Ivan Pinkava
The body with its eyes. Or maybe the eyes and their body? It is difficult to say which of these two definitions of the nature of human perception better correspond to the basic principles of Ivan Pinkava’s work. Whatever the case, it is clear that both are central to his practice. And not only as one of the basic motifs depicted in his photographs, but above all as a starting point for reflections on the nature and possibilities of human existence in the world, as a means of exploring phenomena that far exceed, or at least in a sense derive from, the human being and their physicality.
The examination of what the body, face and eyes actually mean to the artist, in what constellations everything appears in his work, what looking at the body and through the body means to him, and finally who is looking and on what basis. All of this forms the leitmotif of the exhibition that Ivan Pinkava and the curator Pavel Dvořák have prepared for Trafo Gallery. Most of the photographs that will appear in the exhibition are a selection of works from recent years, the content of which is supplemented by a number of older, sometimes unexhibited photographs.
