Vít Zouhar (Czech Republic)
*1966 music composer, musicologist, pedagogue
lives and works in Olomouc
education:
1996–2001 Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Brno, Faculty of Music (PhD, prof. Leoš Faltus) 
1991–1992 Graz University of Music and Performing Arts, composition, electronic music, post-graduate study (prof. Younghi Pagh-Paan, prof. Herman Markus Preßl) 
1990–1996 Masaryk University, Faculty of the Arts, Science of Music (prof. Jiří Fukač, prof. Miloš Štědroň, prof. Rudolf Pečman)
1990–1993 Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Brno, Faculty of Music, music research assistantship, musical art – composition (prof. Alois Piňos)
1984–1989 Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Brno, Faculty of Music, composition (prof. Miloslav Ištvan)
awards (selection):
2020 Opera 2020 Festival of Musical Theatre – Audience Award for Best Production –  L´Arianna
2011 NUBERG 2010, public award – Pinnas columbae, 2010.
2010 Alfred Radok Award – Radúz a Mahulena, National Theatre, 2009.
Vít Zouhar is the composer or co-composer of six operas (L´Arianna, La Dafne, Coronide, Torso, ECHO), over sixty orchestral and chamber works (Brána slunce, Blízká setkání zběsilostí srdce, Pinnas columbae), musical games and sound installations (Arcadi, zaHRAda, Tastes, Planina, EUOUA). His music is minimalist and post-modern. Zouhar is a long-time collaborator with composer, conductor and director Tomáš Hanzlík. He creates the ECHO opera series with Slovenian director, designer and performer Rocc. In 2001, co-created the programme A Different Way of Hearing focused on composing in music education. With Jaromír Synek and Jiří Kopecký, he published the book Hudební hry jinak [Unique Music Games] (2014) and with Jaromír Synek and Ivo Medek Composing in the Classroom: Different Hearing (2014). He founded the Hearing Differently Laptop Ensemble in 2015. Gabriela Coufalová, Jaromír Synek, Tomáš Hrůza and Zouhar presented the multimedia projects zaHRAda (2015), LIBOsad (2016), Planina (2017), EUOUA (2018) a NAD HLA VOU (2018). 

Jaromír Synek (Czech Republic) 
*1968 pedagogue
lives and works in Olomouc
education:
2001–2008 Palacký University, Music Theory and Education (PhD.)
1987–1992 Palacký University, Music Education – Czech Language and Literature
Between 1994 and 2001, Jaromír Synek worked at Olomouc elementary and secondary schools as a teacher of Czech, music education and as the choirmaster of school choirs. In 2001, he joined the Department of Music Education of the Faculty of Arts at Palacký University as an assistant professor for music education didactics. In 2002, he became a member of the A Different Way of Hearing team focused on elementary composition, and in 2016, he also joined the Hearing Differently Laptop Ensemble.  He occasionally works with the Ensemble Damian (T. Hanzlík: Lancelot and Alexandrina; V. Zouhar:  Arcadi. Hudební hra pro pět občanů [Musical Game for Five Citizens]). 

Gabriela Coufalová (Czech Republic) 
*1978 flutist, pedagogue
lives and works in Králíky and Olomouc
education: 
2002–2005 Palacký University, Faculty of Education, Music Theory and Education (PhD.) 
1998–2002 Palacký University, Faculty of Education, Teaching for 2nd Level of Elementary School: Music Education – German 
1997–2001 Masaryk University, Faculty of Arts, Theory and Practice of Early Music, Specialisation in Renaissance and Baroque Recorder (Susanne Wagner class)
Gabriela Coufalová devotes herself to the authentic interpretation of early music as a recorder player in the Bezdechu Quartet [Breathless Quartet]. She also collaborates with Ensemble Damian during the Baroko, Opera Schrattenbach, and Olomouc Baroque festivals and in 2006–2008 performed with the Olomouc Children’s Opera. Since 2004, she has been a member of the A Different Way of Hearing team focused on basic composing, and since 2016 she has also belonged to the Hearing Differently Laptop Ensemble, with which she contributed to the projects: zaHRAda – a sound/visual game for four players/Spring: so far and yet so near (2015), LIBOsad –a sound/visual game for four players (2016), Planina – a musical visual game for four players (2017) and EOUAE – a musical performance for voices and laptops (2018).

education:
2005–2010 Hungarian University of Fine Arts in Budapest, DLA program
1998–2003 Hungarian University of Fine Arts in Budapest, graphics
1994–2000 Károli Gáspár University in Budapest, history

professional activities:
since 2011 Hungarian University of Fine Arts in Budapest, associate professor (head of the Studio of Artistic Anatomy, Drawing and Geometry)

awards, scholarships and residences (selection):
2019/ 2017 Finalist at Esterhazy Art Award, Ludwig Museum Budapest
2019 ACAX – Residency Unlimeted, New York City
2019 Banska St a nica Contemporary, Visegrad Artist in Residency
2018 CHB Residency, Berlin
2015 nomination for Leopold Bloom Award
2012 Artist in residence at AtelierFrankfurt, Frankfurt am Main
2010/ 2009 Hungarian Eötvös Scholarship (Germany)
2009–2012 Derkovits Gyula Scholarship
2007 Scholarship of the Hungarian Academy of Rome
2007 Essl Award 2007, Ist prize

The project Everything is Ours! deals with the Hungarian Soviet Republic (Republic of Councils in Hungary), which was a temporary state that existed from March 21 to August 1, 1919. This was a communist state with a dictatorship of the proletariat, which emerged from the First Hungarian Republic. Communist Béla Kun (1886–1938) was the leader of the Hungarian Soviet Republic.
As Edit András writes, linking Albert's project to the highly liberal, futuristic publication of the French philosopher Louis-Sebastien Mercier L’An Deux Mille Quatre Cent Quarante: Reve s’il en fut jamais [The year two thousand four hundred forty: A dream if it ever was]: “Ádám Albert, a Hungarian artist and also a learned historian looks back from the future to the 1919 Hungarian Soviet Revolution, at the onset of its centennial anniversary in his solo show held in a small, secluded but advanced institution, Kassák Museum. The exhibition, entitled Everything is ours, focuses on just one day of the 133-day long proletarian Dictatorship: The May 1st celebration, with the assembly of monumental structures and artworks, that laid claim to the visual representation of a new world. The starting point of the research-based project is what Walter Benjamin claimed in his Arcade project, that history breaks down into images, not in stories. When the curator, Judit Csatlós and the artist went after the agenda, descriptions, choreography or models of the decoration of the capital, Budapest, they hardly found any documents, but they did find lots of photographs. These photographs served as referential points to the objects made by the artist. The pieces reflect on symbolic acts related to the production of goods and services and their (re-)distribution, for example allowing to use the bridges and the city park free of charge for everybody as the overture of the new, more just society. (…) 
Mercier’s book was condemned by the Holy See in 1773 and by the Spanish Inquisition in 1778, while Kassák Museum, its director, its curator, the authors of the catalogue and the artist was personally harassed, politically attacked and denounced in an extreme right-wing forum despite their neutrality, distanced scholarly attitude and analytic nature.” (From the past’s future to the present, Springerin, 2018/ 4: 44-47, 2018)

Everything is ours!
The phrase is a reference to the closing lines of rebellious Hungarian poet Endre Ady's Hungarian Jacobin Song, intended to facilitate the large-scale dissemination of ideals related to radical left-wing politics. When Budapest's Margaret Island opened its gates to the public in April 1919 - a few weeks before, it had still been a restricted park exclusively reserved for the bourgeois elite -, the same quote was put on display to welcome visitors. Ady's poem was not the only allusion to the Jacobin movement in the Soviet Republic's propaganda. For the 1st of May, the dome of the royal palace was adorned with a Phrygian cap, the sarcophagus of Ignác Martinovics, leader of the Hungarian Jacobin movement, was reconstructed at the Vérmező (Bloodfield) Park, the site of his execution, and the Madách Theatre put Frigyes Karinthy's drama Vérmező on show.

Free Bridge
For the 1st of May, Budapest had turned into a vast stage, where the developing iconography of the political power and the actors of its historical pantheon framed the parading crowd. This peculiar scenery was superposed over the memorials of the previous regime, which had either been carefully removed or concealed by giant scaffolds. The decorations were also veiled along with buildings identified with taxes and exploitation: the customs houses of the bridges and the castle hill tunnel, and the main gate of Margaret Island. The veiling of the statue of National Generosity also had ideological aspects. Public forms of gathering donations had become widespread in the first years of the war. In addition to donation boxes on the streets, wooden statues had also been erected, onto which benevolent citizens could nail metal plates in exchange for a few crowns in donation. The equestrian statue of National Generosity on Deák Square did not comply with the ideals of the Soviet Republic not only for its wartime patriotism, but from the perspective of the workers' movement, charity was at once the expression of social inequalities.

Organizing
Official propaganda associated two objectives with the celebratory metamorphosis of the city: stressing the importance of the "first free May Day", and employing thousands at the constructions. The reasons for the latter were that the ruling power saw unemployment as a threat to the functioning of the state and that it did not conform to the ideal of proletarian dictatorship. The People's Commissar of Public Education, Tibor Szamuely was charged with organising the celebrations, as he had had personal experiences of the 1918 May Day celebrations in the Soviet Union. Szamuely appointed fine artist Mihály Biró in charge of the decorations. Preparations were made by separate committees for decoration, catering, parade and entertainment, making sure the parades and May Day festivities would all go smoothly. First aid points were set up at assembly sites and parade routes, and drinking water supply was provided by 200 new taps, mobile vendors and water container trucks. On the Margaret Island, 8000 litres of mineral water were distributed. Armbands were issued to distinguish public service operatives and journalists, to help the participants in orientation. The synchronised movement of paraders was assisted by a telephone chain, for which telephones of shops and cafés were temporarily requisitioned. Although he only had three weeks at his disposal, the documents reveal an efficiently organised mass event of modern society. 

Wallet
The figure of the red man with a hammer having first appeared on Mihály Biró's Népszava posters designed in 1911. Its iconography dating back to the 19th century (intended for the People's Voice: People's Republic of Hungary journal). The symbol overwhelmed Budapest in 1919: it advocated the power of the proletariat on posters, banners over buildings and 8-metre tall plaster statues. The symbol of the workers' movement on a Biró's wallet contradicts the Marxian definition of money. According to this, money makes the work that is materialised in the goods visible, thereby facilitating the process of the alienation of work. The worker does not feel the result of his/her work his/her own, and in a broader sense, loses control over social processes, over his/her own life. The man with the hammer also contradicts the modern concept of money, which, as a means of social exchange, is at once related to political power, influence and the system of post-material values.

Vail and Show-Case
Imitating a curtain made using the traditional stained glass technique, Ádám Albert's object alludes to draperies recurring in contemporaneous photographs and to the ambivalence of using ephemeral materials as representations of power. When allocating the funds for the decorations of 1919, propaganda requirements had to be conformed to the financial budget. Members of the decoration committee acquired the necessary raw materials from textile, wood, iron, paint and upholstery shops and construction warehouses. However, even though a decision had been made to allot the necessary fabrics, all they got was paper fabric. On May Day, the public buildings of Budapest were covered in a fabric supplement widespread during the war. 
Created for the Olomouc Triennial, the object is a marble version of a curtain, which further develops the topic. In the European cultural tradition, marble is a natural symbol of permanence. This material is used to decorate buildings and monuments, which are meant to withstand the march of time. Marble is an expression or direct manifestation of the structure of the world in which we live and which we accept as the imaginary ideal. It is the embodiment of value. But how is this value created? Who creates it? Who guarantees it? And what exactly is its essence? All of these questions are latently present in Albert’s reflection on the Hungarian year of 1919, and their unvarying urgency remain. Efforts to create a new world never disappear, nor do the associated dangers. Empty museum showcases, for that matter, have a similar significance – with a heavy marble base and a transparent, glass lid. What to put in them? Why? And what happens with the things they hold?

