Moonflower

recycled linen with cotton, bent metal, pigmented wax, hand-dyed gauze, recycled hand-dyed textiles in a bentwood frame, sound
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To immerse oneself in music as if beneath the surface.
To dive even deeper. Into oneself. Into memories. Safe and soft.
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To separate the artistic practice of Barbora Zentková and Julia Gryboś from music seems almost impossible. It is precisely music that completes the context of all the layers of the exhibited works, forms, materials, and processes. It definitively consolidates the conceptual framework. It offers a clue as to which path we, as visitors to the exhibition, might take: whether outward, along a rational route, examining the socio-critical levels of the works, the history of the materials used, environmental contexts and much more; or inward, into our own interior, thoughts, free associations, the unconscious. It is music that most insistently guides us toward immersion – first into its own flow, tones, and rhythm, and then into our own depths.
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Danger is sharp. Safety is soft.
The past. Can memories ever truly be impersonal?
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The exhibition space is softened by layers of gauze and textiles. The floor is covered with recycled linen and cotton fabrics. Every step here feels softer. What exactly is this softness like? Freshly fallen snow? Could it be the softness of moon dust? A sleeping mat? Fallen autumn leaves? Spring moss? None of these images is exact, and yet there is something of each in it – something pleasantly familiar, close and safe.
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The layers of fabric return us to the theme of time, which, in a broader horizon, cannot be perceived outside of layers. Through them, time is inscribed into tree trunks and rocks, just as our memories are stored at different depths of recollection, with access to them shifting over the course of a lifetime. The mention of vegetal nature (tree), inanimate matter (rock) and the human is no coincidence. Flow, immersion, rhythm, temporality, recyclability, processuality – all these are categories that connect the human with the non-human, with nature, the environment, the past, the “natural”. The exhibition is not detached from the world “out there”. It follows on from it, responds to it. Temporal, bodily and social frameworks intertwine in the exhibited works, rendered in a subtle symbolism that points to our collective and individual experiences of time and to their limitations.
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To walk all the way to the end and set out in the opposite direction.
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If we are able to truly immerse ourselves in the works of Barbora Zentková and Julia Gryboś – ideally repeatedly and over a longer duration – a natural desire arises to understand that from which this experience grows. A more rational perspective leads us to the materials and layers of meaning: the textiles on the floor were originally intended to protect agricultural soil, the gauze carries a history of caring for the wounded body, and the recycled wax in the metal floral verticals re-enters circulation. The motif of protection is thus inscribed directly into the structure of the installation, and it is up to us to reflect on how we, as a society, position ourselves in relation to it – whom we protect and who is left without support.
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The perception of time is revealed in its cultural and social conditionality, which affects both individuals and society as a whole. Within this framework, we may understand the exhibition title Moonflower (Ipomoea alba) as an apt metaphor. It is the name of a plant that opens at night and closes again at dawn, living in a cyclical, “non-productive” time outside the daytime “regime of performance”. In a similar way, Gryboś and Zentková create environments in which one can temporarily step out of linear, performance-oriented time and enter a time that is lived, embodied, and rhythmic. Their demanding, long-lasting, often repeated material processes and open-ended sound events (limited only by fatigue) recalibrate our sensitivity to work, care, and exhaustion. The exhibition thus discreetly suggests that alongside “useful” and “wasted” time, there also exists time that is “lived and shared” – and that sustainability here is not only a matter of recycling, but also a form of attention that requires perseverance, cooperation, and a willingness to stay with the material and with others, just as the moonflower itself needs enough time and darkness in order to bloom.
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Text: Ján Gajdušek & Tereza Havlovicová
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Sound performance: Erik Netušil
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Audio track: Jan Tomáš