Zbyněk Baladrán's installation "New Social Contract (Fries)" thematises the constantly changing working conditions in neoliberal society. The artist focuses on the increasing inequality in the world of work, which leads to social tensions in which Baladrán sees the danger of social upheaval.
In his frieze for the public space in Gablenz Bürgerpark, the artist refers to the depiction of social hierarchies in Assyrian triumphal friezes, in which the absolute sovereignty of the monarch is juxtaposed with the subjugated population - the lawless class of slaves.
Zbyněk Baladrán wants to illustrate the social inequalities that are based on the contradictions of today's capitalist world of work. He quotes an interview in Forbes magazine with Warren Buffet, one of the richest men in the world, which sums up the danger: "There is a class war, sure, but it's my class, the rich class, that is fighting the war and we are winning."
"New Social Contract" is an art project for WE PARAPOM! - European Parade of Apple Trees, curated by Barbara Holub for the European Capital of Culture Chemnitz 2025.
Zbyněk Baladrán is an author, visual artist, curator and exhibition architect. In his work, he explores the territories occupied by the part of civilisation that we call Western. Using methods similar to those of ethnographers, anthropologists and sociologists, this post-humanist "archaeologist" excavates the remains of the not-too-distant past, particularly investigating the social systems linked to the legacy of the political left.
He studied art history at the Faculty of Arts at Charles University and new media at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague (Czech Republic). In 2001 he co-founded Display - Association for Research and Collective Practice, where he works as a curator and organiser. He has participated in exhibitions such as Manifesta 5 in Donostia/San Sebastian (2004), the 11th Lyon Biennale, the 56th La Biennale di Venezia (2013) and at MoMA (2015). He is represented by Galerie Jocelyn Wolff in Paris, Galerie Gandy in Bratislava, Hunt Kastner in Prague and the Salvator Rosa Co-operative.