Excerpts from the catalogue edited by Judit Csatlós, Everything is Ours! Budapest: Kassák Museum, 2018.

education:
1946–1950 Secondary School of the Applied Arts in Uherské Hradiště, modelling and shoe design

education:
2006–2011 Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design in Budapest (MOME)
2016-2018 Színház- és Filmművészeti Egyetem, Budapest (SZFE)

awards (selection):
2017 Capa Grand Prize Fellowship, Capa Center Budapest
2019 Louis Roederer Discovery Award, Recontres D'Arles
2018 Robert Capa Grand Prize, Capa Center Budapest

education:
2007-2009 Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague, theory and history of new media and design
2003-2007 Faculty of Social Studies, Masaryk University in Brno, media studies and journalism
2000-2003 Lycée Alphonse Daudet Nîmes

professional activities:
2018 - 2021 Janáček Academy of Performing Arts in Brno, Studio of Lighting Design, pedagogue
2016 - 2018 Janáček Academy of Performing Arts in Brno, head of the studio
2011 - 2015 Studio ACT Lighting design in Brussels, designer

awards:
2012: second place in the international competition for the best concept of an interactive lighting installation organized by Design InterActive magazine
2011: award for lighting design within the Czech Dance Platform festival
2009 Lumières studio Odile Soudant in Paris, internship
2009 Research Center for French Museums C2RMF in Paris, internship

Q&A/ Pavla Beranová

1 What does universum mean to you?
For me, universum represents a whole, a material and ideological completeness from which we perceive a certain sector that becomes our world. We are part of a universe we can never fully comprehend, but every second we participate in its transformation. 

2 Do you feel part of a system?
We are all part of various systems. Our existence is largely determined by our role in the ecosystem, in the social and perhaps even in the political system. I feel part of a “universal” system that transcends all of this. I think it would be incorrect to interpret this in the sense of “being controlled”. Each system provides us the opportunity to influence our role in it and its entire operation. And this is something we should do.

3 How does it feel when its structure crumbles?
The disintegration of the system can elicit panic, fear and chaos. On the other hand, the deterioration of one structure can be a challenge to create a new one. If we remember, for example, the disintegration of certain ideological systems at the turn of the 20th century, it produced, in addition to chaos, incredible energy in the fine arts and literature. For me, every dissolution is a challenge to put things back together differently. 

4 What does the art world mean to you?
Unlike others, the art world is a world of desire and not need. A certain form of desire forces one to create and look. Yearning suppresses rationality. The world of art pushes some away because of this, while on others it has a gravitational pull. 

5 What role does the work of art play in the art world?
A work of art should be the embodiment of the author's thoughts, desires and fascinations. It’s an element that really shapes the art world, because this is where the dialogue between the author and the viewer takes place. 

6 What is it like to think about and through art? Is it different than, say, thinking about politics, relationships with people or even cooking?
In my opinion, art differs from politics or cooking precisely in the absence of rationality and calculation. The art that touches us as viewers typically works on completely different levels than the rational, even those that formally correspond to some period canon. Why do certain Renaissance paintings move us more than others? They contain something extra; perhaps they radiate the very desire I mentioned above. As such, thinking through art actually means not thinking too much. I definitely don’t think that artistic creation should be limited to spontaneous eruptions from the artist’s core – that isn’t possible. But art, on the part of the artist and the viewer, reaches unconscious levels, and I think that is something so different, so rare and so tempting.

7 How do you differentiate between art and the surrounding world?
I try not to separate the two – art permeates the world on many levels, sometimes even where we wouldn't expect it or where we haven't identified it yet. This makes it more interesting and bearable.

8 What are you reading at the moment?
Agota Kristofová: Velký sešit
Ian McEwan: The Cockroach
Peter Zamarovký: Mýtus nekonečno
I am reading them at different speeds.

9 Can you name an artist, scientist, philosopher or other person who inspires your work and thinking? Why?
I am inspired by people like Peter Zamarovský who understand topics like infinity and can explain them from a mathematical and philosophical perspective. In general, I am fascinated by the intersection of science, philosophy and art. With his enthusiasm for working with materials and light and his energy in fulfilling his visions, scenographer Josef Svoboda has long inspired me in my theatrical work. I am inspired by music and musicians and many filmmakers when I feel something deeply touching beneath the layer of a perfect composition.

10 Which of your works do you consider to be best suited to your intentions, possibilities and desires at the moment?
In the field of lighting design, I am still waiting for such a work, because the creator’s desires here, by definition, always remain unfulfilled. In my freelance work, the light installation entitled Beam Reach, which I created for the light festival in Aveiro, Portugal, came close to this. Its creation was accompanied by the joy of discovery, working with my architect father, the involvement of natural forces (the sun and the wind) and, finally, the excitement of it working as I imagined.

11 And which museum, gallery or other space would you choose for your own project?
There’d be more than one. I would like to do a permanent installation in the landscape and in some sacred space.

education:
2000 DNSAP: Diplôme nationale supérieure des beaux-arts, École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris
1995–2002 University of Ljubljana, Academy of Fine Arts and Design
1992–1994 University of Ljubljana, philosophy

professional activities:
1995–2002 University of Ljubljana, Academy of Fine Arts and Design 

awards (selection):
2020 ADA – Featured Artist, Archive of Digital Art, Austria
2010 Residence in London, Slovenian Ministry of Culture
2007 Residence in Berlin, Kunstlerhaus Bethanien, Schering Stiftung Fellowship
2005 Pollock-Krasner Grant, Pollock-Krasner Foundation, New York

Q&A/ Ursula Berlot-Pompe

1 What does the universum mean to you?
Interconnectivity and balance of seemingly chaotic structures and phenomena, the hidden order behind every system (social or natural) at micro- or macro-scale. Cosmic energies, both creative and destructive, that influence the matter that surrounds us and permeates our very bodies. 

2 Do you feel part of the system?
Sure, like most people I take part in many systems – biological, sociological, political, cultural, educational etc. Personally, I strongly relate to the educational system, in which I take an active part and also have certain responsibilities as a pedagogue in fine arts and as the mother of two young children. Furthermore, as an artist or creative individual I'm part of an art system, which I see as a constantly changing system that oscillates between institutional stability and the subversion of such;  between invention, experiment, research or new developments on the one side and recognition, stability and history on the other.

3 How does it feel when a structure disintegrates?
I see disintegration as a natural, inherent and necessary process of every system that strives for stability. I consider disintegration a prerequisite or essential phase of creativity, invention and development. In my case, the collapse of a system is often followed by a certain form of anxiety, which often takes the form of an initiative for a change or a creative act.

4 What does the art world mean to you?
It's a community of passionate art lovers – creative individuals, art practitioners, theorists, philosophers, curators, gallerists, art collectors and art consumers; as such, the artworld is a kind of socially structured network that substantially contributes to vivid cultural flows of knowledge exchange and interconnectivity; art is a social and cultural construct and as such reflects the social and human condition of its time.

5 And what role does a work of art play in it?
A work of art is a multidimensional entity, which isn't necessarily connected to any material production. Rather than identify it with a material object or certain process, I like to think of it in more sensory and cerebral terms, as an entity produced by the observer rather than by the artist alone. Meaning in a Duchampian way, in terms of an intelligible dimension motivated and produced by something tangible or sensible, like an act, gesture, object, phrase and similar. 

6 What’s it like – thinking about and through art? Is it different than thinking about politics, about relationships with people or, when it comes down to it, cooking?
Yes, it is different for me. There are complexity and intensity involved in thinking, sensing and working, which is incomparable with other kinds of work or action (mentioned in your question). In my case, involvement in the creation process of a new artwork typically expands and infiltrates other kinds of daily activities and thinking, but it transcends and transforms common notions and forms of these same activities. 

7 How do you distinguish between art and the world around it?
Art brings marvellous excitement, wonder, magic, surprises, the unusual, and amazement into the world around it. And art is subversive in relation to (everyday) reality.

8 What are you reading now?
I've been interested in the space-time relationship for a while already, but this year in particular owing to the “corona” situation, the lockdowns, and its consequences on and for our lives; the shrinking of space and the slowing of time, the reduction of and move of social living into the digital realm. Therefore I’ve been re-reading some of Paul Virilio's writings. He noticed that concepts of space and time had been radically transformed with the end of the second millennium due to the widespread, global use of new technologies, while he also predicted that the accelerated processes that came with the use of digital and communication tools and technology will inevitably end in disaster. Today we are faced with the COVID-19 disaster as the direct result of accelerated natural processes of our contemporary techno-lives; of our lifestyle, travel and communication habits, and our only effective defence mechanism seems to be a strategy based on inertia. I wonder how this situation is transforming our sense of time, space and being. I’m asking myself if space is still being engulfed in time or is time now becoming somehow timeless and spaceless.

9 Can you name an artist, scientist, philosopher or other person who inspires you with her/his work and thinking? Why?
I find Tadao Ando's architecture and his thinking about space and light truly inspiring. His buildings evoke a sense of humanity and a specific sensibility expressed through the use of non-material and other kinds of natural elements, such as wind, water, light and open sky. Ando uses light as an architectural element that opens up a dimension of the sacred; however, the sacred in his buildings is not transcendent but immanent. His architecture frames the viewer’s perception such that we experience the sacral in a unique and highly individual way; it shapes the landscape of the human spirit, it is a condensation of light, as he himself expressed it.
There are several writers in the domain of philosophy and art theory to whom I periodically return, mainly from the French theoretical realm (Deleuze, Didi-Huberman and others), in which I often discover new points of views and ideas in relation to certain current issues I'm occupied or working with.

10 Which of your works do you consider that best represents your intentions, possibilities and desires of the moment?
Some of my recent video works, such as Bodyfraction or Suspensions, quite successfully meet the conceptual intentions that originally motivated these works, whereby a visual form derived from specific technical procedures resulted in creating a kind of “new” reality, accentuating the unknown, unseen, unfamiliar or ambiguous aspects of an imaginary topology. Ambiguous in the sense that it is somehow difficult to comfortably situate a newly created space into a realm of known or recognizable reality. I think some of my recent drawings well express the idea of the intangible quality of fluid (or multiplied) spatiality. Furthermore, my series of light works entitled Corporeal abstractions achieved some higher level of technical perfection that I was looking to realise for decades, alongside lending some new expression to the dubious balance between abstraction and realism (considering the fact that they could simply be seen as images of a body).

11 And which museum, gallery or other space would you choose to show or have a project?
Without naming a particular museum or institution, I would prefer to express my preference for exhibition spaces with a strong or particular architectural context; exhibition spaces that inspire a specific atmosphere themselves and where the installation of my artwork would bring out or accentuate this particular quality; or vice versa, where this spatial context endows my artwork with a specific new situational quality, which of course implies a participant viewer, whose perception is meant to be highly activated in both the sensorial and cognitive sense.

education: 
1994 graduated from the Charles University, Prague

awards, scholarships: 
2002/ 1997 fellowship, Wilke Studio, Bremerhaven, Germany
2001 Dresden, Center for contemporary arts Prague fellowship 
2007 fellowship, Künstlerhaus Hooksiel, Germany
2009 artist residency, Wilke Studio, Bremerhaven, Germany

education:
2015–2018 Silesian University in Opava, Institute of Creative Photography
2005 Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague 
National Film School in Lodz, Leon Schiller National Film School
2000 University of Warsaw, Faculty of Social Sciences

awards (selection):
2015 Deutsche Börse Photography Prize
2015 reGenaration, Musée de l'Elysée Lausanne
2014 Voies Off Prize, Arles
2014 European Photo Exhibition Award (Oslo, Paris, Lucca, Hamburg)
2013 Syngenta Photography Award, London
2013 Grand Prix Fotofestiwal, Lodz
2012 European Month of Photography in Bratislava (first place in portfolio review)
2012 Sony World Photography Award, London
2012 Grand Press Photo, Warsaw
2012 Vienna International Photo Awards
2012 Lens Culture International Exposure Award, Paris

education: 
1973-1976 Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague 
1970-1972 Secondary Industrial Graphic Design School in Prague

professional activities:
Manchester Metropolitan University 
Glasgow School of Art

awards (selection):  
2009 The Northern Art Prize 

Q&A/Pavel Büchler

1 What does universum mean to you?
Universum is an all-encompassing term, the same as the world.

2 Do you feel part of a system?
It depends on which system we're talking about. If it is possible to describe the world (or “universum") in terms of science, philosophy, religion, etc., as a system, then I am necessarily part of it, even though I am not consciously aware of it. But if by the system you mean the immediate social, cultural, economic and political environment and the circumstances of my life, then a subjective sense of belonging is unavoidable.

