The House of Lost Souls
An exhibition of contemporary art and set design in the outdoor summer residence in the West Bohemian town of Valeč.
The exhibition in a non-reconstructed originally baroque summer residence is traditionally a part of the summer festival Povaleč. The last year’s romantic theme „Melancholy of Marquise de Laverne“ is now replaced by a theme somewhat darker: The House of Lost Souls. It is loosely inspired by the history of the Valeč castle grounds and completes it’s story through both set design and artistic installations. The theme follows a real moment of the post-war history of the castle, which briefly served as a sanatorium for war veterans after the World War II. The exhibition adjusts the house to a place in which human body pains gather, as well as the sorrows of the soul. The insides of the old building are turned into an asylum of unease, fear and dark thoughts.
The exhibition in a non-reconstructed originally baroque summer residence is traditionally a part of the summer festival Povaleč. The last year’s romantic theme „Melancholy of Marquise de Laverne“ is now replaced by a theme somewhat darker: The House of Lost Souls. It is loosely inspired by the history of the Valeč castle grounds and completes it’s story through both set design and artistic installations. The theme follows a real moment of the post-war history of the castle, which briefly served as a sanatorium for war veterans after the World War II. The exhibition adjusts the house to a place in which human body pains gather, as well as the sorrows of the soul. The insides of the old building are turned into an asylum of unease, fear and dark thoughts.
Exhibiting artists:
Curators: Eva Riebová a Tereza Špinková
Tereza Bartůňková, Koen Baeyens, Josef Bolf, Eli Cortiñas, Tomáš Hrůza, Markéta Jáchimová, Jan Klamm, Jana Kochánková, Tereza Kopecká, Kristína Láníková, Milan Mikuláštík, Michal Panoch, Vladimír Turner, Jana Vojnárová
Curators: Eva Riebová a Tereza Špinková
Graphic design: Marta Maštálková
Production: Jan Hyk, Zuzana Hájková
Vítejte v Domě ztracených duší.
V historii zámeckého areálu ve Valči nalezneme moment z období po druhé světové válce, kdy zámek sloužil jako sanatorium pro válečné veterány. Příběh výstavy je volně inspirován představou léčebny, kde se shromažďují bolesti lidského těla, ale také duše. Na krátký čas se tak útroby původně barokního letohrádku stávají útočištěm úzkostí, strachů a temných myšlenek.
Když vám bude moc tma, posviťte si.
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Welcome to The House of Lost Souls.
For a moment in the post world war II history of the castle areal in Valeč, the castle had been used as a sanatorium for war veterans. The story of the exhibition is inspired by the idea of a hospital, where not only physical pain but also the pain of the soul gather. The insides of the buidling thus become for short time an asylum for anxieties, fears and dark thoughts.
If you feel too dark, use the light.
Markéta Jáchimová, The Sixth Painting - Ener the Void, combined technique, 2015
During the opening all present artists and organisators sat in the circle and following similar process as during the psychiatric session they discussed the exhibited works and the works and fears in general, while stuffing then empty tobacco cases from Michal Panoch's installation with the dry grass and leaves.
Vladimír Turner, FLOW, 11 min PAL video_ Stockholm_ Prague, 2010
Michal Panoch, Co jsem vykouřil za deset let / What I had smoked in 10 years, installation, 2005-2015
Tomáš Hrůza, Lodník / The Boatman, video, 2008
Kristína Láníková & Jan Klamm, Summer of Love, audiovisual installation, 2015
Josef Bolf, Malý císař / Little Emperor, scratched drawing, 2011
1st floor: The curators have prepared simple wooden beds for the artists as a base for their further work. „A bed is a place where fears and anxieties are born. Almost everyone has a childhood memory of some sort, in which they were scared to step down on the floor, so as not to be caught by someone or something. In bed, in silence and in darkness is where anxieties awake and, like a big animal, put their weight on the human body.“
(...)
„We were brought to the idea of wooden beds by our effort to grasp the space of the summer residence as a whole. The residence itself has a very strong atmosphere, which we wanted to supress and, by contrast, lift up the artworks. We found uniformity to be a convenient mean of using the space in favor of the overall impression of the exhibition. Another reason was to challenge the artists to think spatially, scenically, even if that causes a desinterpretation of their original artistic intent,“ the curators add. Each bed will represent a refuge, a piece of alleged privacy, just like in a sanatorium. (Excerpt from the press release)
Josef Bolf, Phobetor je jeden ze Snů/ Phobetor is one of the Dreams (The bed), 2015
Jana Vojnárová, collages, 2015
Jana Vojnárová, Untitled, collage, 2015
Jana Kochánková (in front), Koen Baeyens
Jana Kochánková, Apanači, installation, 2015
Koen Baeyens, Encounters, digitaly edited photographs, drawings on paper, 2015
Koen Baeyens, from the series Encounters, 2015
Tereza Bartůňková, Vysátá / Sucked out, combined technique, 2015
Tereza Bartůňková, Sladké sny / Sweet dreams, combined technique, 2015
Tereza Kopecká, Postel č. 8 / Bed n. 8, instalace, 2015
Kristina Láníková, Kondolence / Condolation, acrylic on canvas, 2015
Milan Mikuláštík
Slonová kost / Ivory Bone, email on canvas, 2013
Morphine, Copying paper, 2015
Morphine, Copying paper, 2015
View to the suterrain
Milan Mikuláštík, Kánon / Canon, video, 2015
Eli Cortiñas, Confessions with an open curtain, 5'30'' video, 2011
Courtesy of artist, gallery Waldburger Wouters, Brussels and Soy Capitán, Berlin
As part of the accompanying program a photo studio by Jan Hromádko and Jakub Hrab was opened inside the building, so the visitors had an opportunity to take away with them their own artistic portrait. At night the fasade will came to life by videomapping projections, followed by film projections thematically related to the exhibition.
Exhibition The House of Lost Souls for a rerun at the Freeze Fest 2015, a festival oriented on alternative art forms and the non-professional art scene, where "originality and authenticity are being emphasized, while dull battening on current trends is eliminated." http://www.freezefest.cz/english
To see more images from Freeze Fest exhibit see "The House of Lost Souls in Libušín" gallery.
