Come and experience art from the AFAD on Biela noc

Where?

• Biela noc Bratislava,

• More information https://www.bielanoc.sk/y2023/ba

When?

• September 29 –October 1, 2023

 

---

Studio of Experimental Design / H18

• Installation
• AFAD, Hviezdoslavovo nám. 18
• 29. 09. - 01. 10. 2023, 7 p.m. – 12 a.m.

The Studio of experimental design at the AFAD presents a selection of student projects under the title H18, which were created in the last two years and deal with light in different positions. They range from formal and material experiments, through interactive objects to free light installations. The exhibition "occupies" the premises of the AFAD rector's office on Hviezdoslavovo námestie and responds to its specific environment.

The project was created thanks to the support of the research and educational project KEGA - stARTup, a new concept of teaching author's design with regard to the applicability of graduates in practice no. 008VŠVU-4/2021 Experimental design studio led by Sylvia Jokelová and Marián Laššák belongs to the youngest studios at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava. It was founded in the fall of 2019. With its concept, it advocates a discussion about the need to change the paradigm and reevaluate the seemingly immutable positions of design in a world that is slowly moving into an immaterial digital space against the background of the impending climate crisis.

List of exhibiting students of the Studio of Experimental Design: Adriána Adamová Viktória Arvayová Kristína Dzuričková Lenka Ingeliová Adam Kukuc Jaroslava Labudová Veronika Majerčíková Erik Vrábel Viktor Tabiš Petra Rybánska

Implementation team: Sylvia Jokelová, Marián Laššák, Petra Rybánska, Diana Paulová

 

---

AFAD: BAHNO-974 / CASTORIN

• Object
• Vajanského námbrežie 2
• 29. 09. - 01. 10. 2023, 7 p.m. – 12 a.m.

What is this strange creature that emerges from the darkness? Is it a hitherto undiscovered species of animal or an alien creature? The object from the workshop of the artist duo Bahno-974 deals with the extremely topical subject of water pollution. It offers a glimpse of a "mammal" of the future that could live in such an environment. This imaginary creature somewhat resembles an otter or a beaver. It still bears the characteristics of these animals, but is deformed by elements of modern technology. This mutation arose from living in a polluted environment where the creature had to adapt to new, complicated conditions. We meet an individual who has found himself outside his "natural" environment. He searches the ground for any information on how to get back because he doesn't have much time left. The work is supposed to evoke feelings of melancholy - after all, it is a creature outside its home. At the same time, it should also serve as a warning finger pointing in the direction of our rich biodiversity, which is being deformed and degraded every day. The unpleasant image of this creature is perhaps only the beginning of the absurdity that can arise from our irresponsible behaviour.

With the support of JTRE. In cooperation with the AFAD in Bratislava

The artistic duo BAHNO-974 consists of Mário Coufal and Volodymyr Serhachov. Mário Coufal is a design student at the AFAD in Bratislava. He completed his bachelor's studies in the studio of Industrial design, from where he later switched to Experimental design, where he currently studies. He works digital creation and object installation. In his works, he tries to delve deeper into himself through feelings of melancholy, meaninglessness and loss. These are sensitive, often philosophical insights inciting a form of emotional reaction. In the last period, he is mainly devoted to audiovisual art, projections and mapping and to a lesser extent to designer product creation. Volodymyr Serhachov is a graduate of the Studio of Experimental Design of the AFAD in Bratislava. He completed his bachelor's studies with Štefan Klein at the Studio of Transport Design of the AFAD in Bratislava. His work moves between design and visual art. Currently, he mainly deals with digital media, experimenting with their connection with analogue media (installation, video art). He is most interested in the topic of speculative intersections of the technical and the natural, leading to biopunk or biodesign. In cooperation with the Zakarpattia Cultural Platform, he participated as a graphic and motion designer in projects to save and present the cultural heritage of Ukraine.

 

---

Exhibition of the MediaLab* studio in the Gallery Medium

• Exhibition
• MEDIUM Gallery, Hviezdoslavovo námestie 18
• 29. 09. - 01. 10. 2023, 7 p.m. – 12 a.m.

The MediaLab* exhibition in the gallery Medium offers an insight into the results and philosophy of one of the workplaces of the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava, which creates a technological, theoretical and interpersonal background for the study of important phenomena such as time, interactivity and multimedia in (visual) communication.

