Tagging exhibitions through the lens of fantasy role-playing games like Dungeons and Dragons may seem like a mere specialty that delights in today’s revival of board games and the normalization of computer games consumption. On the other hand, if we take these parallels seriously, we can look at the process of art-making through a different lens. Role-playing games force us to take on different roles with different qualities that allow us to handle situations that lie ahead. It doesn’t matter if this happens between friends in a gaming session or in front of a monitor. We are put in a role that we must master and move on – to learn new skills, spells, get better magic armor and solve tricky quests.

Many of these things can be likened to artistic operation. Every artist starts with their distinctive conditions, learns new approaches, uses different material every time and touches on new topics. Some approaches may resemble a barbarian who enters a trance in battle, while others may resemble an illusionist who seeks to reproduce reality. The exhibition is a quest, the fulfillment of which presents experience. Artists go through these roles on their journey through a difficult life full of opportunities, uncertainties and the fear that they must give up and stop playing in order to start doing something “more meaningful”. All of us who are artists want to play this game as long as possible, although it is often unfair, dangerous and our chances are too small.

The exhibitions are tagged with a system that is partially understandable and partially playful and coded. The types of exhibitions and the media used are clearly tagged. Subjective criteria such as the colors, equipment and material used, types of artistic approaches and type of work processes have been coded. Exhibitions have not been tagged exactly, but rather loosely. Here is the key to reading them:

Cast

Media

Other social events

Classes

The nature of the creative approach and strategies have been linked to DnD classes. These have been tagged subjectively.

  • #barbarian – Restless, expressive, emotional attitudes in any medium.
  • #bard – Playful, funny works with no intended depth and participatory approaches.
  • #druid – Ecological topics, work with natural products.
  • #enchanter – Strange, surreal, poetic and imaginative art.
  • #illusionist – Realistic and documentary approaches.
  • #rogue – Subversive, political, engaged art. Appropriations, political slogans, performances in public space.
  • #witch – Artistic expressions involving spirituality, mystery, personal mythology.
  • #wizard – Conceptual approaches, purist geometric abstractions and intricate new media approaches.

Magic

Technical approaches to creation similar to schools of magic.

  • #air_magic – A hybrid category that primarily involves processes that depend on capturing light or working with space. This includes working with a camera or video camera, as well as cutting paper, fabric, printing or working with text and spoken word.
  • #earth_magic – Working with matter. Kneading, chiselling and processing matter, but also combining existing objects is work that requires earth magic.
  • #fire_magic – Fire can be synonymous with modern electricity. This sphere of magic thus includes works used primarily through digital media or dependent on the flow of electricity. These include 3D videos, video montages, new media art, coding and interactive installations.
  • #water_magic – Dissolving substances in fluids can be likened to water magic. Painting, whether in acrylic, oil, watercolor or other liquid media, can be considered water magic.
  • #priest_magic – Special category – this is how curatorial concepts are marked. The most significant feature of which is the connection of different artists with different approaches.

Colors

Colors were tagged subjectively, often according to the predominant or most prominent colors.

Equipment

The equipment used in the exhibitions was not categorized in the form of an exhausting inventory.