https://luboskotlar.com Ľuboš Kotlár Wed, 07 Jan 2026 20:21:13 +0000 https://luboskotlar.com en https://luboskotlar.com/menu-1 Tue, 19 Jul 2022 13:47:07 +0000 Ľuboš Kotlár https://luboskotlar.com/menu-1 &nbsp; &nbsp;Visual art &nbsp; /&nbsp; &nbsp;Curating&nbsp; &nbsp;/&nbsp; &nbsp;Photography &nbsp; /&nbsp; &nbsp;About https://luboskotlar.com/Visual-art Wed, 13 Jul 2022 15:35:03 +0000 Ľuboš Kotlár https://luboskotlar.com/Visual-art Visual art https://luboskotlar.com/Curating-2 Wed, 13 Jul 2022 15:38:57 +0000 Ľuboš Kotlár https://luboskotlar.com/Curating-2 Curating https://luboskotlar.com/Photography Wed, 13 Jul 2022 15:38:59 +0000 Ľuboš Kotlár https://luboskotlar.com/Photography Photography https://luboskotlar.com/Instagram Sat, 25 Apr 2020 21:30:06 +0000 Ľuboš Kotlár https://luboskotlar.com/Instagram ︎ instagram https://luboskotlar.com/About-Contact-1 Wed, 13 Jul 2022 15:45:41 +0000 Ľuboš Kotlár https://luboskotlar.com/About-Contact-1 Ľuboš Kotlár Contact kotlar.lubos@gmail.com+421 907 121 395 About visual artist / photographer *1991 based in Prague, CZ / Bratislava, SK <img width="1080" height="1350" width_o="1080" height_o="1350" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/dd7fe7d2c0bb98cbabed8fab7c6ddfc69919528b11aad4b8acbed00b31726644/CE9DA50D-C191-47CA-AEE8-1019D10136E1.JPG" data-mid="214622831" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/dd7fe7d2c0bb98cbabed8fab7c6ddfc69919528b11aad4b8acbed00b31726644/CE9DA50D-C191-47CA-AEE8-1019D10136E1.JPG" /> artist statement My artistic practice engages with conditions of uncertainty shaped by overlapping ecological, political, and social crises. Working across multimedia and installation, I create site- and time-specific “situations” that foreground process, ephemerality, and shared experience over fixed objects. Informed by queer theory and my lived experience as an artist of Roma heritage, I explore non-normative temporalities, liminal spaces, and states of dysfunction - not as deficits, but as generative frameworks for rethinking how we inhabit time, space, and community. Rather than producing stable narratives, my work often resists control, inviting contingency, duration, and embodied perception. I am particularly interested in spaces that have lost or shifted their original function - transitional environments that open possibilities for alternative uses, collective encounters, and new forms of attention. Through minimal interventions, performative gestures, and collaborative formats, I create environments that encourage visitors to slow down, gather, and engage in shared, present-moment experience. My projects draw on a range of references, from ritual and mysticism to contemporary technological systems, examining how belief, meaning, and social relations are constructed and sustained. Ultimately, my work seeks to cultivate moments of connection, reflection, and collective presence, proposing art as a space for imagining alternative ways of being and relating beyond dominant structures of productivity and normativity. solo exhibitions sometimes i like to go to gym with my hair loose2026Artivist lab, Prague, CZlast summer i have fallen in love madly (site/time-specific event) 2024 Summer swimming pool Mičurín, Bratislava, SK something's wrong and i can feel it2024 Nová Synagóga, Žilina, SK sugarwithin Biennale Matter of Art (in collaboration with Robert Gabris)2022Šaloun Villa, Prague, CZ nowlessness, act ii: the waveswithin OFF Bratislava2019Galéria MEDIUM, Bratislava, SKnowlessness, act i: calm after the storm(site-specific event) 2018Undeadarena.com, Bratislava, SKWhat we talk about when we talk about Anne Frank2017Galéria Nadácie Slovak Press Photo, Bratislava, SK prettywhenicry2015Galéria ŽUMPA, Bratislava, SK groupexhibitions Art is not a competition, but I'm winning curated by Miroslava Urbanová 2025 Galéria Jána Koniarka, Trnava, SK OFF Bratislava 2025 OD Prior, Bratislava, SK Whispers in Plain Sightcurated by&nbsp;Zhiheng Ashely Zhang 2025RU House, Governors Island, New York, USA Atchin Thancurated by Małgorzata Mirga-Tas2024Willa Oksza, Muzeum Tatrzańskie w Zakopanem, Zakopane, PL Under a Shared Fragile Roof curated by Miroslava Urbanová 2024Slovenský institut Praha, Prague, CZ Looking A – Way curated by Iva Kovač 2024 tranzit.sk, Bratislava, SK Y: Survive! curated by&nbsp;Anna Chrtková and&nbsp;Petr Dlouhý2023X10 Theatre, Prague, CZ SOMEBODIES SOMEWHERES SOMETHINGS curated by Miroslava Urbanová 2023 Bratislava Castle, Bratislava, SK Gypsyism, Balkanism - Through a Glass, Darkly curated by&nbsp;Bratislav Mitrović 2023 ERIAC Serbia, Belgrad, RS All That We Have in Common curated by Jovanka Popova within Manifesta 14 2022 Museum of Contemporary Art, Skopje, MK Světy Jindřicha Chalupeckého curated by&nbsp;Tereza Jindrová, Karina Kottová and Tomáš Pospiszyl 2022 The City Gallery of Bratislava, Bratislava, SK Gimmick within dsk. collective curated by Barbora Komárová 2022 Galéria Kolomana Sokola, Liptovský Mikuláš, SK Roma Resistance and Resilience curated by Denisa Tomková2021ERIAC Berlin, Berlin, DE Portrait triennale curated by Miroslava Kubáňová2021Liptovská galéria P. M. Bohúňa, Liptovský Mikuláš, SK Different Worlds 2020 curated by Špela Pipan2020Photon - Centre for Contemporary Photography, Ljubljana, SI Future Perfect Simple Continuous curated by Gabriela Smetanová2020Slovak National Museum, Bratislava, SK Keres Kultura! Robíme kultúru! curated by Emília Rigová and Petra Hanáková2019Stredoslovenská galéria, Banská Bystrica, SK Melanch lia curated by Miroslava Urbanová2019Považská galéria umenia, Žilina, SK BIG SEE Photography 2018within Month of Design Exhibition curated by Špela Pipan/Photon&nbsp;- Centre for Contemporary Photography2018Zavod Big, Ljubljana, SI PODKROVIE curated by Gabriela Smetanová2018The City Gallery of Bratislava, Bratislava, SK residencies &amp; symposiums Residency Unlimited New York City, USA 2025 Jaw Dikh 2024 Rzepiska, PL 2024 Artak350Grundarfjörður, IS 2022 MeetFactory Prague, CZ 2022 Villa Romanain cooperation with ERIAC Florence, IT2021 curatorialwork nowlessness, act iii: hot in here(site-specific event co-curated with Erik Vilím) within OFF Bratislava2021fallout shelter under Kunsthalle Bratislava, Bratislava, SK Smoke &amp; Mirrors(co-curated with Ema Hesterová, Oksana Hoshko, Barbora Komárová, Miroslava Urbanová) group exhibition marking the 30th anniversary of foundation of Department of Photography and New Media at Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava2020MEDIUM Gallery, Bratislava, SK Y(co-curated with Barbora Komárová, Miroslava Urbanová) group exhibition marking the 70th anniversary of foundation of Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava2019Galéria UMELKA, Bratislava, SK My thoughts have been replaced by Beyoncé lyricsLeontína Berková, solo exhibition2019Phoinix, Bratislava, SK not to capture an image, to maintain onewithin OFF Bratislava2018ART BOOKS CAFFEE, Bratislava, SK awards Oskár Čepan Award laureate 2025 Slovak Press Photo Young Talent of the Year 2016 media Qult (review) Tahle šatna je nás všech. O gay kultu těla i radostných proměnách by Vladimír Nezdařil2026 Denník N (interview) Fotografia ma prestala napĺňať, vraví laureát Ceny Oskára Čepana Ľuboš Kotlár by Monika Pascoe Mikyšková 2026 Artalk (interview) Existencia inakosti bez rámca konfliktu by Štefánia Ďuricová 2025 Artalk (review) Reč objektov na nebiby Dominika Moravčíková 2024 FLASH ART #67, 3 – 6/2023, Czech &amp; Slovak Edition (interview) O queer časovosti a kolaborácii v súčasnom stave krízy: Rozhovor s Ľubošom Kotláromby Denisa Tomková 2023 Momus (interview) How Does a Collective End? An Interview with Robert Gabris and Ľuboš Kotlárby Denisa Tomková 2022 MLOKi (interview) Ľuboš Kotlár: Prostredníctvom práce s dočasnosťou vytváram záznam súčasnostiby Michaela Hučko Paštéková 2022 work experience tutor Commercial PhotographyAcademy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava Bratislava, SK 2021 -&nbsp; visual editor, photographerEVA magazine, EMMA magazine, Madam EVA magazineNews and Media Holding, Bratislava, SK2018 -&nbsp;visual editorEVA magazine, Madam EVA magazineRingier Axel Springer a.s., Bratislava, SK2017 - 2018 education master's degreePhotography and New