The multimedia studio, MediaLab* is a specialized space within the Department of Visual Communication of the AFAD, it deals with practical issues of working with technologies, but also discusses the wider context of multimedia culture. The essence of the work in the laboratory is an experimental approach to a problem or project, which assumes research and breaking the boundaries of a given area in order to discover innovative and unconventional solutions and procedures.

The exhibition maps the activities of the MediaLab* laboratory to date and presents not only a selection of representative works, but also a new online archive of projects created by students of MediaLab* over fifteen years. Their scope is quite broad: animation, game design, video, sound projects and video clips, digital applications, interactive objects and installations, so the exhibition draws the audience into learning the principles of creative work with technologies and offers an experience of using different media.

Curators: Ján Šicko, Roman Mackovič, Mária Beňačková Rišková

The realisation of the project was supported using public resources by the Slovak art council.

 

---

Mário Coufal & Matej Kuhn / Gate

• Multimedia object
• Kamenné námestie
• 29. 09. - 01. 10. 2023, 7 p.m. – 12 a.m.

The taste of the right decisions is like a delicate mixture of ingredients that shapes our journey through life. It is that elusive moment when we consider the options before us and responsibly choose the one that opens the imaginary "Gate" to growth and fulfilment. It is like a gentle symphony where each note represents an important step in our life story. The right decisions fill us with a sense of deeper meaning and help us evolve over time, grow in our values and dreams. The multimedia installation "Gate" connects the world of abstraction of ideas and key decisions in the artist's creative process. Individual concepts, development, unexpected changes and twists, subjective views, constant observation of the world around you are a fragile and often difficult to grasp path of the creative process of creation.

Mário Coufal is a design student at the AFAD in Bratislava. He completed his bachelor's studies at the Studio of Industrial Design, from where he later switched to Experimental Design, where he currently studies. He works with digital creation and object installation. In his works, he strives for a kind of dissection of emotion and a more detailed delving into himself through feelings of melancholy, meaninglessness and loss. These are sensitive, often philosophical insights inciting a form of emotional reaction. In the last period, he is mainly devoted to audiovisual art, projections and mapping and to a lesser extent to designer product creation.

With the support of Pilsner Urquell..

 

---

Marína Abramovič Po Sebe Neupratuje / I am truly becoming a specter

• Music and dance performance
• Námestie slobody, fontána Družba
• 30.09.2023, 8:30 p.m. – 9:30 p.m.

The well-known fountain on Námestie Slobody will become the site of a unique ritual during the Biela noc. Dozens of people create pseudo-sacred resonant consonances in architecture that could have been anything but sacred. The performers themselves do not subscribe to a specific form of spirituality, they only test whether and how its collective effects still work in supposedly desacralized urban circles. Námestie Slobody was recently renovated and provides the people of Bratislava with a generous space for walks, meetings and events. It creates a new centre for free time and public or social life. The artistic collective Marina Abramovič Po Sebe Neupratuje wants to use this natural gravity of the space to create an even more lively collective experience.

The artistic collective Marina Abramovič Po Sebe Neupratuje focuses on current social topics from social memory, affective or apathetic politics to the economy of attention and online identity. In their work, they emphasize non-hierarchical approaches to performance, art and society. In their projects, they always work with the different perspectives and interests of each performer, focusing on building an atmosphere and space for action rather than a script or message. Marina Abramovič Po Sebe Neupratuje was created in 2015 as a collective of students and graduates of the Department of Intermedia at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava.

 

---

Silvia Sviteková & collective / Freestyle of animosity

• Dance performance
• Embankment near the skyscraper
• 29.09.2023, 19.30, 8:30 p.m., 9:30 p.m.

Silvia Sviteková and the Freestyle of Animosity collective Playing area, six figures. Choose a colour and starting position. Attention, they all start at the same time. And make up the end of the game. The body as a constantly changing paradigm of meanings in the combinations of the animals present with similar diverse characters create an imaginary game situation together. The movement performance tries not to determine the point of view but on the contrary, to encourage diversity. Animals normally present in public space do not pose a threat to us, we consider them pets. Boars, bears, pigeons, pheasants, swans, seagulls and rats, yes. Where is the boundary of public space? What do we consider our space and what is "animal"? How do we intervene with each other and who sets the rules?

With the support of JTRE.

