Limits of Stability
Interdisciplinary conversation within the framework of the “Solid is only a Word” exhibition
October 23, 2023
5:30 p.m. Exhibition, guided tour with Dana Tomečková
6:00 p.m. Discussion
The event will be held in Slovak.
Discussion Participants: Natália Hlavatá Hudáčková, Jakub Huba, Samuel Kováčik, Dana Tomečková
The discussion will begin at the exhibition where the artist explores the fragility and instability of the environment, and implicitly of ourselves, by juxtaposing fragile, unstable objects and structures made of powdered materials that she creates with specific geological formations that come from deep in the Earth's history, such as Sandberg in NPR Devínska Kobyla.
As formulated by ancient Greek philosophers such as Lucretius, but also contemporary thinkers like Deleuze and Guattari, materiality is capable of free and restless movement, it is a flow of matter and energy engaged in a network of constant relationships. As humans, we are part of these relationships. Can our recognition of the power of things and the resulting greater sensitivity to matter inspire a stronger ecological sense?
The discussion will address these questions from the perspectives of art, physics, paleontology, philosophy, and restoration.
doc. Mgr. Natália Hlavatá Hudáčková, PhD.
Natália Hlavatá Hudáčková is an associate professor at the Department of Geology and Paleontology of the Faculty of Natural Sciences of Comenius University in Bratislava.
Her scientific activity is focused on various aspects of the study of Foraminifera, shelly fossils, which are unicellular organisms of the Rhizaria group. She studies the evolution of marine ecosystems, the origin and extinction of marine pathways and their influence on changes in marine flow and palaeogeography during the Miocene. She is also keenly interested in the popularization of education, science and research in Slovakia and abroad. She organizes professional events, lectures and excursions, and leads projects via KEGA – the Cultural and Educational Grant Agency of the Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport of the Slovak Republic. In terms of her work on the popularization of education, science and research, she has published several articles and collaborated on scripts and the creation of several successful exhibitions for the SNM / Natural History Museum (Earth, the Living Planet; TRITRI - the Tatras through the eyes of geologists) and the National Museum in Prague.
Mgr. Jakub Huba, PhD. is a graduate of the Department of Restoration at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava, where he currently works as a lecturer. In addition to stone restoration, he is a volunteer in the field of conservation and climate activism. He cooperates with several civic associations in saving Slovak folk architecture and castle ruins. He is also interested in the issue of the autonomy of artistic expression and various forms of time visibility in art. In 2023 he submitted his dissertation on this topic at the Department of Theory and History of Art at the Academy of Fine Arts. In addition, he is a member of the editorial board of the journal Kapitál (Capital), where he is in charge of the environmental section.
Mgr. Samuel Kováčik, PhD.
Samuel is a theoretical physicist and the founder of the Vedátor (The Scientist) project in 2016. He did his dissertation at FMFI UK in Bratislava, before going on to the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, where he received a research grant from the Irish Research Council. Today he is again working at FMFI UK and Masaryk University.
His research interests include the modifications of quantum mechanics, numerical simulations and matrix models. He writes popular science articles on seemingly non-scientific topics such as clouds, various animals and trees. To this day, Samuel still writes much of Vedator's text, does most of the images for the project, records and edits the podcasts, produces "Vedastorky" - short videostories, and manages the website and social media
Dana Tomečková (* 1986, Bratislava) graduated from the S+M+L_XL Studio - Metal and Jewellery at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava. During her studies she completed a study stay at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts.
She works with objects and installations as well as with jewellery. In her work she repeatedly returns to the theme of temporality through the fragility and changeability of things. She is fascinated by the unstable nature of reality, its elusiveness. She responds to it with deliberation and persistence.
Her recent group exhibition projects include In Pieces (2023) and Disappearing Body, (2021) both at Slovak National Gallery - The Schaubmar Mill in Pezinok. Her latest solo exhibition at Medium Gallery, Note on the Temporary Matter II - What Everything Must Be in the Air That I Think Something and You Say It (2023), was loosely based on Note I. (Beastro Bratislava, 2020).
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ERSTE Foundation is main partner of tranzit.
Project was supported using public funding by the Slovak Arts Council in the form of scholarship.
Media partners:
Artalk.sk, Flash Art CZ & SK, Kapitál, GoOut.net
