Visiting professors at the Department of Sculpture, object, installation

Helena Lukášová

Helena Lukášová is one of the pioneers of digital sculpture in the Czech Republic. She also deals with other related phenomena, such as the topic of artificial intelligence, not only on the local but also on the international scene. She worked with digital sculpture as part of her doctoral studies at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava (completed in 2009). In 1996 she graduated here, under the supervision of prof. Juraj Bartusz at the Department of Sculpture. At the end of the nineties, Lukášová undertook a trip to the USA, which was of fundamental importance for her further creative development. She spent six years in the United States, first studying and then working at the Johnson Atelier Technical Institute of Sculpture in New Jersey, where she became acquainted with the methods of digital production of physical object.

In her work, she deals with the possibilities of a conceptual approach to the creation of a sculptural object, which is no longer firmly attached to matter, but thanks to the possibilities of data conversion, photographs, movement, etc. the object may become a physical manifestation of a fact arising from unexpected sources, e.g. recording of one's own body movement, subjective visualization of medical data, materialization of a thought process. Through these strategies, it seeks to reveal a new coding of representations, thus calling into question the perceived perception of apparent reality and offering new interpretations.

Oto Hudec

Slovak multimedia artist Oto Hudec has created and exhibited his recent works in Slovakia, Austria, South Korea, Cape Verde, Portugal and the USA. He creates videos, murals, animations, sculptures and works for public spaces on the topic of migration, refugees and the effects of globalization on the environment. His projects often include a utopian perspective, such as a way to understand food, energy production, monitoring the transformation of an industrialized country or the decline of bees. With the topics of climate change, ecology and sustainability, instead of looking for new scientific solutions, he focuses on exploring how nomads or indigenous peoples have succeeded. He often collaborates on projects with children and young people from disadvantaged communities. Since 2013, he has been working on a participatory project with Roma children in Slovakia called Project Caravan together with the artist Daniela Krajčová. He was a finalist in the Oscar Čepan Award for Young Artists in 2012. Since 2018, he has been teaching at the Faculty of Arts of the Technical University in Košice.

Juraj Rattaj

He graduated from the Studio in 3D Virtual Space and Architecture at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava under the supervision of prof. Patrik Kovačovský. During his studies, he participated in an internal two-semester internship at the Department of Intermedia of prof. Ilona Németh. He spent two study stays in Prague - an internship with prof. Kurt Gebauer and a year in the studio of Intermedial Confrontation of prof. Jiří David at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague. During his doctoral studies, he completed an internship at the Czech Technical University in Prague.

In his work, he deals with the possibility of socializing technology through art. According to B. Stiegler, technology is not toxic, we perceive technology as toxic due to our inability to socialize it. The starting point for thinking about formal processing is in the reduction - not in the degree, but in the nature. In the reduction of the subsumed nature (in imitation), which can saturate - prolong our consciousness, which is increasingly governed by "shortcuts", it "travels the paths" of consciousness. He is currently working on the problem of colonized nature and is trying to rethink our view of this problem.

The most important exhibitions include: Zootopia (2021), The Exposition with Tomáš Roubal, Tvar Gallery, Prague, See Through Your Finger (2018), in collaboration with Jaroslav Kyša, Kunstraum Super, Vienna; Hive community, Schaubmar´s mill, SNG, Pezinok; Material in Motion (2017), Tvar Gallery, Brno.
Since 2010, he runs the artist-run gallery HotDock, focused on short presentations of emerging young authors, where he has organized more than 150 exhibitions. He lives and works in Bratislava, currently being a doctoral student at the AFAD.