Richard Klocke and Jana Kubátová are two of the minds behind the somewhat enigmatic project 'Here/After The Art'; a project which they say 'gives voice to renowned creators from diverse backgrounds across the world to expand boundaries and envision the future of art.' A voice that, in a world of emerging AI technology, the Metaverse and NFT technology, may need some amplification.
Online magazine Fabrik spoke to us to find out a little bit more about us, the project, why it started and where it's going.
So for the uneducated, can you tell us what Here/After The Art is?
"Here/After The Art is an attempt to elevate the discourse and research what art is and what it is yet to become - an undertaking never attempted in quite this way. We invite artists to create time capsules that offer their predictions on this question. The project embraces diversity across continents and creative disciplines. We recognise and appreciate that this unfolds in the age of artificial intelligence, a force already reshaping how art is made, judged, and understood, and one whose fuller implications for creativity itself are still unwritten."
"Time capsules that make predictions on the future of art", What could that contain?
The time capsule is a conceptual artwork composed of multiple assets, always anchored by a visual work and extended through whatever other media its artist chooses to summon around it. Each artist works with complete freedom - no brief, no template, no constraint on how their vision of art should take form. What emerges is singular: an essay, a film, a machine built by hand, a message meant for one person alone to ever receive. Some capsules hold a finished work. Others hold a process - or a question the artist has chosen to leave open, entrusted to whoever unseals it.
What happens with these time capsules?
"Every time capsule is sealed and released unrevealed. The moment you claim one, you become its First Witness — the first person ever to see its contents and know the artist behind it. From there, the choice is yours: reveal it publicly and let its story precede you, building presence and conversation around the work — or keep it sealed and hold its mystery, its full allure intact, its value compounding in the not-knowing. But this choice has a horizon: once the very last capsule is claimed, the entire collection reveals at once, together, for everyone to witness."
It's a fascinating concept, what are you hoping to achieve with it?
"What we're hoping to build isn't a single moment, but a lasting reference point. When the collection reveals, it does so as a body of work - every artist's answer to the same unspoken question, arriving together. That simultaneity is deliberate. It gives critics, theorists, and institutions something rare: not one artist's prediction to assess in isolation, but an entire constellation of them, released at once, inviting comparison, contradiction, and debate. We intend to place the collection directly into that conversation - making it freely available to media, to art theorists, to institutions and universities — so that what began as a private act between artist and collector becomes, at the moment of reveal, a shared object of study."
Richard, tell us a bit about yourself and how the project came to exist.
"When I think about it, my formative years as an artist were fairly standard, meaning a sense of adventure and a will to explore. But I've also had the opportunity of a professional career associated with museums, history museums with the emphasis on the past and a university art museum with the emphasis on the future. These environments are particularly well suited for asking questions. I found that I was also interested in what physicists, philosophers, mathematicians, and writers - actually researchers of any kind - thought about the future of art. Here/After The Art is in many ways the culmination of these experiences."
Jana, what is your professional background and what made you want to collaborate on the project?
"The preliminary concept of the project appealed to me right away. I studied arts management and initiated many collective themed and solo exhibitions in Prague. I also have a strong connection to philanthropy, which is intrinsically linked to the web3 environment. Art, digital technology and altruism came together for me in the NFT and web3 sphere more than 2 years ago and I launched the first Czech NFT art collection The Divergents. Moving forward in terms of exploring what art actually is on a global level and where it is going was the next step."
Can you give us an idea of some of the artists involved and how they came to be involved?
"Some artists have approached us through the website, and some have caught our attention by other means. The unifying element - or consistent thread - in all this is that these individuals are willing to peer behind the curtain. We are constantly looking for more participants, and suggestions are welcome. To mention a few: Osinachi, the most respected digital artist from Africa; Ivona Tau from Lithuania; Sasha Stiles from the USA; Florencia S.M. Brück from Argentina; and PosterLad from the Czech Republic."
Jana, you recently promoted the project at NFT Show Europe, how was the reception?
"At the event we exhibited preliminary concepts of our artists and above all we wanted to let Europe know about the existence of the project in general. The event had a great atmosphere of sharing ideas from both artists and founders of web3 projects. The highlight for me was the in-person meeting with our artist Bay Backner, originally from England, who lives in Valencia. These are the moments why I understand now and again why I do all this, even though it is sometimes challenging."
What’s the next step for Here/After the Art?
"Right now, we're building the foundations: bringing more artists into the project, finalizing the mechanisms behind how these time capsules will one day reveal themselves, and forming the partnerships that will carry this collection to the audience it deserves. These time capsules are built to mature, and every step we take now is part of that maturing - deliberate, exacting, nothing left to chance. When they finally reach their collectors, the arrival will be one worth remembering.
Do you have any advice for other artists on how they can get involved with Here/After The Art?
"Our advice is simple: reach out. Artists who feel a pull toward this project - toward the questions it's asking - should come find us, and we'll take it from there. What we're looking for isn't a fixed profile or a checklist; it's a willingness to sit with the same question we're all sitting with, and to answer it in whatever form is truly theirs. Here/After The Art was never conceived as a single event. It's a long-term platform, built to grow and evolve alongside the artists who join it - which means there will always be room for new voices, new mediums, new ways of seeing what art might become. If that sounds like you, we'd rather discover the possibilities together than define them in advance."
And lastly, Richard, do the implications of AI generated artworks concern or excite you for the future of art consumption?
"You've presented an interesting thought with this question and I'm not even to the controversial AI part. I'm still processing the idea of "art consumption" but to your point, I'm a bit suspicious only because it seems too easy to fear AI. As a matter of discussion, or something of a thought experiment, I find it extremely interesting to consider a time when art will no longer be limited by human imagination. I'm convinced there are levels of infinite possibility even beyond concerns about AI."
And how do you perceive it, Jana.
"I'm rather positive. Despite the fact that the world is now flooded with attempts to create art in AI, some of HATA artists have been using AI for years and it's just one of the tools for them to express themselves. And it is the soul, spirituality and thoughts of the artist that are the most important part of the artwork to me, not what tools they used to express themselves. Feeling the timeless and profound value of the art is what plays a vital role."
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