16. 07. 2021 – 14. 08. 2021, opening 15. 07. 2023 7pm

When we forget who we are, we lose our awareness of what’s going on around us. When we lose ourselves, we lose our natural environment. How are we to remind ourselves once again of our fundamental feeling in a world overflowing with a bewildering abundance of desires, needs and possibilities? 

Vladimíra Večeřová’s exhibition is not just an ordinary display of artefacts. It is our discourse on a world that has been, the world that exists now, and the world we’ll create in the future. The exhibition is not merely a visual language, but goes far deeper into layers that we’re not even able to reflect upon at this moment. It is the result of a concordance, a relationship of a non-hierarchical order in which there is no defined position of visualisation, but rather a common endeavour for a unified whole, which produces gratification from the process, as well as humility and symbiotic relationships, and therefore through its energy is capable of unconsciously also influencing others. 

The author tells a story in which there is a return to original crafts – to tannery, embroidery, pottery. To processes and the craft trades that are gradually disappearing from our traditions. For example tannery, because most people think that it involves the inhumane treatment of dumb animals, whereas in fact it concerns waste material and the maximum utilisation of the object. Vladimíra returns to a powerful ritual – the skinning process, the treatment, drying and stretching of the leather. In the form of the artefact of a drum, she presents to us the essence of a symbiosis which we are clearly increasingly disrupting and failing to replace with anything new. The making of a drum also produces a haptic and musical effect, which we may take as a purifying gateway into further, unconscious worlds. Worlds which we perceive intuitively, beyond our capacities of reasoning. 

In general, the author’s work with animal and vegetable material, her sensitive treatment and “borrowing” of raw materials from nature and their subsequent reincorporation is not only a symbolic bridge to a return to mother nature, but also in a certain form an expression of thanks and respect. Nothing here is completely free, everything appears by return, like a butterfly effect. We can all recall natural history lessons, when we learnt that the crown of a tree is twice the size of the crown of the roots – everything is interconnected and combined in a certain energy. The author is aware of the powerful symbiosis of the individual elements such as earth, air, fire and water.  

Let us allow ourselves to close our eyes, take a deep breath and let go of the bodily constriction that grips us all in our everyday lives. Let us breathe out and find ourselves somewhere in an interphase of worlds where everything is possible. Visions call to us, our senses of touch and smell are heightened. Our pores will open and the power of a collective consciousness will gradually emerge, which can bring a connection with other living and non-living entities. Through a connection to individuals an invisible cobweb extends.  

Let us therefore recognise that Vladimíra is a modern day shaman, who has taken upon herself a form of responsibility in which the exhibition is a ritual that attempts to once again find a balance between individual elements and to stimulate our awareness, to disentangle and rediscover a path of understanding between trust and faith in ourselves and the natural environment from which we originate, although we have condemned it to our periphery. 

Curator: Tea Záchová