Liza Libenko
Liza Libenko on Art as Ritual, Resistance, and Rebirth
Description:
In this episode, we meet Liza Libenko, one of the most original voices of the young Czech art scene. Known for her haunting material experiments and poetic symbolism, Liza joins Filip Kartousek and Kamil Princ in an intense and intimate conversation about destruction, beauty, ritual, and the limits of contemporary decadence.
Together, they explore the philosophical foundations of her work—from Baudelaire’s Flowers of Evil to black suns, moons, circles of protection, and reimagined mythologies. This episode is a journey into an artist’s mind where burning your own paintings becomes an act of transformation, and art is not a product, but a process of resurrection.
Topics Discussed:
The making of her solo exhibition inspired by Baudelaire’s Flowers of Evil
Visual poetry and the use of literary references in her work
Why she burns her own paintings—and what she does with the ashes
Decadence then and now: does the concept still make sense today?
The circle as symbol: lunar cycles, rituals, and protection
The influence of figures like Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, and Huysmans
Working with difficult materials: iron, asphalt, and blood
Leaving figuration behind and embracing natural symbols like sunflowers and roots
Thoughts on death, re-birth, and the artist’s obsession with the moon
Her early education, entry to the Academy of Fine Arts, and winning the Strabag Artaward
Key Quotes from Liza Libenko:
“Everything I had left, I burned. Except one piece. I didn’t want it to exist.”
“I kept the ashes. I’ll use them one day—to make a phoenix.”
“Today, beauty is what shocks us by being simple. Maybe the most radical thing is to just make something… genuinely beautiful.”
“I stopped painting figures. Humanity stopped fascinating me.”
“Hell is here. On Earth.”
Guest Information:
Liza Libenko (b. 1996) is a Czech artist whose work blends painting, sculpture, and installation in a language that’s both raw and ritualistic. A graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague (AVU), where she studied under Jiří Petrbok and Martin Gerboc, she is best known for her use of unconventional materials—such as iron wires, asphalt, and even her own blood—to create emotionally charged artworks that resist categorization.
Her early fascination with literary decadence evolved into a broader exploration of myth, darkness, and symbolic systems. Sunflowers, moons, and circles recur throughout her practice, often in altered, distorted forms—blackened, burned, or forged in iron. She approaches art as a kind of visual alchemy: breaking things down, melting, deforming, and reassembling them to find a new essence.
Winner of the Strabag Artaward International while still a student, Liza has presented her work in Prague, Vienna, and Kutná Hora, with a growing presence in the emerging Central European art scene. Her artistic identity is deeply personal, shaped by obsession, instinct, and poetic logic. As she says herself: “I’m not a preacher. I just love beautiful things. And I try to make them.”
This conversation is in Czech.
