27/4 – 24/5 2019
Who is this arriving on stage? Some kind of folk artist, apparently. And who has he got with him? That renowned painter from the big city? What an unusual couple! They clearly like each other, since they have found a shared language and agree on all the fundamental questions.
The hierarchy of human creativity has its high and low realms, dear colleague. But that is no reason why anybody should scoff at our devoted friendship. Good God, no! That would be too cruel. On the other hand – and I don’t like to point this out to you – certain differences do exist between ourselves.
The odd artistic twosome passionately discusses playfulness and mischief in art. Or the warming strength of artistic metaphors. A return to more primitive forms of expression, to the so-called roots of the human imagination – which surely demands a joint expedition. Put simply, these two always have something to talk about. Flowers, for instance. Or the world, which is ambiguous but which also exists for its own sake. The sorrow and fragility of human life. People’s lack of interest in expressing the physical dimension of anything living through painting. Beauty.
Beauty, dear colleague, is a trap in the form of the shortest possible blind alley. It is the greatest mystery of all time, do you not agree? You remain silent. You are at a loss of words. Yes, I admit it is true – except for those that mean nothing at all. And you’re basically doing the right thing. Unlike me, you make a living from art, so you shouldn’t even use that word in front of others. Yes, you are right. I really used it only once, when I was getting ready to subject one unlucky soul to harsh criticism. You don’t say! But yes. For that word will disarm anyone. It’s like a soft liver dumpling that forever sticks in your throat when you want to describe its taste. Aha! So if I understand correctly, we should get our hands on a more digestible certainty, some kind of driving force. Is that it? Only the grandeur of mortality, my dear colleague.
And that is reason for a small celebration.
curated by Michal Pěchouček