3 How does it feel when its structure crumbles?
With regard to my previous response, I can feel something only in relation to the circumstances of my own life, which are constantly evolving and sometimes changing dramatically, but I don't feel that they would fall apart as a "structure".

4 What does the art world mean to you?
I understand the term "art world" in two ways: on the one hand, it is the environment or network of people, institutions and professional relationships that surround the production and distribution of works of art. On the other, it is the conceptual framework of art theory, criticism and history informing their perception.

5 What role does a work of art play in the art world?
The work of art acts as a catalyst for the interests of the art world (in both senses).

6 What is it like to think about and through art? Is it different than, say, thinking about politics, relationships with people or even cooking?
Thinking about art is thinking without practical consequences. Thinking through art is thinking without conclusions.

7 How do you differentiate between art and the surrounding world?
Art is part of the surrounding world, but from whose reality the work of art tries to escape in order to offer a new perspective on the viewer's experience of this surrounding world.

8 What are you reading at the moment?
I have the following books on my desk at the moment: Kazuo Ishiguro, The Unconsoled; John Stuart Mill, On Liberty; Svetlana Alexievich, Second-hand Time; Herbert Marcuse, Reason and Revolution; Ed Krcma, Rauschenberg/Dante; and a book of conversations with Vladimir Nabokov, Strong Opinions. Boris Vian’s I Spit on Your Graves and Peter Weiss’s The Shadow of the Body of the Coachman are on my nightstand. 

9 Can you name an artist, scientist, philosopher or other person who inspires your work and thinking? Why?
It would be a long list of names that is continuously growing, perhaps especially, though not exclusively, from the history of Western culture and thought. These are mostly well-known sources because I am often inspired by something like a misunderstanding or “incorrect" reading, when in some well-known work or popularly accepted "truth" I see something that the author certainly did not intend and that inadvertently deviates from the established interpretation. And the more disparate these random observations are, the more they confront each other and the more interesting they become to me.

10 Which of your works do you consider to be best suited to your intentions, possibilities and desires at the moment?
The unfinished ones I am working on at the moment.

11 And which museum, gallery or other space would you choose for your own project?
I really couldn’t say.

Jakub Čuška
*1989, painter
lives and works in Olomouc
education:
2013–2020 Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, Painting Studio II – Martin Mainer and Marek Meduna School
2009–2013 Palacký University in Olomouc, Faculty of Education, Department of Art Education

Magdalena A. Turzová
*1978, painter
lives and works in Olomouc
education:
2000–2005 and 2013–2018 Palacký University in Olomouc, Faculty of Education, Department of Art Education
web

Jiří Sedlák
*1985, painter
lives and works in Olomouc
education:
2011–2016 University of Ostrava, Faculty of Art, Drawing Studio (Josef Daněk)

education:      
2014–2019 Silesian University in Opava, Institute of Creative Photography

Q&A/ Krystyna Dul

1 What does the universum mean to you?
Everything I perceive and experience, everything that appears in my mind… 

2 Do you feel to be part of the system?
Many various systems

3 How does it feel when its structure disintegrates?
It depends on your relation to the system, how important it is to you.

4 What does the artworld mean to you?
Hmm…  freedom and slavery in one.

5 And what role does a work of art play in it?
Who knows…? I don't. 

What is it like - thinking about and through art? Is it different than thinking about politics, relationships with people or, when it comes to that, cooking?
I'm not sure about this question. 

7 How do you distinguish between art and the world around it?
???

8 What book are you reading now?
Kruche medium. Rozmowy o fotografii by Maciej Frąckowiak

9 Can you name an artist, scientist, philosopher or another person who inspires you with her or his work and thinking? Why?
Recently - Konrad Pustoła. Always - Marina Abramovic - for her simple and clever artistic gestures.

10 Which of your works do you consider to be best suited to your intentions, possibilities and desires for the moment?
Two still lives Lime from the Becoming I series and and Heron from Carpe Fucking Diem. Life After. One about love&desire, second about death. 
The newest video installation #youtoo about sexual harassment and the traumatic stigma it leaves behind.

11 And which museum, gallery or other space would you choose for your own project?
I love old churches and chapels, they gently direct people to focus and contemplate quietly. So probably one institution located in such a space.

education:
2005-2006  Jan van Eyck Academie Maastricht (PhD.)
2000-2002  Universität für angewandte Kunst ve Vídni, transmedia art
1997-2000 Hochschule für Angewandte Kunst ve Vídni, sculpture (prof. Brigitte Kowanz)
1992 -1997  Universitaät Wien, antropology

professional activities:
since 2016 Zentrum Fokus Forschung, Univers Vienna, professor
1998 co-founder of the institut für Transakustische Forschung

awards (selection):
2019/14    grant PEEK for research in the arts, Austrian Science Fund
2018    MAC International Art Award   
2017    Animation film festival, Austria
2015    34th Graphic Art Competition Taxispalais, Innsbruck

Q&A/ Nikolaus Gansterer

1 What does the universe mean to you?
Good question! It is probably the biggest projection screen or rather a projection space. In fact, it is a vast echo chamber mirroring the stream of human production of faith, desires, wishes, theories, orientation, believe systems whilst the universe comprises a paradox: though I know I am a tiny part of it - actually I cannot comprehend what it is that I am part of. Further, it shows clearly how little we know and how limited our perception and conception of the whole is. but when one is accepting this dilemma it becomes an enormous field of joyful speculations and playful potentialities.

2 Do you feel to be part of the system?
Which system are we talking about and which system is here at stake? 
Is it the global financial system, the social system, the ecological system, the political system, the art (market) system, my family system? I feel there is a multitude of systems operating on parallel levels and most of them are highly intertwined. It is almost not possible not to be part of "the" system.

3 How does it feel when its structure disintegrates?
I am convinced that the old (white, male, western) system of power relations has to disintegrate in order to make space for a new understanding and interacting with our global ecological and social hemisphere. Nothing less than a radical shift of paradigm has to happen.

4 What does the art world mean to you?
I regard the art world as a system on its own; sometimes it feels very small and limited with its own rules and dogmas which even contradict its demand for the freedom of artistic expression. However, it is a world on its own a sub-system that often operates with the rest of the world mainly on a mere symbolic level with a highly codified sign system.
The artworld is able to create model scenarios, where reality, or to be more precise - manifold realities are tested, deconstructed, questioned, criticized,... Though personally in find mere formal questions less interesting. 

5 And what role does a work of art play in it?
I think it is a bit like a humongous stomach that is digesting all the various creative inputs. In there they are rubbing against each other, influencing each other, nurturing and conflicting.
Art is done by humans therefore the art world is full of all these human sensitivities, logic, power games, creativity, narcissism, ...

6 What is it like - thinking about and through art? Is it different than thinking about politics, relationships with people or, when it comes to that, cooking?
I am less interested in thinking about art but I prefer to think with and through art. For me for example, when I am drawing it is a way of thinking and reflecting on myself in relation to others. It allows immersing me in a subject matter. Probably this is possible when cooking, too.

7 How do you distinguish between art and the world around it?
Difficult question. Sometimes it can become really tricky, especially when I do these drawings where I willingly open up and blur the border between subject and object, between world and self, inner and outer.

8 What book are you reading now?
Often I do read several books parallel, right now I am doing a close reading of Ludwig Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations and Emanuele Coccia The Life of Plants: A Metaphysics of Mixture where he discusses plants as the fundamental but often overlooked enabling condition of all life on our planet.

9 Can you name an artist, scientist, philosopher or another person who inspires you with her or his work and thinking? Why?
Donna Haraway, the biologist and philosopher come to my mind she published the book Staying with the Trouble as well as Erin Manning, a Canadian dancer, artist and philosopher. 
Both have developed a beautiful intricate body of work without simplifying things but thinking about the universality of the world through complexities.

10 Which of your works do you consider being best suited to your intentions, possibilities and desires for the moment?
To be further discussed, but I am sure my research into drawing intangibles will be important.

11 And which museum, gallery or other space would you choose for your own project?
I prefer to work with institutions that are fully dedicated to supporting my artistic visions and practice.

education:
2016 Academy of Art and Design in Wroclaw (PhD)
2010 Faculty of Graphic Arts, the Academy of Art and Design in Wroclaw (MA, prof. Przemysław Tyszkiewicz’s Intaglio Studio and prof. Roman Kowalik’s studio)
2009 Tennessee University in Knoxville, US
2008 Fine Arts Faculty of the Wolverhampton University in England

professional activities:
since 2016 Academy of Art and Design in Wroclaw, head of the Printmaking Department 
2010-2017 Faculty of Graphic Arts and Media Art, Academy of Art and Design in Wroclaw, assistant
2009-2010 Creative Drawing Studio (prof. Jacek Szewczyk’s), Academy of Art and Design in Wroclaw, laboratory technician 

awards, scholarships (selection):
2017 10th Biennale internationale d’estampe contemporaine de Trois- Rivières, Canada (2nd Award Prix Desjardins)
2017 The 1st-degree Award from the President of the Academy of Art and Design in Wroclaw
2015 International Print Triennial MTG - Cracow 2015 (The Award of the Tadeusz Kulisiewicz Fundation)
2015 Best Print Award at SGCI Members Exchange Portfolio within SGC International Conference in Knoxville, USA 
2015 9th Polish Print Triennial in Katowice (The Award from the Dean of Faculty of Fine Art of the Jan Dlugosz University in Czestochowa)

education:
1998-2001 Silesian University, Institute of Creative Photography
1994-1998 Prague School of Photography

selection of works:
Initi playground - a project of virtual games in a real environment was presented, among others, at the conference of interactive techniques Siggraph, the festival of animated film in Baden, the festival L.E.V. in Gijón, the ADAF festival in Athens, etc.
Biosphere & Initi at the Planetarium - audiovisual performance with music from the Norwegian legend of ambient music Biosphere complemented by fulldome projections.
Guide - award-winning theatrical production, co-author of the concept and author of the visual component.
Wind mapp-light intervention on the facade of a concert hall in Stavanger, Norway.
Netykavka - a series of light sculptures presented at various exhibitions, including Ars Electronica in Linz. One of Netykavek is part of the public collection Espace Multimedia Gantner in France.
Archifon - together with the musician Floex, a series of interactive installations transforming buildings into musical instruments that people can play on their own. Presented in Brussels (Nuit Blanche, 2012), Linz (Ars Electronica, 2014), or Glasgow (Sonica Fest, 2017).
Václav Havel: Anticodes - experimental poetry as a basis for a theatrical production of ND Laterna magika, co-author of the concept and author of the visual component.

education:
2004–2009 Eugeniusz Geppert Academy of Art and Design in Wrocław, copperplate technique (prof. Andrzej Basaj) and technical drawing (prof. Eugeniusz Get-Stankiewicz)

professional activities: 
Since 2009 Eugeniusz Geppert Academy of Art and Design in Wrocław, Printmaking, Painting and Drawing Studio (prof. Wojciech Lupę)

Q&A/ Jarosław Grulkowski

1 What does the universum mean to you?
The Universe that we see over our heads is a picture of history whose beginning will forever remain a mystery and watching a starlit sky is looking at the past. Metaphorically speaking, for me the Universe is a mental space, which I enter when I create. It is also a place of constant evolution and change, searching for a new order, a promise of an idyll. My Universe is a fragile after-image of an enveloping immensity. 

