Zdena Kolečková is a respected figure on the Czech contemporary art scene and a representative of a generation of female artists who have increasingly gained recognition not only from experts but also from the broader public. Her work has long been connected with the Ústí nad Labem region and the wider context of northern Bohemia. Kolečková is known for her ability to sensitively yet persistently address socially and historically complex themes.
For her exhibition project at the Lázně Gallery in Liberec, however, she adopts a different approach – one that is more personal, introspective, and in many ways also more formally nuanced.
The thematic focus of the exhibition shifts away from her previous reflections on Czech-German history toward existential and ontological questions. The artist concentrates on processes of transformation and change – especially the moments when living matter transitions into the inanimate, moments of petrification and the symbolic preservation of memory within material.
Kolečková explores these motifs through various media: from photography and collections of rocks gathered during personal journeys, to a video projection that serves as the entry point of the entire installation. A central motif is the sea surf – both as a physical and symbolic process representing a continuous cycle of destruction and renewal. Waves, formed in the distance, accumulate energy, reach a peak, and finally break at the point of collapse, gradually dissolving along the shoreline.
This perpetual rhythm of erosion and smoothing of matter acts as a metaphor for the passage of time, while also pointing to real geological processes – the undercutting of landmasses, erosion of cliffs, the breakdown of volcanic extrusions, and their transformation into rounded pebbles. In this light, the destructive forces of nature become mechanisms of creation, reshaping original structures into new forms – both material and conceptual.
The exhibition is conceived as a visually and conceptually layered space, where personal dimensions intersect with universally shared questions of impermanence, continuity, and permanence. Through material, imagery, and moving media, a latent memory is revealed – both individual and archetypal.
Although this time Kolečková does not directly engage with specific collective historical narratives, her work carries a strong imprint of introspective expression and subjective experience, which expands into a universal message. In a world where change is the only constant and chaos becomes structure, Kolečková presents a quiet, focused, and urgent statement. A statement about endurance through change, about memory and crystallizing recollections, and about stories that are continuously being formed – and disappearing.
This exhibition project is Zdena Kolečková’s first solo presentation at the Lázně Gallery in Liberec.
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