The author sees the artistic scenes of East European countries in the period after the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989 as a birthplace of art torn between illusions and real things, between 'ostalgia' and its critique, one identity and then another one; of art in a process of 'permanent revelation', appealing to and talking about people, about what they are fond of and what they are confronted with; of art as a product of creativeness formed by turmoil, traumas and permanent questions; and of art stigmatized by the history to which it bears witness.