2 Do you feel to be part of the system?
Among the existing systems, two concern almost every person. The first one is a set of accepted norms and laws, comprising the system which allows people to organise their social life. The second one is a system of changes, causes and effects which constantly create the Universe anew, without any human involvement. I try to live in the former one and I am in awe of the latter one. 

3 How does it feel when its structure disintegrates?
When a man-made system falls apart, millions of people suffer, analyses are carried out, books are written and films are made. Few people will notice the collapse of the Universe.

4 What does the artworld mean to you?
I understand art as space where a person consistently realises their concepts and faithfully discovers the visible reflections of ideas that materialise themselves in a work of art.

5 And what role does a work of art play in it?
A work of art is a reflection of the artist’s concept and the crowning of the creative process. It is a reason for artistic explorations and analyses. 

6 What is it like - thinking about and through art? Is it different than thinking about politics, relationships with people or, when it comes to that, cooking?
For me, thinking through art is experiencing its creation and being an active participant in the decision-making that may have an impact on the shape of art.

7 How do you distinguish between art and the world around it?
Art is something that I can shape according to my beliefs and on the basis of my observations of the Universe. 

8 What book are you reading now?
A New Map of Wonders: A Journey in Search of Modern Marvels by Caspar Henderson

9 Can you name an artist, scientist, philosopher or another person who inspires you with her or his work and thinking? Why?
As a father of four daughters, I constantly participate in their process of discovering the world and I can watch the world’s phenomena from a different perspective than my own. Children can see the nuances which are hidden from adults and they ask questions that may change the direction of thinking of the wise men. In the evening, I listen to the lectures of Professor Krzysztof Meissner, who is a distinguished Polish physicist and specialist in the early stages of the Universe. I am moved by prehistoric cave paintings and admire Chinese historical landscape painting. I am also a great enthusiast of German romanticism painting and I take interest in the work of bio-art artists. 

10 Which of your works do you consider to be best suited to your intentions, possibilities and desires for the moment?
I am currently working on a cycle titled The Secret Life of Molecules, in which I am further developing my previous work. I depict the Universe’s phenomena through the synthesis of primordial forms, rhythmization of modules and consistency in the use of value. 

11 And which museum, gallery or other space would you choose for your own project?
I welcome the opportunity to show my works at the Triennial of Central European Culture at the Olomouc Museum of Art. I would like to show the projects that will enrich the audience and will attain the highest artistic level. I am open to how the rest will unfold. 

professional activities:
since 2016 Bauhaus Universität Weimar, experimental drawing and painting (prof.)
2014/2015 HBK Braunschweig, experimental drawing and installation, visiting professor

awards and scholarships (selection):
2018 Falkenrot-Preis, Berlin
2016 Prix de Dessin Contemporain, Paris (finalist)

education:
Technical University of Miskolc

professional activities:
photographer and documentary filmmaker at the Postal Museum in Budapest.
since 1994 member of the Association of Hungarian Photographers
1987-1991 member of the Studio of Young Photographers (FFS)

awards:
2007 Rudolf Balogh Award
1998 holder of the international Polaroid awards
1993-1996 holder of Pécs József Photographic Art Scholarship - album Ipari táj (Industrial Landscape, 1998)
 

Q&A/ József Hajdú

1 What does universum mean to you?
For me, universum means the universe/totality, perhaps as it does for everyone else ... but maybe I didn’t understand the question.

2 Do you feel part of a system?
Yes, I do. 

3 How does it feel when the structure crumbles?
The COVID-19 pandemic has shown that if any disruptive element enters the system, there will be panic and even those things that remain stable will become uncertain. 

4 What does the art world mean to you?

5 What role does a work of art play in the art world?

6 What is it like to think about and through art? Is it different than, say, thinking about politics, relationships with people or even cooking?

7 How do you distinguish between art and the world around it?
Questions four to seven are all aimed at the same thing, so I would like to answer them collectively.
My situation is relatively specific, both from the perspective of making art and life outside of art. I studied at a technical university and worked for a time as a civil engineer. But I was taking photographs at school, and the technology of photography and its possibilities increasingly intrigued me. By that time, I also knew that I wanted to create images (photographs), though I wasn’t exactly sure how. That's why I started working in the industry, but as soon as I had the opportunity, I immediately changed my work. I applied for a job as an architecture photographer in one architectural studio, and that is why I later became a professional photographer. In 1992, I came into contact with the Post Museum, where I helped prepare an exhibition devoted to the construction of post offices. After the opening, the museum offered me part-time work in the photo archive. I took the job and am still working in the archive today. I also focussed professionally on old photographic techniques to help gain more insight into my work at the archive. I also joined a range of mostly photographic societies. In 1988, they accepted me at the Studio of Young Photographers (Fiatalok Fotóművészeti Stúdiója), an organisation that was to fill the gap of non-existent university photography courses. After four years of study, we were given the opportunity to attend lectures by theoreticians and professionals, and we were also given thematic assignments. The period in which Gábor Kerekes – whom I consider my master and teacher – worked as the artistic director of the institute was very important to me, almost irreplaceable, not just for the artistic atmosphere, but also for the chance to create. I rarely take photos just for the heck of it. I always think in larger wholes and try to realise them thoroughly. I first think about the images, then I sketch them out so they are easier to create during the actual shooting. I consider the most important part of artistic creation to be developing the print – its execution as close as possible to my original idea. If the image exists only in it, it is mine alone. The moment I decide to share it, exhibit it, place it on the wall as an artistic artefact in its final form, I will start the realisation. At this point, the material and the medium can still change, because there are always surprises in the actual process of photography. All of my efforts are focussed on creating a work. Each of my projects is also closely connected with my life and often arose in connection with it. I have also been working in recent years with images from the museum's archives, but I’ll elaborate on that more under question 10. But my photography is absolutely separate from my work for the museum, which includes tasks ranging from care for the collections, photo documentation of artefacts up to giving tours through the museum. We are a small institution. However, I also continue to photograph architecture, which is full of intellectual adventure, fascinating buildings and creative builders, though I consider this part of my work more as applied art.

8 What are you reading at the moment?
At the moment I am reading The Revenge of Analog by David Sax, which enjoyed enormous success upon its publication in the USA in 2016. The book came out in Hungarian in 2019. In separate chapters, it discusses various audio media (vinyl vs. streaming), paper (notebook vs. iPad), games (computer vs. traditional board games), etc. and examines the changing perception of analogue and digital technologies over the last ten to fifteen years. It introduces various accompanying phenomena, especially in America, some of which we are less familiar with. Above all, he tries to present them without deeper analysis, but even so, it makes for very interesting reading. The longest chapter deals with the renaissance of vinyl, something that’s close to me. 

9 Can you name an artist, scientist, philosopher or another person who inspires you with her or his work and thinking? Why?
There are several personalities who have strongly influenced me in recent decades with their artistic work or philosophy. In the second half of the 1980s, at the beginning of my photographic career, it was mainly Bergman and Antonioni and their early black and white work from the 1960s. And these were followed by a whole bunch of other photographers.
Around thirty years ago, I saw Josef Sudek's show at the Kunsthalle in Budapest, which, in addition to amazing photographs, showed me that to create an authentic life's work one needn’t travel over the world, that a circle of about a hundred kilometres and a strong personality are enough to hold the whole work together. 
Another important moment was Hiroshi Sugimoto's Theaters series, which confirmed my personal conviction: what I see in the image is nothing but the result of one thought process. He took only one photograph in each cinema, but the camera shutter was open during the entire film screening, and therefore the area of the screen in the photograph is “burnt out” and appears as only white space.
In addition to working in a museum, I have documented architecture for periodicals, art collections or architects, several of whom I also know personally. I first heard from them about the Swiss architect Peter Zumthor and his Bruder Klaus Field Chapel, a building that perfectly reflects the philosophy of the architect, his approach and respect for local materials and specifics in general. The building is based on an enclosed space covered with concrete and surrounded by wooden columns. The wood was then progressively burned, leaving just its imprints on the chapel’s interior walls. Even for those who only see the chapel in photos, this image is forever etched in their memory. Zumthor’s work, the work of a builder and thinker, had a great influence on me; it was if he was thinking in images in all his work.

10 Which of your works do you consider being best suited to your intentions, possibilities and desires for the moment?
I had several creative projects that somehow relate to my work in the museum. It was there, during one of the exhibitions dedicated to old techniques, that I also discovered several X-ray LPs that inspired my further research. At the museum where I manage the photography archive, I found a collection of nineteen original shots of the Timișoara Postal Directorate from 1913. On photos of the interiors, I noticed several wall clocks with the current time. The photos were taken by Mór Erdélyi, a photographer for the imperial and royal court. I arranged the photos by the time shown on the clocks and on the basis of the labels (today EXIF data). I named this cycle One Day in the Life of Mór Erdélyi. Moreover, that was in 2013, exactly one-hundred years after the shots were taken.
I am currently researching the transfer of images to protective paper in photo albums, i.e., the question of how to store photographs correctly or incorrectly. I am interested in the question of whether a photograph's imprint can be perceived as an original image, similar to the paper negative of a talbotype. And also how long it takes for the adjustment process to transfer the image to the protective paper, a phenomenon known as image transfer, which occurs, e.g., in rarely opened photo albums. The original image fades over time, whereas the imprint on the protective paper becomes richer. This protective paper resembling a thin membrane is therefore unlikely to protect the original and, instead, damages it.

11 And which museum, gallery or other space would you choose for your own project?
For photographs whose paper is semi-transparent, it is important that they can be backlit, which is why I display them in lightboxes. I am currently negotiating with the head of the Robert Capa Contemporary Photography Center, where they have 70 and 100 cm light boxes and a smaller hall for displaying 12–15 photos of this type. And yet, the center is changing plans with the current situation, which naturally raises various questions. 

education: 
2017 Muhu Print, Muhu Island
2013 Slow Film workshop, Sárospatak-Eger
2010-2011 Eszterházy Károly College, Eger
2006-2010 Eszterházy Károly College, drawing and visual communication, Eger

Nicol Gale (Czech Republic)
* 1972, architect, pedagogue
lives and works in Brno
education:
1990–1998 Faculty of Architecture of the Technical University
work:
1995–1998 design practice in studios RAW, PAW, AGP architects
1998–2002 professional internships in Finland and Sweden, design, interior
since 2002 own practice, Colllab studio
since 2010 pedagogical activity for FA VUT Brno

Svatopluk Sládeček (Czech Republic)
* 1969 architect, pedagogue
lives and works in Brno
education:
1988–1989 Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague, design
1989–1994 Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague, architecture
work:
since 1995 he has been running the New Work studio
since 2016 pedagogical activity for FA VUT Brno

from the projects of Gale/Sládeček Studio, UET FA VUT: 
2015 Concept, Collage, Confrontage. Olomouc 
2017 Artéka as a Research Phenomenon. Olomouc 
2018 RE:PUBLICA, The Sokol and I, south Moravia 
2019 The Factory Today, Zlín
2019 Kalos kai agathos – Ball Lightning, Zlín
2020–2021 First and Last Things, Brno. 

