Jozef Bajus: Everything Stays

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Where:

• Gallery 19

  • Lazaretská 2402/19, 811 08 Bratislava, Slovakia

When:

• Duration: May 22 – July 4, 2025

 

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Curator:

• Zuzana Gažíková

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Everything Stays

“Truth is, nothing is going away… everything stays, the same or in slightly different form, but it still stays, it’s around us” 

^{Jozef Bajus (artist’s statement about the exhibition)}

 

Today, Bajus’s objects and installations reflect the social, political, and environmental framework of the world. He responds critically to current events and issues such as climate change, waste, or the situation in Ukraine. In more subtle installations and objects, he brings to life past private (not only his own) stories.

Recently, he has been creating large-scale installations from waste materials, giving them a second chance. His works comment on mass production, consumer lifestyles, the volume of generated waste, and the destruction of nature with dramatic consequences for humans, who ultimately stand at the very beginning of this cycle. They are influenced by reflections on the destructive exploitation of the planet and the gradual self-destruction of humanity—whether as a result of the desire for power or wealth. They point to what remains after us for future generations (do we even give them a chance?), what we leave behind. Not only materially in the physical space, but also in our mental world, in shared experience, memory, and values.

Bajus expresses his attitudes both in the content of his work and in the materials he chooses and how he uses them. He focuses on production waste—scraps of leather, textiles, plastic waste, discarded or used (compressed) packaging of raw materials or semi-finished products. He tries to work with them without producing additional waste (as he does in all his work), using them to the fullest. Depending on the material’s nature, he either further transforms it in his own way or leaves it in its original form, letting its inherent qualities, properties, shape, and structure stand out. Using the effects of light and shadow, he multiplies the material, layers it, and composes it into spatial installations that have undeniable visual and aesthetic quality. Yet the material also becomes the content. When we become aware of what we are actually looking at and what the essence of the work is, the artist holds up a mirror to our civilization.

Bajus’s creative concept can be seen metaphorically. What appears to be waste can be transformed into something new, more refined—such as art. It’s a matter of attitude: a thoughtful, honest, responsible (and creative) approach can give things, values, and people a second chance. In this, symbolically, lies hope and opportunity.

 

Zuzana Gažíková, Curator

 

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The exhibition was supported using public funds from the Slovak Arts Council.