Exhibitions

There will be two exhibition GARDENING OF THE SOUL: INTRODUCTION and GARDENING OF THE SOUL: IN FIVE CHAPTERS planned for the Ústí nad Labem House of Arts.

GARDENING OF THE SOUL: INTRODUCTION

GARDENING OF THE SOUL: IN FIVE CHAPTERS

News

Preparation of Exhibition Gardening of Soul: Introduction

We prepare a first exhibition called GARDENING OF SOUL: INTRODUCTION that is a part of this project. The opening will take place at the Ústí nad Labem House of Arts on Wednesday December 7th 2022 at 6 pm. The exhibition is focuses on the issue of artistic reflection on the phenomenon of garden and gardening understood in a broader social, economic, environmental and cultural context.

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GARDENING OF SOUL: Introduction

The exhibition GARDENING OF SOUL: INTRODUCTION is the first public output of the long-term project of the Faculty of Art and Design of Jan Evangelista Purkyně University in Ústí nad Labem, which focuses on the issue of artistic reflection on the phenomenon of garden and gardening understood in a broader social, economic, environmental and cultural context.

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Exhibition
GARDENING OF SOUL: INTRODUCTION

About 15 artists will be included in the exhibition planned for the Ústí nad Labem House of Arts for November 2022–February 2023. The first show will present the starting point of the project GARDENING OF SOUL: INTRODUCTION focused on the theme of gardening approached from the metaphoric perspective, where it will anchor this project within the historical and content contexts of contemporary art through presenting previously realized artworks inspired by the themes of care, community cooperation, environmental responsibility, respect for permanently sustainable development and social engagement, which have already been widely contextualized within current international art history and theory.

The curatorial research will define the detailed exhibition concept and the selection of artists and projects that will be shown at the exhibition based on mutual communication with the head curator Michal Koleček and the individual co-curators from UJEP and partner institution from donor country. In addition to the partner institution from the donor state, the applicant requested the following institutions for organizational support related to the selection of artists from their countries participating at this international group exhibition in the Czech Republic. (the Dowd Gallery - SUNY Cortland, the Kharkiv Municipal Gallery, Kunst Meran Merano Arte, the Museum of Fine Arts Split, PRECEDEE Hong Kong, the Rotor Center for Contemporary Art in Graz, Schafhof - European Center for Art Upper Bavaria in Freising, and The Trinity Session Johannesburg).

The selection of artists will follow themes and creative strategies which are implemented for example within the works by listed artist:

  • Sam Van Aken (USA, https://www.samvanaken.com/),
  • Hildur Bjarnadóttir (ISL,https://artmuseum.is/exhibitions/hildur-bjarnadottir-ecosystems-colors),
  • Daniela Brasil (AT/BRA, www.koenigbrasil.net),
  • „Brave new Alps“ (ITA, https://www.brave-new-alps.com/about/),
  • Annalee Davis (BRB, https://annaleedavis.com/),
  • Alexis Dworsky (DE, http://www.alexisdworsky.de/),
  • Kristyna and Marek Milde (CZ/USA, http://www.mildeart.com/),
  • Nare Mokgotho and Molemo Moiloa (ZAF, https://www.made-you-look.net/).

This show will close the introductory part of the project, which will be devoted chiefly to curatorial and artistic research and will be accompanied by organised residencies for the artists participating in the project.

Exhibition
GARDENING OF SOUL: IN FIVE CHAPTERS

The second international exhibition is included in the Ústí nad Labem House of Arts programme for January 2024–March 2024 and will present the artistic outputs realized within the context of the project GARDENING OF SOUL: IN FIVE CHAPTERS by 6 Czech artists in public spaces in the Ústí Region, 2 Czech artists and 1 Icelandic artist at Iceland and by 8 foreign artists from 4 continents, which were invited on residencies to Ústí nad Labem on recommendation of following institutions: the Dowd Gallery - SUNY Cortland, the Kharkiv Municipal Gallery, Kunst Meran Merano Arte, the Museum of Fine Arts Split, PRECEDEE Hong Kong, the Rotor Center for Contemporary Art in Graz, Schafhof - European Center for Art Upper Bavaria in Freising, and The Trinity Session Johannesburg.

This exhibition will be an opportunity to take a look at the results of the targeted artistic work focused on the project theme of gardening realized in different locations and local situations, and will also make it possible to understand this theme from the global perspective with emphasis placed on the crucial environmental and social interconnections between often locally rooted and perceived situations and processes. This show will present 17 artists and the results of their long-term work, and will be the unique artistic and social culmination of all the realized project activities. An international conference will be held in parallel with this show, which will open the tracked theme to broader multidisciplinary contextualisation, opening a dialogue between artistic research and practice on the one side and multidisciplinary research tracking environmental and community activist themes on the other. This will make it possible for the artworks realized as a part of the project in different geographic and social contexts not only to be presented together at a group show thanks to their comprehensive documentation but also to be expertly interpreted and theoretically evaluated within the framework of the conference through a unique interdisciplinary discourse with direct positive impact on the possible development of the individual locations and communities where they were realized.