Deduce & Detect

JANUARY 7- FEBRUARY 28, 2021
Caesar Gallery - Trienal SEFO 2021

The second exhibition presented by the traditional Caesar Gallery in Olomouc as part of the SEFO 2021 Triennial presents a pair of safely established contemporary authors, printmaker Šimon Brejcha and intermedialist Michal Kindernay. Together with the young architect María Štěfanová, they share an interest in the landscape and natural elements. While their work is not engaged in the true sense of the word, it is definitely conscious. And for younger curators, SEFO is a good impulse for their own thoughts. 

The exhibition of three authors and three curators – Jakub Frank, Barbora Kundračíková and Martina Mertová – is tied not only to the objectives of the first year of the Trienále SEFO, which examines and verifies the possibilities of our relationship with and thinking about the world, but also indirectly responds to the main theme of Olomouc Ecological Days 2020 (EDO) – it puts forward an argument within an argument, asking: If ecology and our relationship with nature is one of the main topics of the day; if, at the same time, attention is naturally focused on only a few dominant areas such as water scarcity and global warming, how do we deal with those topics, perhaps marginal in nature, that are too fragile for normal perception? And what about our personal experience with today’s landscape?

Šimon Brejcha *1963, printmaker / lives and works in Prague

Šimon Brejcha pushes the boundaries of contemporary printmaking. His continuous explorations of the medium’s technical possibilities, combined with a profound interest in principle of an impression, subtlety of repeated gesture, and conscious work with color keep his practice within the printmaking framework; however, his manifested interest in an image in general sense allows for his work to expand printmaking boundaries. The artist’s way of understanding printmaking as a sort of strategy – exceptionally unbound and focused – rather than a technology-based reproducibility of expression has firmly established him in international context. In the Triennial, Brejcha is presented as an artist demonstrating a change in paradigm, an end of Anthropocene, and adoption of a new scale (of time, space, and meaning) which, although no longer simply human, still takes into account human dimension.

Michal Kindernay *1978, intermedia and sound artist / lives and works in Prague

Michal Kindernay is a renowned contemporary artist working in intermedia and sound art. In his practice Kindernay combines various media, from spatial audiovisual installations and objects, through video-documents and field recordings to electro-acoustic compositions, which all share his fundamental interest in ecological processes and environmental engagement. He is a silent observer, tireless explorer, unusual scientist, and tenacious experimenter. His creative methods are firmly based in reality and facts, their resulting form is, nevertheless, exceptionally visually and emotionally effective.

Marie Štefanová *1991, architect / lives and works in Prague and Nový Jičín

Moravia-born architect Marie Štefanová studied at the experimental Architectural Studio IV at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague. She was awarded a fellowship in Japan, and work residencies in Zagreb and Amsterdam. Her student projects received a number of prizes, including one at the Annual Thesis Exhibition organized by the Czech Chamber or Architects. Štefanová challenges boundaries of architectural disciplines. The layers of symbolic meaning embodied in her architectural projects together with their openness to experimentation blur the line between architecture and conceptual art.