03 Oct 2010

Muzeum Montanelli presents Daniel Pesta LEVITATION

MuMo presents a hitherto unseen collection of works by the Czech artist Daniel Pesta.

The exhibition will include objects, videos, installations, hanging pictures, spatial images and drawings. The theme of the exhibition, typically for Pesta, is human beings and the archetypal nuances that differentiate them. It thus confronts us with certain fundamental questions. Is our coefficient of good and evil determined by our genetic code, or by early experience, upbringing, environment and chance events that either bring us together or keep us apart?

By uncovering the stories of our ancestors and the various hells of politics, society and family, Pešta raises a number of basic issues such as our collective conscience and our tendency to forget injustice and crime. How many disturbing stories never see the light of day? How many truths do we never succeed in discovering? In its way highly political and socially engaged, Pesta's work reminds us of the never-ending story of individual human lives and destinies.

For years a central theme for Pesta has been the Church and issues of moral responsibility arising from age-old religious traditions. The title Levitation can be seen as a personal dream of weightlessness, but also as a synonym for the technology Pešta uses to make the figures in his extraordinary and intricate works (whether separate beings or whole communities) float or 'levitate, and for the transparent materials he chooses to bring their stories to life.

All Pesta's formulations suggest an existential, often naturalistic content. In recent years, however, this element has receded and now tends to be discreetly concealed or precisely reprocessed using specific materials.

Most of the works will be on display for the first time in the Muzeum Montanelli. This comprehensive solo show will be Pešta's first exhibition in the Czech Republic for eight years. It will subsequently go on tour to various European galleries.

The artist's book Levitation is being published to coincide with the exhibition.