Bratislava is hosting another exhibition with a question mark in its title. Following the photo exhibit “Lost Time?” at the Slovak National Gallery, the Slovak National Museum (SNM) has prepared an exhibition to map the development of Slovakia during the previous century.
Since its opening in mid-February, the exhibition has attracted 30,000 visitors.
Documenting the 20th century has proven challenging for historians, museum curators, ethnologists, and other experts as the 1900s saw some of the most dynamic changes in the history of mankind.
The organizers of this latest exhibit did not aim to interpret the previous century or to chronicle it precisely, but rather to show visitors how our ancestors used to live. The exhibition displays items of every-day use so that visitors can feel the “spirit of the times“ and form their own opinions on how we lived over the past 100 years.
Political and social events divide the exhibition into seven parts and form its main axis.
In total, there are 2,000 exhibits and a rich trove of audio-visual material. Visitors will find a foxhole from World War I, a school classroom from the reign of Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph, as well as a bedroom from the normalization period of the 1970s, when life in Czechoslovakia returned to “normal” following the upheaval of the Prague Spring in 1968.
The exhibition is accompanied by a rich program of discussions, film screenings, concerts as well as special programs for students.
The display last until the end of October 2008.