Szymon Rozwałka (Czech Republic, Poland)
* 1970 architect, pedagogue
lives and works in Brno
education:
1989-1996 Faculty of Architecture and Civil Engineering, Szczecin Polytechnic (today's ZUT), Poland
work:
2001-2012 C + HO_aR Olomouc / Szczecin
since 2012 studio RO_AR Szymon Rozwałka architects Brno / Świnoujście

from the projects of Szymon Rozwałka Studio, UET FA VUT: 
2018 SZCZECIN / BRNO, Visiting Professor at FA BUT
2019 PARASITE SMALL HOUSE - SINGLE TOUCH
2019 ELEMENTS - SCHOOL
2020-2021 HEJ-ČIN

education: 
2004-2008 Faculty of Fine Arts, Brno University of Technology, Video Studio (headed by Peter Rónai)
2009-2012 Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, Center for Audiovisual Studies (headed by Miloš Vojtěchovský)

professional activities: 
since 2016 School of Art and Design, Prague College
since 2015 Center for Audiovisual Studies, FAMU

education:
1994–2003 Academy of Fine Arts (Prof. Dóra Maurer)

awards, scholarships and residences:
2013 Banska st a nica, Banska Stiavnica, Slovakia
2011 Futura AIR, Triangle Studios, New York
2009 AIR, Novia, Nykarleby, Finland
2007 AIR Artists In Residence Laboratory, Ujazdowski Castle Warsaw
1998 Summer Academy, Salzburg
1998 Member of the Studio of Young Artist’s (FKSE)

education:
2010 Glasgow School of Art, Painting and Graphics
2007 - 2012 Hungarian University of Fine Arts (MKE), graphic arts and free creation

awards, scholarships, residences (selection):
2015 Kunststiftung Baden-Württemberg, Stuttgart
2015 Meetfactory Prague
2015/2014/2013 scholarship Gyula Derkovitse, MANK
2014 Foundation for Hungarian Graphics, Graphics of the Year
2014 Yes Lino, Banská S T ANICA, Banská Štiavnica
2014 XXVI. Miskolc Graphic Triennal, Foundation for Hungarian Graphics

Q&A/ Gábor Koós

1 What does the universum mean to you?
Endless space where matter floats and is constantly changing.

2 Do you feel to be part of the system?
Yes, I feel to be part of many systems like nature, the tax system, traffic, and the school system for instance.

3 How does it feel when its structure disintegrates?
It feels good. Change brings about good things. Anything that disintegrates will amalgamate again, probably into a better form.

4 What does the artworld mean to you?
It’s another system that I am part of.

5 And what role does a work of art play in it?
The main role, hopefully.

6 What is it like - thinking about and through art? Is it different than thinking about politics, relationships with people or, when it comes to that, cooking?
I think about everything like I think about art, so for me it’s not any different.

7 How do you distinguish between art and the world around it?
Art distinguishes itself from its surroundings. It’s always been clear what is art and what is not.

8 What book are you reading now?
Buddha and Love from Lama Ole Nydahl.

9 Can you name an artist, scientist, philosopher or another person who inspires you with her or his work and thinking? Why?
Anselm Kiefer: his work is amazingly powerful; the scale, the bravery, the way he uses woodcuts for collage. It feels like there were no questions when he was creating them.

10 Which of your works do you consider to be best suited to your intentions, possibilities and desires for the moment?
It’s always the artwork I’m momentarily working on.

11 And which museum, gallery or other space would you choose for your own project?
OLOMOUC MUSEUM OF ART

education:
2011–2018 Silesian University in Opava, Institute of Creative Photography
1999–2004 University of Economics in Bratislava

awards:
2017-2013 Slovak Press Photo

education:
2008–2014 Faculty of Art and Design at Jan Evangelista Purkyně University in Ústí nad Labem, Visual Communication
2000–2006 Brno University of Technology, Faculty of Fine Arts, Sculpture II Studio
1997–2002 Palacký University in Olomouc, Faculty of Education, Department of Art Education

professional occupation:
since 2015 Faculty of Art and Design at Jan Evangelista Purkyně University in Ústí nad Labem

education:
2018 Hungarian Academy of Fine Arts (MKE), (Art.D.)
2008-2013 Faculty of Music and Fine Arts, University of Pécs
2007 Engelsholm Højskole, Denmark, sculpture
2004-2008 Péter Pázmány Catholic University, Faculty of Humanities, History of Art and Philosophy

awards, scholarships and residences (selection):
2020 Herczeg Klarą Award (winner, together with György Jovánovics)
2019/2017 Esterházy Art Award (finalist)
2019 Leopold Bloom Art Award (finalist)
2018 Visegrad Research Scholarship at the Open Society Archives
2018 Brno House of Arts, artist-in-residence
2017/2016/2015 Gyula Derkovits Scholarship
2017 Collegium Hungaricum Berlin
2016 PROGR, Bern, artist-in-residence
2015 Kunststiftung Baden-Württemberg, artist-in-residence

Q&A/ Áron Kútvölgyi-Szabó

1. What does the universum mean to you?
For me, the universe at first is some kind of totality, a wholeness – but not necessarily a closed system of things. Not just because it's expanding (from a cosmological point of view), but also because it's in constant metamorphosis, therefore it's unpredictable and full of surprises. It's a potential, everything ever existed and may exist, and also all the possible variants and combinations of elements throughout time and space. 
The other aspect is its inaccessibility, both in the sense that it's unreachable physically and incomprehensible mentally – at least in its entirety. We simply cannot and will never be able to handle it within our human capacities, and we should never lose sight of that.
The third aspect is closely connected, namely that the concept of the universe can provide a special perspective for us, an inhuman one, which disregards our earthly dimensions and bodily senses. This unique approach is closer to a thought experiment where simulations and visualizations (purely based on scientific data, measurements, and complicated calculations) can provide a sort of God's eye view that can travel through spacetime freely and see planets we will never be able to see with the naked eye. So it somehow serves as a kind of external imagination for mankind that is not bound to the Earth.

2. Do you feel to be part of the system?
In a general sense, I do, since at this point of globalization we cannot really step out of the grand system, it’s inevitable to be intertwined with it – even if you feel uncomfortable in it. The layers of socio-political and economic systems are so deeply interwoven in our lives, that any kind of secession is doomed to failure (especially here in densely populated Europe). But if we think about our smaller system, the artworld, in contrast to that, first it feels more voluntary (to join or to leave), but in fact, you have to be part of it if you desire to accomplish anything on a professional level. 

3. How does it feel when its structure disintegrates?
Disintegration is kind of familiar to anyone who has spent his life in Hungary in the last 3-4 decades. It's a constant condition, not just on a historical scale but on an everyday level too, where legislations appearing overnight can change the field and the rules for complete sectors without meaningful prior discussions or long-term planning. The tricky part is that these ad hoc political practices feel like an act of destruction for half of the society but for some, it is the long-awaited change and an improvement. Apparently, it is a matter of worldview and/or political preference but since the two sides are living in their own parallel universe, there is no consensus on whether a certain change can be labeled as a positive or a negative one. So in this context disintegration is omnipresent and non-existent at the same time – depends on who you ask.
But if we think about the current pandemic situation, the disintegration of the system reaches a whole new level. We take for granted too many things and we tend to forget how fragile our civilization and democracy can be – not to mention our human existence. We act surprised when a prognosticated event is really happening and I wonder whether we will learn from that lesson at all or we will make these mistakes again – for example in the case of the upcoming climate crisis.

4. What does the artworld mean to you?
I consider the artworld as a layer of the complex socio-economical system, which surrounds us regardless we like it or not – it's a condition. Even though the modus operandi of the artworld is undoubtedly an interesting and sometimes controversial topic on its own, but I do not involve it in my artistic praxis, nor do I use inner references within the field of art history.
But having studied in Pécs, after graduation I was a bit concerned about how I would connect to the art scene in Budapest, but thanks to a few fortunate factors (becoming a member of SYAA, received Derkovits scholarship for 3 years, having a studio and exhibiting regularly) it went rather smoothly – but of course, it took some time. At this point in my life, I feel I'm part of the local and regional system, I feel comfortable in it, but further on, I gladly move towards a more continental (maybe even global) presence.

5. And what role does a work of art play in it?
In my case, the concept of work of art is a bit fluid, since I tend to use a different kind of elements in my installations, which may seem like ordinary objects in my studio, but in the context of the exhibition, they obviously became an artwork. Also, some ephemeral component of an exhibition can be purely site-specific or may be destroyed during the dismantling, so in a sense, they are not made for eternity, but on the other hand, their documentation outlasts them, and the concept of the installation can remain intact. 

6. What is it like - thinking about and through art? Is it different than thinking about politics, relationships with people or, when it comes to that, cooking?
I think my analytical approach is generally closer to thinking through art since I'm attempting to understand and reveal inner connections and relations and not seeking any form of self-expression in my practice. I prefer focusing on phenomena that are defining our everyday life, even if they feel a bit theoretical or abstract at first, but I believe they all have some kind of relevance and timeliness – like in the case of post-truth and alternative narratives (such as conspiracy theories, science denial or loaded political rhetoric), which feels like our zeitgeist on a global level. But what specifically interests me, on one hand, is its relation to basic epistemic problems (the creation of knowledge and counterknowledge), and on the other how it transforms our contemporary notion of fact and truth (and in the long run our daily life). How did this shift happen and why now, how does it work and what is its modus operandi? Is it a natural step or were there other factors that sped up and exacerbated it? 
When I look back to my early works, I realize that this broader interest was always present throughout the years, but of course with a different focus. Sometimes I feel my artistic practice is similar to the movement of a satellite: I tend to orbit around the same topic and try to grasp it from different points of view, with a distinct toolset. Naturally, these findings are overlapping with each other (like in aerial photography) and sometimes I get back to a certain aspect after years and try to reconsider it with a different sensitivity or within another context.

7. How do you distinguish between art and the world around it?
I do not necessarily distinguish them, as I mentioned earlier – I try to inspire from the world and what surrounds us, the closed bubble of artworld doesn't move me in itself. But those questions I raised above (whether they are practical, theoretical or philosophical) would certainly intrigue me even as an ordinary citizen without any kind of artistic practice. 

8. What book are you reading now?
I recently finished Peter Pomerantsev's Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible: The Surreal Heart of the New Russia (2014, PublicAffairs Books) and Timothy Snyder's The Road to Unfreedom: Russia, Europe, America (2018, Tim Duggan Books). They are partly connected to my doctoral studies, where I examine the concept of post-factuality and the role of images and spatiality in the process of knowledge creation and the formation of opposing alternative narratives (primarily in politics and conspiracy theories). In this phase of my artistic research, I was focusing on the origins of the current post-truth phenomena, which interestingly lead me to Russia. Besides my research materials, I try to read Hungarian contemporary literature regularly – such as János Háy, Dénes Krusovszky or László Krasznahorkai.

9. Can you name an artist, scientist, philosopher or another person who inspires you with her or his work and thinking? Why?
Instead of naming particular people, I would rather highlight a unique approach that is both inspiring and fascinating to me as an artist and also as a citizen: the practice of Forensic Architecture and Bellingcat. Their interdisciplinary research-based methods have a lot in common, even if their toolset may vary from time to time. But generally, it's a mixture of investigative journalism, open-source intelligence, fact-checking, 3D modelling and simulations, geolocation and so many more if that specific case requires it.
What is particularly interesting to me is how they cross-referencing their sources with the original 3D environment to achieve greater coherence and get closer to a meaningful conclusion. I think most of the times the method of reconstruction is the key because you can puzzle out seemingly plausible versions of the truth, by neglecting the ones which do not fit into your findings, but if you do it with a sort of spatial sensitivity you are re-constructing the original 3D situation, and you may find the place of each and every fragment of information. That 'magical coherence' is simply derived from the nature of spatial and image-based information, which has reliable laws to connect such clues as a shadow on a satellite image and the architectural topology or with the analysis of framing and the field of view one can determine the position of a camera – consequently where and when video footage or image was taken. 
If everything fits and correlates with each other, then you can jump to a conclusion and say "that's the closest we can get to the truth". And if it was rigorously executed, that result will overcome the other rival interpretations and hypotheses with its inner consistency – and finally, we may resolve a debate, which otherwise would remain questionable and contested forever. In a time when contemporary propaganda tries to muddy the water with endless misinformation and attempts to flood the media with unlimited 'versions of the truth', that's the most we can do to point out thoroughly what part of the truth is actually knowable. 

