The exhibition The Thin Green Line, curated by Oto Hudec, will open in the historic County House building in Trenčín as part of the Green Line project within Trenčín 2026 – European Capital of Culture. It will open on 11 September 2026 (running until 6 December 2026) alongside new works in public space by international and Slovak artists installed across the city centre.
The exhibition brings together internationally recognised artists whose work addresses environmental themes — the climate crisis, biodiversity loss, pollution, and direct activism. The title refers to a fragile yet resilient boundary line, evoking both non-violent civic resistance and forms of nature’s own defence.
Participating artists include Anca Benera and Arnold Estefan, Rudolf Sikora, Melanie Bonajo, Rory Pilgrim, Oliver Ressler, Cecylia Malik, Martin Piaček, and Comunite Fresca, among many others.
The exhibition reflects on the current state of the environmental — particularly climate — movement, which saw a significant rise around 2018–2020 but was later slowed by the global pandemic, military conflicts, and rising nationalism. Despite the ongoing urgency of environmental crises, bold climate policies remain stagnant, and the possibility of preventing major environmental change appears increasingly distant.
In this context, the exhibition explores themes of activism, community care, the limits of growth, and alternatives to an anthropocentric understanding of nature.
The exhibition opens with Rudolf Sikora’s iconic 1970s work Exclamation Mark, adapted to the landscape of Trenčín. In the courtyard of the County House, visitors will also find a site-specific mural by the artistic collective Comunite Fresca, responding to the local flora of Trenčín.
Exhibition curator / Green Line programme curator: Oto Hudec
Exhibition architect: Peter Liška
Oto Hudec
Oto Hudec is a Slovak multimedia artist working across video, murals, animation, sculpture, and public art. He has exhibited internationally in countries including Italy, the United Kingdom, Austria, South Korea, Cape Verde, Portugal, and the United States.
His work explores migration and the environmental impacts of globalisation, often through a utopian lens. Rather than focusing on technological solutions to climate change, Hudec examines the sustainability of nomadic and Indigenous communities. His projects address topics such as food and energy production, industrial transformation, and the decline of bee populations.
In 2024, he co-authored a collaborative project for the Slovak Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. He frequently works with children and young people from marginalised communities.
Hudec lives in Košice, Slovakia, where he also teaches at the Faculty of Arts of the Technical University of Košice.
