In the last 30 years, the central eastern European nations of Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary have experienced tumultuous times. Under communism, state control and censorship forced artists to be regional and nationalistic, but since the soft slides into capitalism and democracy epitomized by the Czech Republic's bloodless "Velvet Revolution" of 1989, they have found a new voice that is far closer to that of their Western European peers.
Part of this has to do with the drive to catch up with the West after the fall of the iron curtain, and the homogenization of local cultures that resulted from exposure to international trends.
For the 11 artists and art collectives in "Positioning: In the New Reality of Europe" at the National Museum of Art in Osaka until Oct. 10 (in Hiroshima from Oct. 29 and Tokyo from Jan. 21, 2006), history has no compelling interest. There seems to be a collective amnesia about their nations' torrid political past, which contributes to the sense that there is little to distinguish the middle European product from the pan-European one.