Project history

In 2013, the exhibition Disabled by Normality was presented in Prague, at the DOX Centre for Contemporary Art (DOX). This landmark exhibition was curated by Jaroslav Anděl and Kateřina Kolářová, with curatorial co-operation: Leoš Válka (DOX), Michaela Šilpochová (DOX), Jan Pičman (JÚŠ), Andrea Hutková (JÚŠ), Filip Herza (FHS UK) and organised in cooperation with the Jedlička Institute and Schools (Prague) and the National Medical Library (Prague).

Disabled by Normality was one of Europe’s largest and most successful exhibitions on the theme of disability and art. The exhibition featured historic as well as contemporary artworks by Czech and international (disabled) artists.  For the first time since 1932, elements of the Würtz collection were exhibited including several hundred 2D images and around eighty sculptures. The paintings and sculptures came from the two Prague archives that house the collection. 

With a PhD based on Hans Würtz,  Oliver Musenberg was commissioned to write the exhibition catalogue text on the Würtz Collection.  McKeown as a specialist in Disability Art was commissioned to include his work Motion Disabled in the DOX exhibition. This led to McKeown contacting Musenberg with the idea of making the Würtz Collection the subject of an international cooperation project. They met in Berlin at Humboldt-University and after several years developed a successful grant application to the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and the German Research Foundation (DFG).

Please see https://www.dox.cz/en/whats-on/disabled-by-normality and https://www.simon-mckeown.com/motion-disabled-unlimited/disabled-normality/

Our thanks go to DOX and all our partners.r