Dina Spokij & Florián Synák
Dina Spokij & Florián Synák On Softness, Forests, and Carrying Home Within
This episode was recorded directly inside the exhibition Domeček pod dekou, presented at HIDDEN AVU, a space of HIDDEN Gallery located by the underpass at Nádraží Holešovice.
We talk with Dina Spokij, painter and installation artist originally from Ukraine, and Florián Synák, the curator of the show. Together they reflect on emotional resilience, softness as structure, art school dislocation, and how to build a safe space—literally and metaphorically.
Topics Discussed:
The making of Domeček pod dekou in the context of HIDDEN AVU and the @mame_otevreno festival
Dina’s transition from FAVU Brno to her internship semester at AVU Prague
The role of mindset and safe space as foundational ideas for both the exhibition and Dina’s wider practice
How painting and textile merge into site-specific installations
The emotional function of softness, materials, and blankets as shelter and symbol
Florián’s curatorial perspective and the tension between chaos and clarity in collaboration
Reflections on the dissonance between AVU and FAVU environments
Art as a way of transforming anxiety and displacement into shared space
The dynamic between personal vulnerability and public exhibition
💬 Key Quotes:
Dina: “I try to share some energy that I feel and pass it on.”
Florián: “Curating became a space of intimacy—how to support a work without fixing it.”
Dina: “Painting helps me retreat when the world outside doesn’t make sense.”
Florián: “Light and darkness, softness and structure—they’re not in conflict. They coexist.”
Dina Spokij (b. 2004, Ukraine) — born Dina Oliinyk — is a painter and installation artist currently studying at FAVU in Brno and completing an internship at AVU in Prague. Her work explores the threshold between image and object. Often described as “adorably feminine,” her soft aesthetics conceal intense narratives rooted in personal experience, trauma, and care. Domeček pod dekou is her first solo exhibition.
Florián Synák is a sculptor and installation artist working with spatial tension, natural and artificial materials.. A student of FAVU with recent experience at UMPRUM, he curated Domeček pod dekou in close dialogue with the artist.