Silvia Sviteková is currently a doctoral student in the Studio of Spatial Communications+ at the AFAD and a graduate of the Department of Dance Theatre and Performance and Dance Art at the VŠMU in Bratislava. Her long-term fascination includes performance in public space, working with the object, as well as the effort to understand and especially grasp the experience, whether individual or collective. She collaborated on several art projects, exhibitions and performances with the following creators: Sonja Pregrad (Diaries of touch), Eva Priečková (ShSssh It'll Be OK!, LUSIJA), Juraj Korec (Solo not only for one body, SNPJT.online), Petra Fornayová (Manifesto of possibilities, Green is grass), Marta Poláková (pODPORa, Endless shift), Maja Štefančíková (Spatial sketches, Volatile sculpture, Living gradient), Dana Tomečková (Living gradient), Stanislava Vlčeková, Jozef Vlk (Poses / Essences / Traps , Open call), Anton Korenči (Death of the West), Andrej Petrovič (Dôvera), Francesca Zaccaria (Bodies garden), Cindy Hammer (Asphalworlds part 2). She also received an award for her work in the Gala Art Moves competition.

 

---

Denis Kozerawski & Peter Kašpar / KAMBIUM1492

• A movie
• Kino Lumiére x SNG, Riečna 11
• 30.09.2023, 7:00 p.m., 7:45 p.m., 8:25 p.m., 9:05 p.m., 9:45 p.m.

Hear the story of the unique Kokošovce oaks. They have become a kind of museum that archives the deposits of different geological periods. He remembers the time when the territory was flooded by the sea even though a volcano watched over it. Kambium1492 is a docu-fiction that begins in an oak grove near the village of Kokošovce near Prešov, Slovakia. The oaks in this area grow very slowly on the volcanic soil, resulting in exceptionally strong wood with dense rings that reflect the gradual growth of lymphatic tissue - the cambium. For these properties, local wood was used in the nearby Prešov saltworks, where salt reserves from the prehistoric sea were processed from the 16th century. The wood from here was also allegedly exported to make ships to ports like Genoa in the days when Christopher Columbus sailed from there to look for a new trade route to India. When this voyage accidentally brought him to the continent now known as America, the phase of European colonization of North and South America began and the world order we know today was born. Slovak rapper Čavalenky retells the story from these forests.

With the support of JTRE.

Denis Kozerawski is an artist working in the art collective APART. Since 2012, the group has been carrying out research, creative-artistic, project and exhibition/curation, publication and archiving activities. In 2017, APART became a finalist for the Oskar Čepan Award. He exhibited in Bratislava's Kunsthalle, Prague's Karlin Studios, curated a solo exhibition of Babi Badalov's Electronic Dadaist Poetry, published a book of the same name and publications by artist Mehraneh Atashi and psychiatrist Jan Ballx. As part of the project for Documenta 14, he organized a performance by the artist Nikhil Chopra and organized a lecture and screening with the founder of e-flux Anton Vidokle and Arseniy Zhilyaev. So far, he has published eighteen publications mapping individual or group expressions in contemporary art. He organized an exhibition of Slovak art publishing houses at the Red Gallery in London. Currently, he is also a doctoral student at the Department of Intermedia at the AFAD.

 

---

András Cséfalvay / Last generation

• Object Installation
• Courtyard of St. Ján Nepomuk, Laurinská 3
• 29. 09. - 01. 10. 2023, 7:00 p.m. – 12 a.m.

The monumental installation of eight three-meter eggs protected by a wall of sandbags travels from Pohoda to this year's Biela noc. Step in and get up close and personal with the latest generation. The impact of the asteroid on the Earth caused the extinction of many animals. It came unplanned, many were planning their future, family, career. A few fossil nests with intact eggs, buried in earthen mounds, remained after the dinosaurs. The fragility of shells can remind us of the fragility of life, the extinction that humanity brings upon itself. However, if we look up, a bird just flew over us, we realize that flight is one of the adaptations of dinosaurs that allowed them to survive. Birds are those dinosaurs that learned to fly. So is there hope for humanity? The installation of six three-meter eggs protected by a wall of sandbags becomes a space for thinking and discussing the current (sixth) mass extinction. We thank the Pohoda festival for lending the work.

