The best is when the ball bounces from number to number. That leaves you with one last bit of hope.

Freedom as a topic has a very diversified form in the current context. On the one hand, something automatic, on the other, something still unattainable. So what is freedom and who ultimately decides it?
One of the institutions that can deprive us of freedom is the court. Does the outcome of court cases depend only on laws and facts, as we might suppose? The research on Extraneous factors in judicial decisions by psychologists Danziger and Shai in their experiment showed that even time, or hunger, can quite fundamentally bend the final verdict on our being/not being free. Prisoners who appeared in court early in the morning had a nearly 70% chance of parole. For those who appeared before the board later, the chances decreased to a mere 10% as time passed. They were out of luck. So what are the chances of hitting the super jackpot? You can try your luck, but it’s hard to win.

Mea maxima culpa casino abracadabra presents a view of the institution of the judiciary – justice as a casino. A place of chance, erraticism, luck and misfortune. But instead of justice and objectivity, the legal system is often built on paradoxes and contradictions. So what are the chances of winning when the justice system is rigged, judges are tired of making decisions, and justice has gone completely blind? „Certain errors“ arise in the courts, so let’s ask the question, how much then to bet on a person’s freedom?

The project looks at the judicial process itself, its specific language, style, the role of the judge, the role of the prosecutor and the lawyers. A time that, in the case of an accusation, paralyses us not only in our personal lives. A place where the moment of pronouncing GUILTY or NOT GUILTY decides our being or not being free. A radical change in our lives, in most cases irreversible, definitive and devastating.

Nothing but a lucky fist bump.

The exhibition at NOD conceptually follows my last solo exhibition DNO DEN at HYB4 in Prague, dedicated to the Czech prison system. It is the second and penultimate in this series of exhibitions that explores the theme of unfreedom. The latter is intertwined not only with an institution such as prison, but also with the justice system itself.

Curated by: Pavel Kubesa
Architecture & technical production: Procházka a Frühauf studio
Performance: Martin Bohadlo
Production: Pavel Kubesa
Installation: Lukáš Šmejkal, Jakub Slanina, Jakub Lukáš, Marika Krčmářová
Thanks to: Kryštof Doležal, Kristýna Horáková, Krištof Kintera, Zlata Langmaierová, Petra Müllerová
The Mea Maxima Culpa Casino Abrakadabra exhibition was created with grant support from the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic.