Federico Diáz is looking for a survival manual

Prague - The well-known Czech artist Federico Diáz has ventured into a post-apocalyptic time where the world as we know it is collapsing, and survival is difficult, relying only on its elemental basis. In his project Adheze, subtitled A Manual for Survival, he created several objects that explore the conditions necessary for survival in a critical situation using new technologies.
    The objects are being exhibited starting today at the Zdeněk Sklenář Gallery on Prague's Smetanovo nábřeží. The exhibition will last until October 3rd, and the gallery is open from Wednesday to Saturday between 1:00 PM and 6:00 PM. On Tuesday, September 8th, at 5:30 PM, the author will personally guide potential interested visitors through the exhibition.
    The term "adheze" expresses the adhesion of materials, which Diáz used in the sense of the connection he seeks between human material needs and his inner essence. "I asked my friends what they would do if the city they know collapsed. Most of them first thought about securing food and leaving the city because everything known and necessary would stop functioning there," Diáz described the starting points of his project to journalists.
    In it, he wanted to draw attention to the "subtleties" that exist beyond human material desires. He sees them in things like the trembling of tree leaves, the waving of grass, in general phenomena that occur outside civilization, beyond cities. The images created by Diáz are, in his view, a paradoxical representation of a human 200 years from now, a time when they can no longer experience such trembling and only have an electronic image of these phenomena.
    Visitors to the exhibition will see several wall paintings created using thermochromic paint and special software. This software creates lines on the painting that appear as the temperature of the image changes according to the program. "The lines create a biomorphic structure that simulates the spread of energy in nature," Diáz said. The characteristic of the paintings is the significant slowness of the emerging lines – something that, according to the author, is lacking in civilization but is very calming for humans; it could re-emerge in a post-apocalyptic time.
    The Adheze project is complemented in the exhibition by several objects from Diáz's previous project Ultra. These objects are a translation of graphic sound recordings, such as a conversation between two people, into spatial scales.
    Federico Diáz is one of the most prominent figures on the Czech visual art scene. Even during his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in the first half of the 1990s, he became interested in the possibilities of new approaches to artistic creation, particularly the involvement of software, sound, light, movement, and electronic technologies in art and architecture. His works are also known in the international arena, and he is currently preparing a version of the Adheze project for the Frederieke Taylor Gallery in New York.