LUCIA SCERANKOVÁ / THE OLD LIGHT IN THE GALAXIES DEPARTMENT

The first of two overview exhibitions assesses the collecting activities of the Fait Gallery, initiated by Igor Fait and systematically developed since 2012 in synergy with the chief curator Denisa Kujelová, who worked in the gallery until mid-2025.

Given the extensive nature of the collection which comprises over 1,000 items, and considering the multiple artistic approaches and the time span covered by the collection, which ranges from the pre-war avant-garde to contemporary art, it appeared natural to organise two consecutive shows.

In order to maintain a certain homogeneity in the exhibition, it was necessary to find a simple and universal key for selecting the artists and individual works. In most cases, this took the form of an abstract geometric-constructivist tendency which, with a few exceptions, involved pure minimalism, while in other cases it was softer abstraction with connotations of a reality-inspired starting point.

Part of the exhibition is devoted to the presentation of pre-war modernism, making up the core of the collection from the very beginning. It is the cubist tendency, evident in the works of Emil Filla and the more frequently represented Antonín Procházka, that forms a link with the mentioned geometric-abstract tendency which in many cases takes on a mathematical character in the works of artists active in the second half of the 20th century.

In connection with cubism, it is also necessary to mention that the exhibition includes several works related more to contemporary art which can be described as explicitly figurative, mediating a kind of neo-cubism and thus making an exception from the rule within the exhibition concept.

A confrontational aspect is supplied by the younger generation of artists fluidly incorporated into the exhibition. They function as a subtle refreshing and at the same time convey the message that the recycling of basic forms defined in the first half of the 20th century is still relevant, even though the artists' starting points are now quite different.

From the media perspective, the exhibition provides an overview of the segment of the collection that exclusively addresses traditional art forms such as painting, drawing, graphic art, objects, sculpture, assemblage, and various types of collage.

The overall aim of the exhibition is to present the part of the collection relating to the mentioned trends, to define and demonstrate formal and content-unifying elements among artists across the given time scope, and to set them in a mutual context.

Ondřej Kotrč

LUCIA SCERANKOVÁ / THE OLD LIGHT IN THE GALAXIES DEPARTMENT

15.10.2014 - 05.12.2014

Fait Gallery PREVIEW
Dominican Square 10, Brno
15/10 – 5/12/2014
Opening: 14/10/2014 at 6pm
Curator: Martin Nytra

THE OLD LIGHT IN THE GALAXIES DEPARTMENT

The work of Lucie Sceranková is characterised by its emphasis on our perception of photography as a means of exploring the possible forms of reality. Despite, or may be just because of this approach, the reality seems to be relative, variable, or it‘s stable definitive form becomes unattainable. Rather than a print of the reality out of flesh and bones, photography acts today as a technology that creates an autonomous reality, that can do anything with the landscape of rocks and seas. Distinguishable, subjective "me" entered the picture and merged with it in a dream, in which version the world is only a plane of projection of fantasies.

The principal topics of photography, time and movement, are categories that despite the desire to penetrate into their essence only reveal in every next step the imperfection of any, even an intensive attempt for their absolute definition. The image about our own identity that, in comparison with the dimensions of the universe, becomes a subject of a significant disparity. This feature of her work with scale is one of the important means for Sceranková’s work, by which the author copes with her own experience of reality. She translates that into more broadly conceived themes to which the audience can relate through metaphorical depictions and a play with associations. However, it still leaves the audience plenty of space to search for their own interpretations. The personal experience is in the principle non-transferable, but it can be equated. The model, which creates specific conditions for the perception is therefore one of the other important points in the author's reflections about the nature of the world, that can be viewed only through schemes that put us into certain discursive and cultural contexts.

The image of Sceranková’s concept stands on the edge of the area and space where we are only able to recognise familiar and understandable forms, which we try to reach and attach to them as to the way in the belief that at the very end we will get the meaning. Clever work with archetypes and the surreal visions, that works with the psychology of the audience, eventually turns our attention to the reflection of visual culture and the traditional models for reading of the images and also current changes in the understanding of the subjective self in environments of archives of shared memory and language.

Martin Nytra

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