Factory of Arcadian Identity - FaVu Gallery by Eva Maceková and Iva Davidová 22.8.2024 - 25.9.2024Curator: Mariana Pecháčková

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The exhibition project titled Factory of Arcadian Identity will present the first collaboration between Iva Davidová and Eva Maceková. In their work, both artists work with fictional worlds (seemingly) unaffected by humans, which serve as places of romanticized escape from the reality of a chaotic present.

However, the idea of an illusory paradise, which offers purification of the soul through a return to nature, is undermined by the phenomena of catfishing and cottagecore. Sannazar's mythical Arcadia, as an allegorical land of ideal pastoral bliss untouched by civilization, is here transformed into a mere arid simulation. Instead of the desired contemplation, the scenes of the untouched natural world in Maceková's paintings and Davidová's drawings and reliefs evoke an almost disturbing sense of permanence and deadness. Nature does not come alive in the presence of man; on the contrary, it sinks deeper into the abyss of torpor and suffering. Thus, only unspecified creatures with non-human elements, as well as abstract bodies representing Nature, which appear non-invasively in the depicted sceneries, can become hope. Their presence liberates the natural world from the melancholic state of extinction and transience and, like modern forests, contributes to changes and healing in the landscape.

– Mariana Pecháčková