Artist
Veronika Čechmánková
Veronika Čechmánková is a Czech photographer and mixed-media artist based in Prague. She focuses primarily on the transformation of symbols and traditions over time, and their possible meanings in the present. Taking pieces of visual and cultural history, she examines their validity and possibilities in a contemporary context. Čechmánková studied at the Studio of Photography and New Media at FAMU – Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, Czechia. Her work has been exhibited in a range of institutions, including the Center for Contemporary Art FUTURA, Prague; Karlín Studios, Prague; Studio Vortex, Arles; and the BF Artist Film Festival, London.
Flowers are not to be picked. Flowers are to be admired
The series Flowers are not to be picked. Flowers are to be admired is compiled from my photographic diary of the past six years. The aim of the project is to search for the true nature of things – in contrast to the artificial – and to explore the concept of beauty from my own perspective. The images are determined by situations with non-professional models that reflect my own experience within modelling agencies. I try to capture something real and tangibly alive: something that inherently belongs to reality, but something that’s often censored, because it’s considered too embarrassing or personal. These images are at odds with the fashion industry, which mainly presents itself through perfect beauty. An important link between the photographs is the symbolism of the flower. Do you know anyone who thinks flowers aren’t beautiful? We have a desire to own them, to decorate spaces with them, to admire them. But do flowers want to be admired by us? Or would they rather cultivate their surroundings in their own way?
Michaela Nagyidaiová is a Slovak photographer whose work analyses the thorny path of transformation of Central and Eastern Europe from communism to capitalism, as well as roots and the migration of individuals. Her project Moulding is an exploration of how the current circumstances in countries that were formerly part of the ‘Eastern Bloc’ affect individuals, topography, and ideologies – and how political apparatuses ‘mould’ the layers of everyday lives in different forms.
As a second generation Vietnamese living in Czech Republic, identity is a key motive to the artist Hiep Duong Chi too. His series That time I wished I was a white butterfly deals with the symbols associated with Vietnamese culture, and how they are tested in new environments. By removing them from their original contexts, these motifs take on different meanings, pointing to the many perspectives through which they can be viewed.
Veronika Čechmánková explores the changes of symbols and traditions over time, their transformations, and possible meanings for the present. In the series Flowers are not to be picked. Flowers are to be admired, she juxtaposes the exploitation of the fashion industry with the world of flowers, ultimately highlighting how the floral aesthetic has become a spectacle of lifestyle and entertainment far removed from the natural world.
In the series See how these memories affect your water, Michał Patycki sets out to find specific situations and moods associated with intimate mental and physical experiences. In his photographs, seemingly unrelated entities intersect in compositions both melancholic and mysterious often with a slightly unsettling edge. The links implied are fragile, suggesting a mutual intimacy that holds them together, just for a while.
In the precise search for authentic and novel themes, Noémi Szécsi is consistent and exceptional. She focuses on specific groups of people who can be seen as teetering on a certain edge of a society; employees of a funeral home, far-right protesters or women intensely involved in the practice of magic. The latter, under the title it cannot rain forever, is what Noémi has been working on between Hungary and Netherland for the last two years.