the idea of the end of the world, how we confront it, resist it, unconsciously accelerate it, adapt to it, or even… welcome it—Štroblová simply states: yes, the world is ending; our world ends every morning, with each of our decisions, every second.

From the intersection of these two perspectives emerged a series of four exhibitions — Forest Passage, The World As We See It Is Passing Away, Wasteland and Ordinary Life — presented by Štroblová and Knoflíček during their curatorial residency at the Cursor Gallery. Taken together, the exhibition cycle formed an indirect path, loosely delineated by motifs of wandering, disintegration, emptiness, and ultimately everyday life. Within this deliberately multilayered space, each visitor was required to seek out their own route.

Like the exhibition series itself, the publication that symbolically brings the year-long project to a close does not offer readers a definitive answer as to how one should navigate a world of constant and inevitable change. What it does offer, however, is a profound reflection on this condition—and thus the possibility of viewing it through a new lens, adopting a new position… perhaps finding a new path.

Spanning more than two hundred pages, the bilingual (Czech–English) exhibition catalogue To Shift the Course includes extensive essays by art historian and curator Tomáš Knoflíček and by curator, art historian and critic Kateřina Štroblová, photographic documentation of their year-long exhibition cycle, and profiles of the more than thirty artists who participated in the project in 2025.

An integral component of the publication is its graphic design, based on an entirely original, bespoke typeface conceived and fully developed by graphic designer Jozef Ondrík.

The catalogue To Shift the Course includes
artist profiles of:

Daniela Baráčková, Nela Britaňáková, ComuniteFresca, Jakub Černý, David Čumalo, Petr Dub, Matěj Frank, Martin Froulík, Ján Gašparovič, Matej Gavula, Dominika Goralska, Juliana Höschlová, Pavel Jestřáb, Michal Kalhous, Martin Kochan, Martin Kubica, Marek Kvetan, Stano Masár, David Možný, Libor Novotný, Janis Rafa, Rafani, Tereza Samková, Ivo Sumec, Jiří Šigut, Roman Štětina, Šárka Zahálková, Martin Zetová

Publishing Information

Texts: Tomáš Knoflíček, Kateřina Štroblová
Photography: Filip Beránek
Translation: Phil Jones
Language editing: Lenka Střeláková
Graphic design: Jozef Ondrík
Production: Anna Dorňáková
Printing: Tiskárna Daniel
Print run: 300 copies
Extent: 212
First edition
Center for Contemporary Art – Praha, o. p. s.
2025

ISBN 978-80-88386-13-1

The publication To Shift the Course is issued as one of the outcomes of the curatorial residency of Tomáš Knoflíček and Kateřina Štroblová at the Cursor Gallery in 2025. The book and the exhibitions were realised with the financial support of the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic, the City of Prague, the State Cultural Fund of the Czech Republic, the Prague 7 Municipal District, and the GESTOR Development and Support Fund.

Special thanks to: Art Hotel Praha, COLLETT Prague | Munich, Galerie Miroslava Kubíka, Joinmusic, Slovenský institut v Praze

Media partners: ArtMap, jlbjlt.net, artalk.cz, Radio 1