10. Which of your works do you consider to be best suited to your intentions, possibilities and desires for the moment?
At the moment, I hope the one I'm about to start developing. But in retrospect, I think the installation Carnival of fact at Ludwig Museum Budapest (at Leopold Bloom Art Award 2019) was a particularly satisfying piece for me personally. Because it all started at the Brno House of Arts with a two-month residency program where I originally started to work with the topic of conspiracy theories. It concluded in a solo exhibition at G99 Gallery entitled Patterns of Counterknowledge, then I channelled this interest into my doctoral studies and after a group exhibition (Anatomy of Photography, Győr) this whole simulation has come round full circle. It needed time and these steps to reach its final form and also didn't really happen without these opportunities and occasional supports along the way. 

11. And which museum, gallery or other space would you choose for your own project?
I would gladly make an installation in a space that has a shop-window and two stories or at least some opportunity to look down from an elevated point of view. Not necessarily an industrial hall (like Fait Gallery in Brno), it could be less grandiose as well, but the point is to have 3 different kinds of viewpoint to work with. The first impression would be from outside (through the glass, like an image), the second is when the visitor walks through the space (from an ordinary perspective), and the third is from upstairs from an unusual, God's eye view.
This journey would require the visitor to constantly rethink and reconsider what he/she has just seen from outside or downstairs. That kind of constant change in perspective would reveal new aspects and meanings while continuously overwriting the initial impressions. Since that journey is not a one-way route the viewer would need to come down and walk through again (in reverse) and confront all those new findings with the old beliefs.

education:
2010-2016 Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, graphics studio (Prof. Błażej Ostoj Lniski), Art.D.
2008–2010 Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, graphics studio (Prof. Romuald Socha), MA
2003–2008 Academy of Fine Arts in Łódži, Textile Studio (Prof. Krystyna Jaguczańska)

awards, scholarships and residences (selection):
2018 Kraków International Graphics Triennial (honorary award)
2014 III International Triennial of Graphic Arts Warszawa, (Tadeusz Kulisiewicz Foundation Award)
2012 Kraków International Graphics Triennial (Toshihiro Hamano D.H.C. Award)
2012 Graphics KISS PRINT Warszawa (Fabriano award)
2011/2010 WARSAW GRAPHICS (Grand Prix 2010)

Q&A/ Joanna Leszczyńska

1 What does the Universe mean to you? 
As far as me, the Universe is a wonderful mechanism of life, which consists not only of every living and inanimate particle of matter but the energy that sets them in motion as well. It becomes quite obvious that each of us appears in it for a short cosmic moment like in a magical astrolabe. There is no other way out but only to enjoy it!

2 Do you feel to be a part of the system?
Of course, I feel like a part of the system, and I humbly accept the fact that the Earth is just only a small rock in the space of unimaginable magnitude, and that the origin of our system was just one of many events that took place in the background of the already mature universe. So if our planet is only regarded to be fine pollen in this system, then the question appears -" What are we in it?"

3 How does it feel when its structure disintegrates?
The natural features of the Universe are life, death, constant movement and transformation. In this kind of cosmic environment, the process of disintegration becomes necessary and natural simply because it leads to a new phenomenon that can be understood as a creative process of background for new energy. Then there is a general belief of nothing being left for us to do but only the acceptance of this state. 

4 What does the art world mean to you? 
For me, the world of art is the environment in which the artists can express all their emotional internal feelings about life without saying a single word. It's the world that is built according to my own artistic rules. Nothing in it is obvious and certain. Two plus two does not equal four, and yet it gives me a sense of something permanent.

5. And what role does a work of art play in it?
Basic! It makes us see the things that matter! We pause in our daily routine. A work of art moves us and evokes emotions (not always the positive ones), it makes the heart beat faster. Creates new perspectives.

6. What is it like - thinking about and through art? Is it different than thinking about politics, relationships with people or, when it comes to that, cooking?
From my point of view, art is an integral part of life. It cannot be separated like an individual way of thinking about art from thinking about completely down-to-earth, mundane activities. We can find a grain of art in every area of ​​life. Sometimes talking to a friend, other times cooking dinner for the loved ones. Art can be found anywhere!

7 How do you distinguish between art and the world around it?
Doubts related to the question of how to recognize what is an art and what is not have long been common not only among recipients but also among artists themselves. The doubts can lead to irritation, embarrassment and at best to some funny situations. I believe that there should not be too much concern all about these issues. In  my deep belief, art is anywhere I can perceive it and out of sudden is found  in quite surprising places (in a warehouse with bicycle parts, in a watchmaker's workshop, in a forest among old oaks and sometimes even in an art gallery! :-) 

8. What book are you reading now?
There are always a few books on my bedside table that I take turns reading. Often their content and the issues discussed differ significantly. Maybe it is a need to keep a distance, some counterweight? So now I have at hand: "The Evolution of Beauty" – by Rochard O. Prum, "Humanity Improved" by Grzegorz Lindenberg, "Are we Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals is?" by Frans de Wall, "In the Shadow of Man" by Jane Goodall. I will probably not be original mentioning that the coronavirus pandemic drew my attention to the life of animals and nature in the general aspect. It will probably have a significant impact on my art life as well, I can't imagine it being otherwise! 

9. Can you name an artist, scientist, philosopher or another person who inspires you with her or his work and thinking? Why?
Izaak Newton, James Clerk Maxwell, Albert Einstein, Mikołaj Kopernik, Charles Darwin, Fyodor Dostoyevski, Stanisław Lem, Wiesława Szymborska, Jane Goodal... There are many other great names. I should say that all of them l have the following in common: courage, the passion for life and an open mind full of great ideas!

10 Which of your works do you consider to be best suited to your intentions, possibilities and desires for the moment?
Each of the works that I created appears to be a response to bothering questions, doubts, sometimes delight or terror. I find it difficult to indicate the graphics in which I would be able to reflect in the best way what I was just feeling at the moment. I am a perfectionist so I constantly feel that I could have done something much better than it might be. So I hope the best is still ahead of me.

11 And which museum, gallery or other space would you choose for your own project?
I rarely think about the space in which I would like to present my works. I am very impractical at this matter. When the choice happens to be taken, then quite often some unusual places that are not related to the world of art reflect the mind. Most often I come across them by accident. They appear to be such places like old factories, tenement houses, sometimes they are the places related to some academic institution because pretty often a lot of inspiration is drawn from it. When my work is shown up in a gallery or a museum, I am surprised by the fact but I must admit I am always very happy with it.

education:
2003–2011 Technical University of Olomouc, Faculty of Art and Architecture, Studio of Visual Communication 
2007–2009 Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, Magdaléna Jetelová Studio

awards:
2012, 2014, 2017 Jindřich Chalupecký Award, finalist
2007 Exit Award

Michal Mitro is a visual artist who describes his work as post-media. In short, this means that his work does not require a firm anchorage in the medium, but rather consists of the process and research that is behind the work itself. He approaches art as information sharing, which is reflected in the accessibility and openness of his projects to the audience. The themes that resonate the most in his work are the study of the current and future state of our planet, the political-economic-social constellation and the relationship between the human and the non-human. (machine translation)

education:
since 2016 Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, Studio of Intermedia Work II – Dušan Zahoranský and Pavla Sceranková School
2010–2012 Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, Studio of Intermedia Work II – Jiří Příhoda School
2005–2010 Institute of Art and Design in Plzeň, Multimedia Design 

professional activities:
since 2015 University of Hradec Králové, Faculty of Education, Department of Art Culture and Textile Production

awards:
2015 Václav Chad Award
2009 EXIT Award, finalist
2008 Jindřich Chalupecký Award, finalist 

education:
1994-2000 Academy of Fine Arts in Bratislava, printmaking and other media (Prof. R. Jančovič)
1990-1994 School of Applied Art in Bratislava, stone sculpture

professional activities:
since 2007 Department of Graphics and Other Media, Academy of Fine Arts in Bratislava, assistant professor
since 2002 Private secondary art school in Bratislava, teacher

Q&A/ Štefan Oslej

1 What does universum mean to you?
The boundless spatiality of never-ending change beyond the grasp of our senses. 

2 Do you feel part of a system?
I was born into a system, I am shaped by the system, and right now I am communicating here using the possibilities provided by said system. Sometimes I feel that it would be good to totally change the system, but my subsequent ideas only lead to the design of a cheap utopia. 

3 How does it feel when its structure crumbles?
I consider it evolutionary. In our causal world, the regular disintegration of structures is always just a matter of time. To calm my own panic, I see the disintegration of the system structure as an evolutionary transformation of the system. In my opinion, the real threat is not in the disintegration of the structure of the system, but in the disintegration of the foundations on which these structural transformations have traditionally taken place. If the foundations remain in place, the system will not fall apart, it will only rebuild collectively. 

4 What does the art world mean to you?
For me, the art world means a form of communication at the highest level. 

5 What role does a work of art play in the art world?
A work of art is an expression of the ideological levels of the artist.
In addition to a high-quality content, for a work of art to function well it is necessary that it take the form of a refined trap.

6 What is it like to think about and through art? Is it different than, say, thinking about politics, relationships with people or even cooking?
It is a specific need to search and then find another need to search, from which the creator of the search engine becomes dependent. 

7 How do you differentiate between art and the surrounding world?
I consider the world we perceive around us to be a projection of a limited spectrum which, through the illusion of a timeline, creates the spectre of an infinite number of events that are generally mistaken for reality. 
Art is a means to finding paths to true reality. 

8 What are you reading at the moment?
Years later, I took a classic down from the shelf: C. G. Jung Modern Man in Search of a Soul.

9 Can you name an artist, scientist, philosopher or other person who inspires your work and thinking? Why?
Artist – James Turrell: In addition to his obvious artistic skills, I admire his ability to organise his intentions into maximum realisation.
Philosopher – Plato: Allegory of the Cave – despite being well-known and popularised, the work hasn’t lost any of its relevance;
It might sound a bit cliché, but in my opinion, it is an absolutely timeless idea that has played and will continue to play an extremely important cultural role.
Scientist – Fritjof Capra:  His connection between the mystical and the scientific still appeals to me, and his book Tao of Physics is a work to which I regularly return. 

10 Which of your works do you consider to be best suited to your intentions, possibilities and desires for the moment?
I’m surprised by how topical the Seeker character in a spacesuit has become these days. When I started creating them in 2011, the basic inspirational model was the aforementioned Allegory of the Cave by Plato. Years later, these figures have started to live their own life, and that’s a good thing. As the possibilities of reading this work expand, I intend to continue it along with my other work. 

11 And which museum, gallery or other space would you choose for your own project?
I don't want to seem immodest, so I won't name important galleries that I certainly wouldn't reject. For practical reasons, as I currently need to hold exhibitions with my older works of greater weight, galleries in which it is possible to drill into walls and use anchors are interesting for me.
 If I could fly, the idea of Seekers walking on the surface of the Moon is very tempting for me, but the project in one concrete building on Žitný ostrov I have at my disposal is probably more realistic. 

education:
1961–1968 Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków
1967 École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux in Paris
1980 French government scholarship stay in Paris
1982 scholarship stay in New York
1983 Fulbright Scholarship

awards:
2003 winner of the Witold Wojtkiewicz Prize

Q&A/ Luboš Plný

1 What does universum mean to you?
The one who dies has it for good.

2 Do you feel part of a system?
Just mine.

3 How does it feel when its structure crumbles?
I feel like I should clean up my studio.

4 What does the art world mean to you?
Dealing with the system.

5 What role does a work of art play in the art world?
A means to rediscovering oneself.

6 What is it like to think about and through art? Is it different than, say, thinking about politics, relationships with people or even cooking?
All my thoughts end on the artistic level – even cooking is an artistic discipline.

