Kentridge's Kafka Tribute at Kunsthalle Praha

William Kentridge's exhibition 'The Battle Between YES and NO' at Kunsthalle Praha in Prague runs until September 7, 2026. The show is titled after a 1998 series of large prints, created the year South Africa announced its first social reforms. Kentridge's work, rooted in South African experience, addresses universal themes of guilt, nostalgia, despair, and hope. His connection to the Czech Republic dates to 1968-69, inspired by Jan Palach and Alexander Dubček. The exhibition also reflects the influence of Franz Kafka and Milan Kundera. A centerpiece is 'A Letter to Felice' (2026), Kentridge's first work explicitly dedicated to Kafka, using fragments from about twenty texts including letters to Felice Bauer. The piece is a six-act drama culminating in a silent film where Kentridge appears wearing a Kafka mask. It combines archival images, sounds, objects, performance, and projections, evoking Victorian illusion theater and Kandinsky's visual dramaturgy. The exhibition explores uncertainty, improvisation, and the unknown, focusing on the concept of choice presented as Aristotelian 'deliberate desire.' Kentridge employs a Socratic maieutic method, prompting visitors to question. The installation includes music by Dvořák and Schübel. Kunsthalle Praha will publish complete transcripts of Kentridge's 2024 Oxford University lectures, covering idea generation, the role of error, and revision. The exhibition's black-and-white palette evokes nostalgia and memory.