opening: 25. 6. 2020, 6 p.m.
duration: 26. 6. 2020 - 31. 1. 2021
curator: Miroslav Kleban
exhibition architect: Matej Gavula, GUTENART.
East Slovak Gallery, Hlavná 27
The exhibition Body, Form and Gesture – Sculpture in the East Slovak Gallery Collection is another thematic exhibition project from the East Slovak Gallery's own production. The exhibition will be a focal project for 2020. The sculptural collection of the gallery has not yet been presented in a larger gallery exhibition. For this reason, the curatorial concept is focused exclusively on the medium of sculpture, sculpture and installation. The ambition of the exhibition is to present to the general public a cross-section of the sculpture collection, which is not limited only to a chronological installation, but mainly on the basis of thematic chapters. The exhibition will feature works from the Gothic period, ie the oldest treasures of the collection of old art to richly represented works from the 20th and 21st centuries, not excluding the latest acquisitions.
The installation of the exhibition will be based on confrontational views and styles of individual historical periods and their very view of the social and ideological function of the sculpture in the context of changing history. From the point of view of the collection in question, the collection of modern (mostly post-war) sculpture represents the most numerous part of works that represent a progressive search for forms, despite the fact that they were created in the period of socialist realism and sculptural art was basically under the greatest political pressure. The common denominator of the curatorial concept will be the search for sculptural expression and both objective and abstract images, which are represented in the collection mainly by bust, relief, free figural sculpture, sacral sculptures, free installations, or designs for monumental realizations. Sculpture is one of the smallest collections in the collection of the East Slovak Gallery (besides the Fund of Applied Art and the Fund of Other Media), but it excels in its artistic-historical quality and resounding names of Czech-Slovak fine art (Bartusz, Mathé, Račko, Patočka, Bartuszová, Löffler, Rudavský, Machaj, Belohradský, Ferdinandy and others). The mentioned authors will be presented in thematic units, which will refer to interpretive frameworks in the context of sculptural work in the history of art (Body and corporality, portrait, modern, engagement, ideology, public space, monumental creation, expression, figure, conceptual and postmodern sculpture. ). The non-traditional (experimental) approach of individual strategies of sculptural art from the gallery's collection will be presented to the public by confrontational approach, from dedication to spiritual principles (Gothic, Baroque), through free, decorative and portrait creation (turn of the 19th and 20th centuries) by searching for forms of the interwar period. , art in the service of national issues, through the post - war era of formal sculpture and monumental realizations in architecture to later, conceptual and postmodern approaches. The exhibition will present a time-lapse (stylish) cross-section of the collection and the very approach and insight into the function and perception of the sculpture in the context of current social themes (religion, realism, ideology, ecology, politics, memory, gesture, time, outdoor and indoor space).
The presentation of chamber sculpture will be closely connected with sculptural realizations in public space. Monumental realizations from the middle of the 20th century defined the public space of the city of Košice, which were based on an international symposium tradition (Sculpture Symposia in Metal in VSŽ and Symposium in Stone in Vyšné Ružbachy). These activities were covered from the 1960s to the 1980s by the East Slovak Gallery, which currently has a rich archival (project and photographic) material, which will be part of the exhibition in the form of a digital web database as an online catalog of sculptures in the public space of Košice. The extension of the context of sculpture with an emphasis on the cultural policy of the city will be an exterior presentation of various sculptures for various reasons, which is now administered by the Depository of the City of Košice. The virtual commentary will illustrate the extinct, resp. missing sculptural realizations, which will be a reverent reminder of the related relationship of sculptural work as the most engaged medium in the field of politics, culture and ideology. The exhibition project will provide the professional and lay public with an insight into the collection, its history and strategies for building the collection and, last but not least, stimulate discussions about public space with its differently perceived aesthetic criteria.
Exhibition has been supported using public funds by Slovak Arts Council.
Professional cooperation: The Regional Monuments Board - Regional centre Košice, Košice City