7 How do you differentiate between art and the surrounding world?
Everything is art.

8 What are you reading at the moment?
I’ve already read everything I needed to know.

9 Can you name an artist, scientist, philosopher or other person who inspires your work and thinking? Why?
I was always inspired by someone else at different stages of my work. From informel to, say, Viennese Actionism. I could say every work with an existential urgency that is not completely apparent on the outside; one example – Adriena Šimotová.

10 Which of your works do you consider to be best suited to your intentions, possibilities and desires at the moment?
For the most part, the work I most recently finished, but mostly the one I have in my head.

11 And which museum, gallery or other space would you choose for your own project?
The best, of course.

education:
2020 Faculty of Arts, Marie Curie Sklodowska University in Lublin, (Art.D.)
until 2013 Faculty of Arts Marie Curie Sklodowska University in Lublin, graphics (MA)

professional activities:
since 2014 Faculty of Arts, Marie Curie Sklodowska University in Lublin, graphics studio, pedagogue

awards (selection):
2019 Ulsan International Woodcut Print Biennale, Korea
2019 Megalo International Print Prize, Australia
2018 International Print Triennial Kraków (winner)
2018 10 Polish Print Triennial, Museum Slaskie, Katowice (Halina Chrostowski Award)
2017 Antalis Design Awards category ART Warsaw (winner)
2017 Nonesuch Art on Paper Awards, Main & Station Canada (third place)

Q&A/ Karol Pomykała

1 what does the universum mean to you? 
For me, it’s a space in which all physical phenomena occur, and it is also a place containing general social phenomena and a place of internal survival, which do not have physical characteristics but which contains a collection of our experiences. It is our home on a micro and macro scale on the one hand very fragile and on the other rough and unfriendly. Everything that surrounds and shapes me.

2 do you feel to be part of the system?
Everyone from birth, regardless of which culture or country you are born is part of a system, we are only a small cog of a huge dependence machine, where we, as a unit, often have pre-assigned goals and a role to play. Such systems are religions, values related to a particular culture, nationality, political views, corporate influence. I was raised in the middle of Europe and I  feel the influence of various systems, Western and Eastern, which affect my everyday life. The Western-style of life linked to globalization and multiculturalism clashes with the tradition and influence of Christian culture, which in particular in Poland is deeply interfering in private life. 

3 How does it feel when its structure disintegrates?
I think they do not fall apart, but they are constantly evolving. We are in the middle of various influences that change their position and pressure, penetrate each other and change their form. 
Our civilization is based on certain values that make us feel safe. However, the current changes that are happening in front of our eyes can break down and remodel everything we feel familiar with.

4 What does the artworld mean to you?

Above all, it means for me the desire of a man to present the world and to describe the problems that we are experiencing. It is a fascinating way, which can be watched through works known from the history of art. For me, art is a way of speaking, unfettered creativity, ingenuity and the ability to create interesting ideas and engaging stories. For me, creativity is an analysis and the search for its own truth in the surrounding world, and it is a “colouration of the grey reality”. The world of art is an area that has no limitations, and it reflects freedom. However, from the artist's point of view, the other side may appear darker. It is an internal need for creation, which is constantly calling for action, and I am referring here to the constant need for creating from which it is difficult to free.

5 And what role does a work of art play in it?
The work of art is a tangible result of the artist's reflections and explorations. It is an invitation to an exciting journey and sometimes gives rise to deep reflection. It answers your questions but also asks important questions. The work of art is often an image of the state of our soul, which we did not realize. 

What is it like - thinking about and through art? Is it different than thinking about politics, relationships with people or, when it comes to that, cooking?
Over the centuries, artists have always tried to solve some problems, in particular how to create the right perspective to show depth on a flat picture. The evolution of art is linked to an in-depth analysis. Example include the actions of Cubists, who, through an in-depth analysis, have broken the prevailing principles of the perspective, while at the same time starting the development of contemporary art. Thinking about art should be linked to constantly looking for different ways of presenting, skilfully mixing different components from which something new is created, it should be a kind of game that can keep developing and discovering new areas. 

7 How do you distinguish between art and the world around it?
I have a problem with this. Sometimes I find it difficult to find or understand art in the work I watch. 

8 What book are you reading now?
When I create I love to listen to audiobooks, it’s hundreds of different content. Recently, when I worked on the doctorate, I read an interesting book by Wasyl Kandyński Point and Line and Plane. In addition to the typical "professional" titles, I naturally love fantasy books and now I listen again to the Hussite Trilogy of Andrzej Sapkowski. 

9 Can you name an artist, scientist, philosopher or another person who inspires you with her or his work and thinking? Why?
The first artist who fascinated me is Giorgio de Chirico, who was the creator of metaphysical painting. In his works, we find the ambiguity shown by fantastic urban spaces, which, through a deformed perspective and a juxtaposition of symbolic elements, aroused the viewer with fear. My attention was drawn to the artist's approach to setting the shadows that are built against the rules adopted, which creates a specific atmosphere by creating different interpretation options in front of the viewer.  

The artist, whose links with my work were discovered only after I entered the virtual reality of my graphics, is Magdalena Abakanowicz. In the works of Abakanowicz, man is an anonymous figure without individual traits placed in the crowd. Rather, the artist presents a negative aspect of the individual's performance in the group and focuses on the sensitivity of the biological structure of man. The artist's selected sculptures, which show the series of characters, by their form, scale and setting, cause anxiety and cause reflection. The projects relate to the political situation that the artist observed. This was the result of a reflection on the reality of human masses subjected to ideological indoctrination, constantly in queues, closed to the world and cut off from information deemed not to be allowed. The head-free crowd also appears as a warning against the instincts and emotions of human beings shaping behaviour without being aware of - how they can command love or hate. In the work of Abakanowicz, I find interesting the way in which stories are told and the area of the problems that were moved. 
I am also inspired by the work of Antony Gromley, who creates sculptures that clearly or symbolically represent a human being. His multi-figure projects provoke reflections on the role of man in nature. His works strongly interfere in public space by placing sculptures in quite intriguing places.  In his works, as in Abakanowicz, I was interested in creating narration through multiplication that strengthens the perception itself and becomes symbolic. 

10 Which of your works do you consider to be best suited to your intentions, possibilities and desires for the moment?
I think works from the One direction series and my latest Personal Space graphic installation.

11 And which museum, gallery or other space would you choose for your own project?
I never thought about it.

professional activities:
since 1999 Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague, photography studio

Q&A / Ondřej Přibyl

1 What does universum mean to you?
I understand the term quite conventionally – to me, it encompasses everything that exists and everything that is possible, i.e., the set of all elements and possibilities.

2 Do you feel part of a system?
You’d have to specify what system you’re talking about. I’m clearly part of many systems, whether I like it or not. But feeling some doubt over my role in any system, whether I’m a willing part of it or not, is a constant.  

3 How does it feel when its structure crumbles?
Again, it depends on the structure of the system we’re talking about. The breakdown of your own immunity system won’t be pleasant. On the other hand, if all we’re dealing with is the common cold, a cup of hot tea makes things much more pleasant. (But, for that matter, are we really part of our own immunity system?) 

4 What does the art world mean to you?
I regard artworld as just one term that helps us describe and understand the world. It might be useful as a term, but I would consider it a mistake if this world were to become the sole source of subjects for works of art. In any case, the term art world does not define the boundaries of art in any way, they can only be defined by a work of art, whatever that might be.

5 What role does a work of art play in the art world?
A work of art, whatever form it might take, defines the borders of the art world.

6 What is it like to think about and through art? Is it different than, say, thinking about politics, relationships with people or even cooking?
Personally, I don't see any great differences, including, from a certain point of view, the ever-present (however thin) lines of consideration on feasibility, durability, defensibility, impacts, and so on.

7 How do you differentiate between art and the surrounding world?
Sometimes I think about how to recognise, for example, a revolutionary work of art seen outside the determining context. I find it very difficult, if not impossible, and I always like to take solace in knowing that I’m not forced to make this decision. Otherwise, you just have to decide. 

8 What are you reading at the moment?
Václav Kahuda’s Houština.

9 Can you name an artist, scientist, philosopher or other person who inspires your work and thinking? Why?
I was clearly inspired and am still motivated by Joseph Beuys, who made it clear that Jeder Mensch ist ein Künstler and Kunst = Kapital (everyone is an artist and art = capital). 

10 Which of your works do you consider to be best suited to your intentions, possibilities and desires at the moment?
Probably the entire Mechanical Viewer series, which I also don’t regard as complete.

11 And which museum, gallery or other space would you choose for your own project?

education:
2014–2020 Silesian University in Opava, Institute of Creative Photography
2011–2013 St. John's Central College, Cork

Q&A/Lenka Leneke Sedláčková

1 What does universum mean to you?
The universe that I cherish. Everything and everyone is part of it.

2 Do you feel part of a system? 
Of course.

3 How does it feel when its structure crumbles? 
I don’t have any feeling; I simply accept it. It’s happening because it’s supposed to happen. 

4 What does the art world mean to you?
The art world is a beautiful thing, though it’s not always free.

5 What role does a work of art play in the art world? 
The art work is the medium.

6 What is it like to think about and through art? Is it different than, say, thinking about politics, relationships with people or even cooking? 
I don’t think about it – I give everything free rein and let art move through me. 

7 How do you differentiate between art and the surrounding world? 
I don’t understand.

8 What are you reading at the moment? 
The Metamorphosis and Other Stories by Franz Kafka.

9 Can you name an artist, scientist, philosopher or other person who inspires your work and thinking? Why? 
Not really. I have a number in mind but I hesitate to put them in any order. I draw my greatest inspiration from the universe and being, the material and intangible world. 

10 Which of your works do you consider to be best suited to your intentions, possibilities and desires for the moment?
I’m not even sure if I’ve created something like that. 

11 And which museum, gallery or other space would you choose for your own project? 
I like open space. I have no ambition or desire to show my projects in any particular space; the process is what I find satisfying.

education:
2014-2019 Studio of Architecture IV, Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague (doc. Roman Brychta)

awards:
2019 exhibition of diploma theses of the Czech Chamber of Architects
2015 Housing IQ

education:
2013-19 Faculty of Fine Arts, Brno University of Technology, Sculpture Studio (Michal Gabriel)

Q&A/ Tea Smetanová

1 What does universum mean to you?
Everything. Thanks to it, I am aware of my true essence and the whole cycle of life does not seem depressing; instead, it calms and warms the heart.

2 Do you feel part of a system?
Which one? The natural and irrefutable one – yes; the political one – no. Of course I am part of it as a citizen, but not internally. So far, I have successfully kept it away from my body, and I just hope it stays that way.

3 How does it feel when its structure crumbles?
I don’t think it’s falling apart any more than in the past. Now it’s just a little more visible.  And if it’s really falling apart, it hasn’t affected my quiet life yet. 

4 What does the art world mean to you?
For me, the art world is the natural environment in which I grew up and nothing suggests that I should ever leave it. It is the world where all artists live, speak their own language and look at life in a special and completely different way than people living in other worlds. 

5 What role does a work of art play in the art world?
A work of art is a path into this world. With the creation of the work of art we receive something like an invisible invitation and become part of something bigger and more complex. 

