Vernisáž výstavy Jan Poš: Archeologie světla a stínu
Artificial light subtly contours the curves of the space and reveals individual visual fields. The darkened room encloses a shimmering something that multiplies and shatters throughout the gallery. That multiplied “something” signifies an indeterminate object on the border between the physical world and a digital illusion—two interpenetrating planes that merge into various models and parts of a single whole. What exactly am I looking at? What am I a part of here?
The artistic practice of Jan Poš, a sculptor and winner of the Discovery of the Year award as part of the VIZIUM 2025 Awards, ingeniously combines the complexity of the phyzial (physical and virtual) present with the timelessness of concepts such as chaos and order. The exhibition *Archeology of Light and Shadow* at Art Space NOV in Pardubice stems from this systematic effort to explore the modular aesthetics of a digital program, which temporarily manifests and stabilizes itself in constellations of objects. However, the artist challenges the desired sense of stability through the fragmentary nature of the individual artifacts scattered throughout the space, along with a digital projection that facilitates one of the carefully planned shifts between the real and the virtual. The same thing appears here in diverse variations and, in contrast to a horizontal approach, favors a vertical immersion into the depths of the object.
The gallery environment undergoes a controlled transformation. This draws us into a sort of makeshift laboratory, where the fragmentary nature of the exhibits encourages us to explore them in detail. The work with space thus transcends the boundaries of classical sculpture entering the space. Here, on the contrary, the space is discovered, actively reshaped, and its distortion is reflected through artistic intervention. A mere vessel becomes a malleable artistic element. This strategy is then intensely reflected in a site-specific light installation, which, through a geometric grid, contrasts with the warped mass of the gallery. An event (within) space is created here.
While diverse fragments gradually emerge from the darkness of the Gothic cellar before us, the complete experience of the work’s mosaic seems to always elude us just a little. It retreats into the shadows, testing the limits of our perception, leaving us to play with the fragments. It challenges the monument’s supposed self-contained nature through its disintegration. The tension between revelation and concealment, light and shadow, forms an essential part of this experience. Within it, each of us then becomes a quasi-archaeologist of a newly constructed situation that demands our attention and participation.
Jan Poš (*1996) studied at the Faculty of Art and Design at Jan Evangelista Purkyně University (Time-Based Media under the guidance of Daniel Hanzlík and Pavel Mrkus) and at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague (Sculpture 2 studio under the guidance of Tomáš Hlavina). In his work, he explores the mythological underpinnings of Western society and the relationship between the real and virtual environments, blurring their boundaries and shifting them toward hyperreality, while speculating on situations that transcend our everyday empirical experience. He achieves this often liminal aesthetic by incorporating computer-generated 3D simulations, which he subsequently materializes in a physical, object-based environment. He gained attention with the exhibition *Time Fields* at The Chemistry Gallery (2023), his participation in the Signal Festival (2025), a planned permanent light installation for the Florenc metro station, and *Hyper-Myths*, and *Counter-Rituals* at The Artemis Gallery in Vienna. He is currently also the recipient of the Discovery of the Year award as part of the VIZIUM 2025 Awards, presented by the Czech Academy of Visual Arts. Denisa Michalinová
The exhibition is supported by grants from the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic, the Pardubice Region, and the Statutory City of Pardubice; thank you.
The exhibition runs through September 12, 2026.
Curator: Denisa Michalinová