Wake Up Slowly, Butterfly


In collaboration with Barbora Volfová, 2021
Soundscape performance by one and only Koruth
with candles by Hadaikum
Performance photos by Michal Králíček
Installation view of the exhibition by Max Vajt

Every day he seemed to fumble his feet, searching for solid ground beneath it, while only stepping into emptiness. In a strict line of structures, a judge stands above him on each side, assessing whether he is what he should be. As if everything important to experience was happening outside of him. As if he was defined by a mere endless relating to what had been here before, and was thus losing what was to come. He wanted to break free from the captivity of the past, and so he immersed himself in his own memories. A world without traditions seems to be running out of time. Made up of inner feelings, both past and present, yet it perhaps captures something generic. It is not clear in it what is a subject and what is an object; what is illusionary and what is real. Maybe what has never been is more real than what is.

Installation view of the exhibition by Sophie Pölz

group show The Somnambulists

Curated by Nika Kupyrova & Michal Stolárik
Opening 26. 6. 202227. 6 – 28. 8. 2022
Kunstverein Eisenstadt, Austria


The sculptures of Edita Štrajtova and Barbora Volfova give an impression of lightness and fragility — in contradiction to the qualities typically associated with the materials of which they are made. Large steel constructions seem to be spun into existence rather than welded, or rather drawn inside the space itself, freehand. The focus on the space is not coincidental: for Štrajtova and Volfova it doesn’t only function as a background, but is also divided into narrative zones setting a stage for certain emotions and experiences. The installation Wake Up Slowly, Butterfly, from which the exhibited sculptures originate, deals with themes of hideout and safe space. Citing Kafka’s short story “The Burrow” as inspiration, the artists imagine the viewer as an introspective protagonist, an inhabitant of a sanctuary opposing the hostility of the world. At the same time, the hideout is flawed, acting as a cage as well as a shelter. The only option to exist is in the acceptance of vulnerability, in an intermediate state between the inside and the outside.


text: Nika Kupyrova & Michal Stolárik