UMPRUM BACHELOR & DIPLOMA 2024
UMPRUM Bachelor & Diploma Selection 2024: Our Best Picks from the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague
Hubert Švaříček
REPOSITORY OF MEMORIES
In Repository of Memories, Hubert Švaříček delves into the elusive realm of childhood recollections, tracing the edges of memory through corrosion on found metal sheets. Building on our past exhibition Efeméra at HIDDEN Republika (Feb 21 - Apr 10, 2023), where he showcased his affinity for decay and oxidation alongside Lucie Hošková, Švaříček now takes an even more introspective approach. In a process that mirrors the unpredictable nature of memory, he arrests rust and oxidation in varying stages, capturing moments that evoke his family’s home and garden with all the misty, shifting quality of old photographs.
Working with patina and chemical processes, Švaříček explores how memories are stored, distorted, and forgotten over time. Like the metal that fades and corrodes, memories—our “emotional sources”—are fragile, fragmentary, and subject to reinterpretation. Each work challenges us to confront the selective nature of personal history, acknowledging both what we remember and what we unconsciously let slip into obscurity.
Kristína Opálková
EMPTIED MEDIUM
In Emptied Medium: From Algorithm to Analog, Kristýna Opálková confronts the overwhelming entanglement of visual data in the digital age, seeking to reclaim a tactile, contemplative essence within photography that feels increasingly elusive. Her work, reflects a struggle shared by many photographers today—amid the deluge of images, the very idea of photography as a craft becomes blurred, lost in an algorithmic ether. Opálková's chosen process, oil printing, draws her back to the roots of photographic technique, reshaping digital images into physical, meticulously crafted artifacts. This practice isn’t nostalgic but critical, an experimental reconciliation between the analog's authenticity and the digital's omnipresence.
Her imagery, filled with veils and shrouded forms, acts as a dual metaphor: each layer reveals and obscures, much like photography itself, and emphasizes light’s role as an agent of exposure. The main photograph—a staged still life of an ambiguous mass set against a curtain—invites viewers into Opálková's contemplation of data overload, presenting a deliberately tensioned scene that evokes the dense, chaotic network of today’s digital imagery. In this union of mediums, Opálková’s work emerges as a protest against the ephemeral quality of digital media, offering viewers a new interpretation of photography as both a craft and a vehicle for deeper, reflective inquiry.
Tatiana Piussi
WHERE IS MY HOME?
Tatiana Piussi's latest series, Where Is My Home?, features two compelling tapestries that respond to the recent rise of radical and populist movements in Slovakia, reflecting the societal tensions surrounding nationalism and traditional values. In Escape, a group of figures rushes toward the viewer, evoking feelings of panic that critique the intensified trend of Slovak emigration since the dissolution of Czechoslovakia. Through the use of populist aesthetics, Piussi exposes the manipulation inherent in both art and political discourse, prompting viewers to question their perceptions of identity and migration.
In contrast, Defenders presents monumental figures from the national community, infused with elements of masculinity, challenging the superficial glorification of national heroes. This diptych invites a nuanced conversation about the values represented by these symbols and the implications of their celebration in contemporary society. Together, these works create a dialogue that encourages reflection on democratic values and the complexities of national identity, urging viewers to reconsider who we celebrate as heroes and the narratives we construct around them.
Japanese series at HIDDEN