András Cséfalvay is a visual artist who creates stories, installations and videos mainly using digital technologies. He often deals with the relationship between culture and technology, the political and ethical aspects of "listening" to the non-dominant voice, and different interpretations of the world. He is interested in non-anthropocentric narratives in philosophy and natural sciences. Moreover, he is a teacher in Digital Arts platform at the AFAD.

 

---

Pavol Truben / Fragility INSIDE

• Light installation
• Eurovea lobby, Pribinova 34
• 29. 09. - 01. 10. 2023, 7 p.m. – 12 a.m.

More and more people today are experiencing a feeling of stress and overwhelm. We can't keep up, we can't control it, and sometimes we feel like our heads are going to explode. On Biela noc 2023, a series of luminous figurative objects by Pavol Truben, popularly called "yogis," is being presented again. They represent an ironic view of the contemporary, career-oriented individual who compensates for their work overload with urban yoga. Their inflated heads are strained almost to the point of bursting under the constant pressure of the tightening straps. They could be seen on the embankment of the Danube or in the Košice city park already during the Biela noc in 2021. Truben is following up on this work within the current edition and reinterpreting it. However, this time the fragility in the title is also translated into the material approach of the author to the objects. In them, he combines iron constructions with fragile blown glass, tied together with tightening straps. The boundary between life balance and career burst is thus brought to a critical point, up to the physical level. http://www.pavoltruben.eu/works/under-pressure  

Supported by JTRE. The creation of the work was supported using public resources in the form of a scholarship by the Slovak art council. The creation of the work was financially supported by the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava in the form of a grant.

Pavol Truben is a Slovak visual artist, graphic designer and teacher at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava. In his work, he deals with current social issues, which he tries to reflect with insight and a subtle dose of irony. As he has already discovered, he cannot orientate himself on one medium. He feels good in drawing, graphics, object and spatial installation, and his working method is analysis, planning and curiosity. In 2021, he received the award of the NOVUM Foundation and was a finalist of the Celeste prize 2013 at the Art center Ex-bibli in Rome. He actively exhibits in Slovakia and abroad. In 2022, among other things, he presented his installation Under pressure at the Biela noc event in Paris. http://www.pavoltruben.eu/

 

---

Jakub Kopec & František Demeter & Ján Čumlivski / Space Is the Place

• Immersive installation
• SNM, Múzejna 6 (entrance from Múzejná Street)
• 29. 09. - 01. 10. 2023, 7 p.m. – 12 a.m.

Enter the Space is the Place installation and let yourself be absorbed by space and the softness of infinity. The impressive installation responds to the soft inflatable environments of the Slovak conceptual artist Stan Filko. However, it also contains references to mathematical thinking, experimental architecture or digital spaces of the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries. It is based on the properties of the so-called The Klein bottle, which is an example of a non-orientable surface in mathematics. It is a closed entity that has no inside or outside. From a mathematical point of view, the Klein bottle has no volume and it is not distinguishable what is outside and what (or which point of space) is inside. The territory of this environment is not defined by solid walls, but by the sensual experience of the viewer who enters the work. The surface of the work is covered by a grid, which also enables its optical transformation into a boundless, completely indefinite space. We thank the Central Slovak Gallery in Banská Bystrica for lending the work. The gallery owns an extensive collection of archival and project works by the neo-avant-garde artist of the 1960s generation, Stan Filko. The format of the permanent exhibition from this HYDROZOA collection is not traditionally conceived as a closed and finished exhibition, but has a variable nature according to the changing program. In SSG, it is realized by invited authors who critically reevaluate Filko's radical concepts and update his legacy for the present in autonomous artistic projects. The program was made available to the public in the introductory part in 2017, in the fourth part the site-specific spatial installation SPACE IS THE PLACE was realized in the joint author's concept of architect Jakub Kopec, artist František Demeter and graphic designer Jan Čumlivský.

With the support of JTRE. Photo by Ján Kekeli.

František Demeter studied at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava, where he currently works as an assistant professor at the Department of Painting. In 2015, he was a finalist for the Oskar Čepan Award. Among his exhibitions from the recent period are the independent projects "What we were, maybe you weren't" (Galéria Soda, Bratislava, 2019) "I have nothing" (Gallery ± 0.0, Žilina 2017), Big canvas (Gallery 19, Bratislava 2017), "Nothing than an area" (Galerie SPZ Prague 2014), "NO YES NO" (Krokus Gallery, Bratislava 2014) and other group exhibitions at home and abroad.