Jaroslav Kyša | Probing the Unseen
kurátorka: Silvia Van Espen
vernisáž 2. 7. 2025, 19:00
trvanie výstavy do 12. 9. 2025
ZAHORIAN & VAN ESPEN, Mierová 7, Bratislava

Pri vstupe víta návštevníkov kovová sieť natiahnutá nad hlavou, Pád (2025). Predostiera dvojitý prah. Je útočiskom – chráni pred latentným nebezpečenstvom. Zároveň je zdrojom napätia – v citlivom priestore, s nepredvídateľnými pádmi. Táto scénografická inštalácia je autorovou prvou „sondou“: atmosférickou, tušenou, ambivalentnou. Okamžite uvádza hlavnú tému výstavy: vnímanie toho, čo je neisté, v napätí, či neočakavané. A skryté.

Jaroslav Kyša nám predstavuje sériu najnovších diel, ktoré označuje ako svoje „sondy do nevideného“. Sonar je v pôvodnom zmysle slova nástroj na skúmanie: vysiela vlny, zachytáva ozvenu a reprodukuje to, čo oko nevidí. Umelec ho používa ako poetickú a kritickú metaforu: jeho výpoveď je citlivou sondou premietanou smerom k ťažko uchopiteľnej, krehkej a zároveň rozvrstvenej realite.

Sochárske formy, napoly potopené v bielych blokoch, sa objavujú ako náhodné prvky – úlomky pamäti, kultúrne fragmenty nahlodané časom alebo kyselinami. V diele Akvatinta (2025) sa telo stáva substrátom, pozostatkom zmeneným neviditeľnou koróziou, evokujúcim dlhý čas geologickej erózie, ale aj rýchlosť súčasných kolapsov.

Kyšove „sonary“ sú tiež nástrojmi prenosu: vysielajú signál cez hrúbku súčasnosti. Sú to správy pre vzdialenú budúcnosť, vymodelované hypotézy o tom, ako by sa naša epocha mohla čítať, skúmať a interpretovať. Týmto spôsobom umelec prezentuje ľudstvo nie ako slávneho aktéra dejín, ale ako neistého svedka vlastného pádu.

Výstava Probing the Unseen sa nachádza niekde na pomedzí umenia, vedy a archeologickej fikcie. Vyzýva nás k meditácii o našom vzťahu k viditeľnému, k pamäti a k vymazávaniu. Pozýva nás načúvať tichu pod povrchom, sledovať intímne sonary, ktoré sondujú trhliny v našom svete.

Projekt podporil z verejných zdrojov Fond na podporu umenia

Jaroslav Kyša | Probing the Unseen
Curated by Silvia Van Espen
Opening: July 2, 2025, at 7 PM
ZAHORIAN & VAN ESPEN, Mierová 7, Bratislava

Visitors are greeted at the entrance by a metal mesh stretched overhead, The Fall (2025). It suggests a double threshold. It acts as a shelter—protecting from latent danger—while simultaneously generating tension in a sensitive space, where unexpected falls may occur. This scenographic installation is the artist’s first “probe”: atmospheric, intuitive, ambivalent. It immediately introduces the central theme of the exhibition—the perception of uncertainty, tension, the unexpected. And the hidden.

Jaroslav Kyša presents a series of his latest works, which he describes as his “probes into the invisible.” In its original sense, a sonar is an instrument for exploration: it sends out waves, captures echoes, and reproduces what the eye cannot see. The artist uses it as a poetic and critical metaphor—his work becomes a delicate probe cast toward a
reality that is elusive, fragile, and multilayered.

Sculptural forms, half-submerged in white blocks, appear like accidental elements—fragments of memory, cultural relics eroded by time or acid. In one of the works Aquantita (2025), the body becomes a substrate, a remnant altered by invisible corrosion— evoking the long passage of geological time and the abruptness of contemporary collapse.

Kyša’s “sonars” are also transmission tools: they send signals through the thickness of the present. They are messages for a distant future hypothetical models of how our era might one day be read, studied, and interpreted. In this way, the artist presents humanity not as a triumphant actor in history, but as an uncertain witness to its own downfall.

Probing the Unseen exhibition exists at the intersection of art, science, and archaeological fiction. It invites us to meditate on our relationship with the visible, with memory, and with erasure. It urges us to listen to the silence beneath the surface, to follow intimate sonars that scan the fractures in our world.

Jaroslav Kyša (1981, Slovakia) studied in the Studio of Free Creativity 3D at the Faculty of Arts at the Technical University in Košice and in the Studio of Spatial Communication + at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bratislava, where he currently works as an assistant. He has completed residencies in New York (ISCP and Brooklyn Langer Residency), Leipzig (Halle 14), and Slovenia (CELEIA). In 2011 he was awarded the Szpilman Award, and in 2017 he won the main prize of the NOVUM Foundation, Slovakia. His works are part of the collections of the East Slovak Gallery in Košice, Považská Galéria in Žilina and Bratislava City Gallery, Slovakia. He lives and works in Bratislava.

Kyša aims to reflect on contemporary society and confront the viewer with the constantly changing present and our uncertain future. Through use of the laws of physics and nature in his multimedia works, he contemplates humanity and its geopolitical issues. By challenging fundamental human beliefs and knowledge of physical principles, he encourages questioning general certainties in our post-truth world.

Supported using public funding by Slovak Arts Council