Cosmos, Fiction and Transcendence

This article analyses the development of Conceptual Art in Bratislava during communist period, with specific emphasis on practices produced throughout so-called ‘Normalisation’ (1968–1989). The text starts by introducing functioning mechanisms Czechoslovakian artistic scene time. It then moves to analyse work Július Koller, Rudolf Sikora and Ĺubomír Ďurček. is argued that, despite difficult conditions for art production present Normalisation years, served its precursors as an escape valve their political convictions, which they manifested through use puns, parody, irony, metaphors design elaborate cosmological fictions utopian dystopian projections own cultural reality. In doing so, unique properties photography, such reduced size, low cost indexical qualities, turned medium into most suitable form materialise conceptual practice.