The Myth of Hyperreality | Signal Festival

3 City center
Audiovisual installation
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Klausen Synagogue

U Starého Hřbitova 39/1, Josefov, 110 00 Praha

Paid installation	Signal INSIDE

About project

In our lives, physical and digital experiences are increasingly merging. We find ourselves in a hybrid space where it is no longer easy to distinguish between what is real and what is virtual. This state is referred to as hyperreality. The aim of the installation is to explore ways of connecting reality and virtuality so that both can coexist in symbiosis and positively complement each other. New technologies make it possible to capture and visualize processes that we cannot perceive with our senses, such as energy, the flow of information, or magnetic fields. When these processes are embedded into sculptural works, they can offer a more accurate message about the hybrid space of our world. The installation space evokes the environment of a provisional research site and offers visitors the role of a scientist–archaeologist, revealing the dynamic processes hidden within a mysterious meteoric object.

Artist

Jan Poš is a young Czech artist whose current work explores the boundaries between real and virtual environments. He investigates their relationship and deliberately blurs the lines between them. To do this, he uses 3D computer software to create simulations that he later materializes in physical space. His works formally straddle the line between sculpture, object, and installation. Jan Poš studied at the Faculty of Art and Design at Jan Evangelista Purkyně University in Ústí nad Labem, in the progressive Time-Based Media studio led by Daniel Hanzlík and Pavel Mrkus. As part of his studies, he has participated two internships abroad, the first in 2019 at Kunstuniversität Linz and the second in 2024 at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste in Dresden in the studio of Carsten Nicolai. In June 2025, he successfully completed a follow-up Master's degree in the studio Sculpture 2 led by Tomáš Hlavina at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague.

Location

The Klausen Synagogue is located next to the Old Jewish Cemetery in the Josefov district and is managed by the Jewish Museum in Prague. The original Klausen complex, built at the end of the 16th century by Mordechai Maisel, consisted of three buildings—two synagogues and a yeshiva. One part was founded by Rabbi Loew as a Talmudic academy, another served as a prayer hall, and the third housed a ritual bath (mikveh) and facilities for caring for the sick. The current Baroque building was constructed after a fire in 1689 and is the largest synagogue in Prague’s former ghetto. Its name is derived from the German word Klaus, meaning "small building." Through Jan Poš’s installation, the synagogue is transformed into an experimental laboratory that presents the relationship between real and virtual environments through various technologies.