Ludmila Hrachovinová – Holding on to Previous Thoughts While Holding a Bag
In her exhibition Holding on to Previous Thoughts While Holding a Bag, artist Ludmila Hrachovinová creates a situation in which painting, body, and space enter into mutual resonance. The title refers to the dual act of holding – both physical and mental: of retaining thoughts and holding an object that anchors the body in the present moment.
Curator: Maja Štefančíková
Production: Ľuboš Lehocký, Gallery SUMEC
Venue: Gallery SUMEC, School of Design, Ivanská cesta 21, Bratislava
A performance (45–60 min) will take place during the opening.
The large-format canvases on display derive from fragments of drawings expanded into monumental scale. Through performance, the human body directs the viewer’s gaze – at times guiding it, at others obscuring or highlighting the lines of the image. This subtle shift between thinking and holding, between the movement of the mind and the body, is also reflected in the act of perception itself: posture, breath, and rhythm of movement become active elements of the composition, where painting, space, and movement merge into a transient whole.
Hrachovinová expands the medium of painting into an expanded form – a practice in which the image ceases to be a flat object and transforms into a spatial and performative situation. The line flows from the canvas into architecture and the body, defining stance, distance, rhythm of breathing, and drawing invisible axes between wall, floor, and the movements of performers and viewers. Painting thus transforms from background into an equal partner that co-determines the choreography of perception.
This approach stems from her interest in the corporeal experience of viewing – she explores how physical distance from the artwork translates into bodily experience: in sitting, bending, slowing one’s step, or in the moment when the gaze must be directed lower than usual. The exhibition architecture therefore works with a change of perspective, inviting “perceiving through the skin” rather than quick visual scanning.
The roots of this approach go back to her early experience with ceramics, where sensitivity to touch, grip, and the function of objects was formed. From this foundation arises a material way of thinking that she later expanded into painting and performative strategies. Her use of raw canvas and pigment, bearing the physical trace of gesture, emphasizes the line – the key element connecting painting, body, and the viewer’s trajectory.
The exhibition does not offer a linear narrative but embodies the relationship between image and body – on a scale where even the smallest detail becomes a landscape, and a gesture becomes an orienting line of movement.
Ludmila Hrachovinová is a visual artist who graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava and the Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm, and later attended the Städelschule in Frankfurt. Her work has been presented in numerous solo and group exhibitions both in Slovakia and abroad, including Knoll Gallery, Nová Synagóga, and Čepan Gallery. In 2020, she was a finalist for the Oskár Čepan Award. She has participated in residencies at Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris and Art Quarter Budapest. She currently works as a gallery educator at the Bratislava City Gallery.