[EN/SK] ‘(Almost) Involuntary Sculptures’ at ZAHORIAN & VAN ESPEN

[EN]

This exhibition creates a space for an encounter between Jiří Kovanda and Zhanna Kadyrova, and a possibility for the two artists to exchange about fragility in sculpture. Coming from different contexts and different generations, Kovanda and Kadyrova both take sculpture to its limits, to its margins and paradoxes. Their work often engages in profound detournements, inviting found and recuperated objects, and shaping elusive aspects of the quotidian into form, material or immaterial. In distinct, yet similarly counterintuitive ways, they volatilise the monumentality of sculpture through ironic gestures and introduce fragility as response to modernism’s heroic claims.

For this project, alongside earlier work, the two artists have produced new work, incorporating the spirit of place, conceptual moments, charged ideas, and reclaimed objects from the Grössling Bathhouse in Bratislava, currently waiting for reconstruction. Today, when the pandemic makes us increasingly aware of our bodies’ fragility, the empty bathhouse awaiting new life retraces the various aspects and dichotomies of “body” across many centuries. Built in 1895, it brings back images and roles of the body as it witnessed throughout its existence, evoking rituals of cleaning, social interaction, healing and pleasure. It also draws out the radical shift to the ideologies of healthy, valid, and strong bodies promoted in the 20th century in both the former East and former West. In this particular moment, the absence of bodies in the currently decaying architecture of Grössling constitutes a perfect conceptual point of encounter for Kadyrova and Kovanda, both profoundly engaged with coincidences and fragilities in objects, bodies and minds.

Zhanna Kadyrova, from the series 'Second Hand', 2020, ceramic tiles, 25,5x36x3cm

Zhanna Kadyrova, from the series 'Second hand', C print on dibond, 18x24,5cm and 24,5x18cm

Zhanna Kadyrova and Jiří Kovanda, '(Almost) Involuntary Sculptures', exhibition view at ZAHORIAN & VAN ESPEN Bratislava

Jiri Kovanda, 'Guards of Emptiness', 2016/2020, C print, 60 x 40cm, photo by Zhanna Kadyrova

Jiri Kovanda, 'Odysseus'

Zhanna Kadyrova, from the series 'Volatility', 2020, C print, approx. 30-32x37cm, framed

Zhanna Kadyrova, from the series 'Volatility', 2020, C print, approx. 30-32x37cm, framed

Zhanna Kadyrova and Jiří Kovanda, '(Almost) Involuntary Sculptures', exhibition view at ZAHORIAN & VAN ESPEN Bratislava

Jiri Kovanda,' Untitled', 2020, shirt, wooden sticks, pedestal, 100x165x25 cm

Zhanna Kadyrova and Jiří Kovanda, '(Almost) Involuntary Sculptures', exhibition view at ZAHORIAN & VAN ESPEN Bratislava

Zhanna Kadyrova, 'Completion', 2020, tiles, tin kitchenware, variable dimensions, 9 pieces

Zhanna Kadyrova, 'Completion', 2020, tiles, tin kitchenware, variable dimensions, 9 pieces

Jiri Kovanda, 'Apple', 2015, pigment print, 28x35 cm framed

Jiri Kovanda, 'Untitled', 2020, collages, 43,5x35 cm each, framed

Zhanna Kadyrova and Jiří Kovanda, '(Almost) Involuntary Sculptures', exhibition view at ZAHORIAN & VAN ESPEN Bratislava

Jiri Kovanda, 'Angel', 2016/2020, 2 towels, 5 towel holders, H 168cm

Jiri Kovanda, 'Untitled', 2018/2020, pigment print, 35x45 cm, framed

Jiri Kovanda, 'Untitled', 2028/2020, pigment print, 45x35 cm

Zhanna Kadyrova and Jiří Kovanda, '(Almost) Involuntary Sculptures', exhibition view at ZAHORIAN & VAN ESPEN Bratislava

Jiří Kovanda, 'Untitled', 2020, plastic bucket, water, fish can

Zhanna Kadyrova and Jiří Kovanda, '(Almost) Involuntary Sculptures', exhibition view at ZAHORIAN & VAN ESPEN Bratislava

Jiri Kovanda, 'November', 2015/2020, pigment print, 14,5x21 cm

[SK]

Výstava prináša priestor na stretnutie Jiřího Kovandu a Zhanny Kadyrovej a zároveň im dáva možnosť umeleckej výmeny na tému krehkosti v soche. Pochádzajúc z rôznych kontextov a rôznych generácií, obaja, Kovanda aj Kadyrova, stavajú sochu na hranicu jej limitov, na jej okraje a paradoxy. Ich práce často reflektujú ďaleké obchádzky, pozývajú nájdené objekty a inak prehodnotený materiál a tvarujú neuchopiteľné aspekty každodenného (do materiálnej alebo imateriálnej formy). Zjavnými, ale zároveň podobne neintuitívnymi spôsobmi volatilizujú monumentalitu sochy a používajú krehkosť ako odpoveď na heroické tvrdenia modernizmu.

Pre tento projekt, popri skorších prácach, obaja autori vytvorili nové diela, do ktorých začlenili ducha miesta, konceptuálne momenty, nabité nápady a prisvojené objekty z kúpeľov Grössling v Bratislave, ktoré v blízkej dobe čaká obnova. V čase, keď nás pandémia núti čoraz viac sa zamýšľať nad krehkosťou našich individuálnych tiel, pripomínajú prázdne kúpele čakajúce na nový život aspekty a dichotómie „tela“ prekračujúceho mnohé storočia. Kúpele postavené v roku 1895 znovu prinášajú obrazy a roly tak, ako ich „zažili“ počas svojej existencie, evokujúc rituály očisty, sociálnej interakcie, uzdravovania a pôžitku. Obnovujú tiež radikálny posun k zdravým, funkčným a silným telám propagovaným bývalým východom aj západom v 20. storočí. V tomto konkrétnom prípade predstavuje ich absencia v chátrajúcej architektúre Grösslingu dokonalý konceptuálny bod stretu Kadyrovej a Kovandu, pričom sa obaja hĺbkovo zaoberajú náhodami a krehkosťami objektov, tiel a myslí.