The Gallery of Modern Art in H. Králové will open an exhibition about movement through the landscape on June 18

Hradec Králové – The Gallery of Modern Art (GMU) in Hradec Králové will open two exhibitions on Thursday, June 18. Painter and graphic artist Jan Pražan will present his work in the exhibition Moonlight on My Boat in the space White Cube. The second exhibition, titled Navigation of the Narwhal, will showcase the work of video artist and performer Erik Sikora, and will be held in the exhibition space Black Cube, the gallery representatives informed today. Both exhibitions loosely connect through the theme of movement across landscapes, and will run until September 13.

The White Cube at GMU is dedicated to presenting authors associated with the East Bohemian region in dialogue with selected works from the gallery's collections.

"Jan Pražan's works reopen questions that landscape painters have posed since at least the Romantic era. Is the artist imprinting himself onto the landscape, or is the landscape imprinting itself onto his work? Is the painter establishing communication with some higher order and thus arriving at a deeper understanding? How to communicate this subjective experience through visual art?" stated curator Tomáš Kolich.

In dialogue with Pražan's paintings and graphics, there will be a circular relief Crucifixion by Josef Váchal, which is part of GMU's collection. Both artists, according to GMU representatives, share the projection of the self into the landscape. "When I walk through the landscape, I become aware of the connection of consciousness and its reflection in reality in nature. Whatever I am inside corresponds with the state of the forest, field, landscape," Pražan stated.

The movement through the landscape as the starting point of artistic work is also inherent to Slovak audiovisual artist and performer Erik Sikora, who will present his work in the Black Cube, a space dedicated to the presentation of moving images. Through humor, he opens serious topics ranging from the transformation of human desire for knowledge, which today shifts towards internet search engines and artificial intelligence, to the functioning of the art world and the environmental crisis, the gallery stated.

In the exhibition Navigation of the Narwhal, Sikora uses landscape as a space for an absurdly tuned yet critical view of contemporary society and art as such. "The author is inspired by the exaggerated self-confidence of AI chatbots, which respond with maximum certainty even when their knowledge is incomplete or even untrue. Just as a GPS navigation system never apologizes, but only recalculates the route or suggests going north. The Navigation of the Narwhal becomes a tool for knowledge and comedic uncertainty," stated exhibition curator Anna Horák Zemanová.

Sikora also performs as a singer-songwriter under the pseudonym Džumelec. His Dadaist songs will be heard at the vernissage where he will perform.

The Gallery of Modern Art in Hradec Králové is a contributory organization of the Hradec Králové Region. It is located in a late Art Nouveau building in the historic center of the city.