6 What is it like to think about and through art? Is it different than, say, thinking about politics, relationships with people or even cooking?
Cooking and art actually have a lot in common. Both are very impulsive and I take an entirely free approach. I usually cook what comes to mind, just like with my artwork, but sometimes I take a look at a cookbook to get inspired, coming to the conclusion that you can get an equally good result through intuition and a little experimentation. Of course, there’s always the risk that it won’t come out, but that just makes the process exciting and the outcome all the more satisfying.  

7 How do you differentiate between art and the surrounding world?
There’s a huge difference. Early on I felt that the surrounding world had to understand my art. After many good and bad experiences, I realised that art is mainly an internal matter that often remains misunderstood by people just passing by.

8 What are you reading at the moment?
One of my favourites – L’Assommoir by Émile Zola, is for relaxation, and I am reading O Soše [Sculpture] by Vojtěch Volavka as part of my sculpture self-studies.

9 Can you name an artist, scientist, philosopher or other person who inspires your work and thinking? Why?
Lots of people inspire me every day. I soak up inspiration from other people like energy for life, and it’s a purely spiritual thing. Everyone is capable of providing inspiration – you just need to find their strong and unique side.

10 Which of your works do you consider to be best suited to your intentions, possibilities and desires for the moment?
The work I am proudest of and which characterises me best at this moment in my life is my Canopic Jar series.   I made my first Canopic Jar after the birth of my first daughter in 2017. It was a purely impulsive work, and at the beginning I wasn’t sure why I was even doing it, simply that I had to do it. It was very strong, and I think that feeling is only intensifying.  The Canopic Jars reflect both my personal and creative life. I can apply my playfulness and make use of an infinite number of materials and sculpting techniques. I hope they’ll continue to accompany me in my work for years to come. Over time, a truly interesting collection in terms of both size and material could come together.

11 And which museum, gallery or other space would you choose for your own project?
My secret bold dream is to exhibit an as yet non-existing collection of Menhirs at the Fait Gallery or DOX, but I would need an enthusiastic and generous sponsor. But I’ve actually already had shows at many galleries, and each space has its own unique charm and potential. I enjoy the fact that space makes every exhibition completely different, which is why I always really look forward to the next show.

education:
Faculty of Fine Arts, Brno University of Technology

education:
2000 Academy of Fine Arts and Design, Bratislava  

awards:
2006 Oskár Čepan Award (shared with Anetta Mona Chisa)

education:
2007-2010 Academy of Fine Arts, Studio of Classical Painting Techniques (Prof. Zdeněk Beran)
2004-2007 School of Applied Arts in Prague, Glass Studio (Prof. Vladimír Kopecký)
2000-2004 Secondary School of Applied Arts, Jablonec nad Nisou

awards:
2015 Art Prize CBM III (winner)

Q&A/ Zdeněk Trs

1 What does universum mean to you?
I have a hard time answering this question; in general, I feel a bit confused. And my entire experience is aimed at gaining at least a partial understanding of this.  I am trying to do it through something that attracts or interests me. I am not searching for the answer to the question of who I am, just in general. That's why I am also grasping at things that help me get my bearings, and painting seems to be the best way so far. Solitude is also a good thing. The solitude of my studio allows me to hear myself. I typically don’t perceive much because I am reacting. But not here. Here I create.

2 Do you feel part of a system?
I have never been much part of a normal system or life; I have always reached my limits and – when I return to art – have calmed down in it. I don’t like what the word “system” implies. Society is becoming increasingly complicated, and it is difficult for me to be part of it. Art is the only kind of system in which I am willing to function. And I mean literally a system like studio seclusion, something I’m aggressively pursuing, even if I don’t want to.

3 How does it feel when its structure crumbles?
It is the helplessness associated with reaching for one’s own limits.

4 What does the art world mean to you?

5 What role does a work of art play in the art world?
The image is a point of reference for me. I grasp it as a process – I always create in a process. Every painting is a backup for me, letting me know where I am. Every work is a “backup” of one point along the path. 

6 What is it like to think about and through art? Is it different than, say, thinking about politics, relationships with people or even cooking?
I enjoy cooking. I feel like I’m no good at it, but if you can say I'm a creative person, I think I'm doing much better than my experience indicates. Cooking is also a creative process; there are ingredients, tastes ... but the fundamental difference is that the food is eaten. Of course, art is a much broader concept, so I’d rather not compare it. 

7 How do you differentiate between art and the surrounding world?
Radically.

8 What are you reading at the moment?
Johannes Kepler, A New Year's Gift of Hexagonal Snow. Engaging reading about “nothing”.

9 Can you name an artist, scientist, philosopher or other person who inspires your work and thinking? Why?
It may be naive to think that this is the case, but I try to maintain my authenticity. Everyone is probably trying for this, but the things that really “grab" me are beyond details. For example, Egyptian sculpture, or in general everything that aims at some reduction, the elimination of superfluous things that only complicate the reading of the essential, the core of the problem. Whenever you start reacting to the world, it’s a serious thing and must be taken in that way. And reduction or order can be just such a serious simplification.

10 Which of your works do you consider to be best suited to your intentions, possibilities and desires at the moment?
I am always the most satisfied with the thing that’s just now in the works. But then I’m not really answering your question, since that work doesn’t exist yet. Sometimes I even have a good feeling after I complete a work: three seconds of satisfaction, but they are immediately consumed by doubt. Suddenly it all crumbles, which is actually a good impulse to take another shot at it. This is a driving force to start again. Sometimes there are processual matters; other times it’s just one specific thing. That’s what I give the most. 
But I don’t have any of my paintings at home. That would irritate me. It would force me somewhere I don’t want to be.

11 And which museum, gallery or other space would you choose for your own project?
I’ve never really thought about that; all my energy goes into the work itself.

Petr Válek/ Poetry Isn’t Words (city)
11. 9. 2021 – 2. 1. 2022
Music can’t be heard. And poetry isn’t words. That is perhaps the leitmotif of the work of Petr Válek, the second greatest artist and musician from the town of Loučná nad Desnou. His entry into Olomouc public space consists of five movements and one symphony. He is duly restless, subversive, but above all sensitive, almost tender. Music that can’t be heard and poetry that isn’t words are co-created by children's voices and laughter. And what about that fact that noise also rules them? Similar to the output of the music group Jarní vůně, which Válek created with clients of the retirement home in which he worked as a nurse from 1996 to 2004, we are now dealing with untrained voices. But that just gives them all the more to say. They may not be able to perfectly pronounce the word Antarctica yet, but they understand quite well that knowing what it means to lie down is of paramount importance. Brightness and purity spill into the distance and show what the world in which we can live is like. Magnificent. Precious. Fragile. Comical. Just listen.
The project was created in cooperation with the Tyflocentrum in Olomouc. It is one of the temporary works in public space. The aim of the SEFO 2021 Triennial is to open a discussion on how we form and share it. Válek’s work demonstrates the possibilities of sound installations. At the same time, the work is only accessible to a limited group of people – the blind. It utilises a navigation system that helps them find their way in the city. Art for public space is characteristically visual and static; its commissioning and implementation is conditioned by the availability of the “majority society”. But isn’t this way of thinking old hat? Shouldn’t art be forthright? Shouldn’t we want it to be “ours”? Would it then still belong to someone?

education:
2010-2014 Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava, Department of Intermedia (Art.D.)
2005-2010 Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava, Department of Intermedia
2000-2005 University of Presov, Faculty of Humanities and Natural Sciences, Department of Arts

professional activities:
2019 Academy of Fine Arts in Bratislava, studio IN (Ilona Németh), visiting lecturer

scholarships, Awards, Residencies (selection):
2019 Artist in Residence, Delfina Foundation London, UK
2017 NOVUM Foundation (winner)
2015 Young Artist under 35, Tatrabanka Foundation in Slovakia
2014/ 2013 Center for Art and Architecture ZK/U, Berlin, DE
2013 Triangle Art Association, New York City 
2012 Henkel Award (winner)
2011 Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, Austria, doctoral research scholarship (awarded by Ministry of Education of Slovak Republic)
2010/ 2008 Oskar Cepan Award (finalist)
2009 Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania, Department of Fine Arts, USA
2007 Academy of Fine Arts in Wroclaw, PL (Erasmus)
2010 Start Point, GASK (finalist)
 

education:
Since 2018, the Academy of Fine Arts and Design, Bratislava
2008–2014 Silesian University in Opava, Institute of Creative Photography, Opava, Czech Republic
2009–2013 Palacký University in Olomouc, Department of Art History 

professional activities: 
Since 2017 Ostrava University, Faculty of Art, Photography Studio

education:
2002–2008 Academy of Fine Arts in Munich
2005–2008 Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, performative sculpture studio

awards (selection):
2015 Future of Europe, GfZK Leipzig
2015 Residency Atelier Tokyo, BKA Austria
2013 BC21 Art Award, Boston Consulting and Belvedere Contemporary, Vienna

Q&A/ Anna Witt

1 What does the universum mean to you?
When I was a teenager, I was thinking a lot about the universum, asking myself existential questions. ”What is the universe? What are we humans for? What is my part in it?”. I didn`t find all the answers, but I found it good to see, that I and my teenage problems were not as big as I sometimes thought. Nowadays I live more in the presence of daily routines and living in a city makes me less connected to the universe, I believe. But when I am in nature, it brings me back to those pleasurable moments of really feeling small.  

2 Do you feel to be part of the system?
Yes, I am part of the system, in many ways. The System is a big inspiration for my work.  It gives me lots of topics, that makes me want to change it, fight against it and question it. 

3 How does it feel when its structure disintegrates?
The disintegration of the system makes me think of ultra neoliberalism, and that I find very dangerous. Particularly if it happens unnoticed, one after the other, that our structures and social bonds are untied in the name of privatisation. 

4 What does the artworld mean to you?
I am not fond of the term ”artworld”, because it suggests a closed circle or an ecosystem in itself. But in fact, art is connected with all other fields of society. My art practice is an example of that. I collaborate with people and groups from all kind of different backgrounds through art.

5 And what role does a work of art play in it?
I am interested in what a work of art means to an individual, rather than thinking about its recognition inside the art scene.  

6 What is it like - thinking about and through art? Is it different than thinking about politics, relationships with people or, when it comes to that, cooking?
What is it like - thinking about and through art? Is it different than thinking about politics, relationships with people or, when it comes to that, cooking? Art has the freedom to be independent of a purpose and gives the possibility to experience the world on a sensual meta-level. 

7 How do you distinguish between art and the world around it?
You have to find the rabbit hole.

8 What book are you reading now?
Neapolitan chronicles from Anna Maria Ortese and Performance in Contemporary Art from Catherine Wood.

9 Can you name an artist, scientist, philosopher or another person who inspires you with her or his work and thinking? Why?
Silvia Federici and her logic way of thinking about social critique on power structures, gender and capitalism. 
Mierle Laderman Ukeles and her groundbreaking performances with a feministic and ecological approach to care work. 

10 Which of your works do you consider to be best suited to your intentions, possibilities and desires for the moment?
I am speaking about this moment of a pandemic: My latest work Skin Front, which is dealing with distance and closeness, digitalisation, subversive and the pandemic situation from the viewpoint of a group of woman. Radical Thinking, a work portraying people in public space, while imagining something radical for themselves or for society. Care, a project focusing on ageing society and the invisibility of migrant care workers in Japan. 

11 And which museum, gallery or other space would you choose for your own project?
Since many of my works are developed in a site-specific and experimental context, I love to work with art institutions that are: open for the unknown, allow to work flexible, are non-hierarchical, are non-exploitative, are sensitive to artistic content, are used to work professionally and treat the artwork and the artists with respect. 

education:
2008–2011 Ostrava University, Faculty of Art, Painting II Studio (doc. František Kowolowski)
2011–2014 Brno University of Technology, Faculty of Fine Arts, Painting II Studio (doc. Luděk Rathouský)

awards:
2016 Oskár Čepan Award