The initial dialogue over the form of Viktor Pivovarov’s exhibition at the Brno House of Arts began six years ago. For various reasons, most significantly the pandemic situation in 2020 and 2021, the preparations were extended considerably, but it was thanks to the delay that the exhibition, consisting mainly of new paintings, cycles and sculptures prepared especially for the exhibition halls of the House of Arts, was finally able to come into being. Photo credit: Michaela Dvořáková
Brno, April 5 (BD) – Visitors will be able to wander “The Gardens of the Rabinovich Monk” from 6 April to 3 July. The opening will take place on 5 April at 6pm, with the participation of Pivovarov, curator Máša Černá Pivovarová, and the director of the House of Arts, Terezie Petišková. The programme will be complemented by Josef Daněk and Blahoslav Rozbořil with a scenic dialogue entitled “Heaven on Earth”.
Viktor Pivovarov’s work is known for its peculiarly distinctive poetry. With poetic imagination he recounts the stories of his friends, fictional persons, animals, plants and other entities, describing the fate of his parallel alter egos. He works within a variety of cultural and literary contexts, using various modern and historical forms of artistic culture of European provenance. In the works to be exhibited at the House of Arts, the elemental characteristics of plants grow into mysterious, ambiguous symbols that co-create the organic structure of the material and spiritual arrangement of the garden.
Since the exhibition will encompass the entire space of the House of Arts, including the exterior, the viewer will pass through several different “gardens” during the exhibition. The first one, “Musical”, will be installed on the ground floor, followed by the gardens “Singing Rose”, “June”, “Eidetic”, “Night”, “Monk Rabinovich”, and “Disappeared”. Each of them contains a specific theme, variation or atmosphere, which together form a complete experience. “(…) all that remains is a sigh, a little sad, a little blissful, and a memory. Memories of all the gardens of pleasure and sorrow we have passed through,” said the curator, Máša Černá Pivovarová, writing in the text of the exhibition.
The inspiration for the exhibition is also one garden that actually exists – the one adjacent to Viktor Pivovarov’s studio in Prague-Kunratice. Recently, it has received a makeover from Pivovarov himself, and in composing it he made sure to preserve all the old trees from the original planting. The Kunratice garden thus inspired the creators of the exhibition to work with the outdoor space, and to place the first ever large-scale sculptures in Pivovar’s oeuvre in the Koliště Park outside the House of Arts.
The press conference will take place on 5 April 2022 at 2pm in the foyer of the building.