MediaAcademy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava, Bratislava, SK2016 - 2018PhotographyBezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Jerusalem, ISR2017 (spring)bachelor's degreePhotography and New MediaAcademy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava, Bratislava, SK2012 - 2016Visual Culture and Contemporary ArtAalto school of Art Design and Architecture, Helsinki, FI2014 (autumn)PhotographySchool of Design, Bratislava, SK2010 - 2012 https://luboskotlar.com/sometimes-i-like-to-go-to-gym-with-my-hair-loose Wed, 07 Jan 2026 20:21:13 +0000 Ľuboš Kotlár https://luboskotlar.com/sometimes-i-like-to-go-to-gym-with-my-hair-loose sometimes i like to go to gym with my hair loose site-specific installation objects production: holyhotpunkxcolor specialist: Matej Maturkanič architecture: Maroš Greš photo documentation: Ľuboš Kotlár,&nbsp;Michaela Prablesková, Jozef Rabara video documentation: Peter Bednár/artyoucaneat The suggestive and descriptive titles of Kotlár's latest projects, formulated in the first person, are not an open invitation to glimpse into the artist's inner world, but rather allow us to identify with or distance ourselves from a given statement, to form a kind of relationship with it. This is also the case with sometimes i like to go to the gym with my hair loose, which describes not only the liberating feeling of breaking an unwritten norm of fitness body etiquette in a given context. It also refers to a specific space that has a certain purpose, equipment, and the aforementioned codes of conduct. However, in the gallery space, we do not see the machines for disciplining and perfecting the body, but instead objects referring to changing rooms – places of short temporary visits for the purpose of transformation. Kotlár thus creates a simulation of a transitional liminal space that needs a body to be activated.&nbsp; The installation is characterized by the colour green, which is used in photography, advertising and film as a background – a so-called green screen for the subsequent projection/keying of a digitally created environment onto a monochrome surface. This color is also used because it differs most from the color of human skin. The artificiality of the color and the space transformed by it thus serves as a gateway for possible projections featuring human figure, but in Kotlár's work, it remains in its unanimated technical state. Similarly non-interactive are the components of objects that refer in their form to service and utility objects, but within both parts of Kotlár's installation they remain an allusive reference to larger frameworks – norms, competitiveness, physical discipline and purity – shattered by confusion over their (non)functionality or multiplied to negate their uniqueness. Miroslava Urbanová <img width="2000" height="1333" width_o="2000" height_o="1333" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/98a8cf281f684efeaa46396b1b73d52c95eae81bce2f88c1bfed0a551677b936/BT9A0170-_3-copy.jpg" data-mid="245711714" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/98a8cf281f684efeaa46396b1b73d52c95eae81bce2f88c1bfed0a551677b936/BT9A0170-_3-copy.jpg" /> <img width="1333" height="2000" width_o="1333" height_o="2000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/6f356088f104a2598907a39ea2ba59b7e3f82a2ad0e10de62450fff659e87927/cepan_vystava_high_quality-31-copy22.jpg" data-mid="245711825" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/6f356088f104a2598907a39ea2ba59b7e3f82a2ad0e10de62450fff659e87927/cepan_vystava_high_quality-31-copy22.jpg" /> <img width="1333" height="2000" width_o="1333" height_o="2000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/aa2735f5f66d3fa6b98729df6fb2d9db3c869963e1cc1a46da98e744861e2400/BT9A0183-copy.jpg" data-mid="245711831" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/aa2735f5f66d3fa6b98729df6fb2d9db3c869963e1cc1a46da98e744861e2400/BT9A0183-copy.jpg" /> <img width="2000" height="1333" width_o="2000" height_o="1333" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/27bf29cc5002b3d953b02ce1f9982ba8203a62e2f65027a4760bbf0b618bd88d/BT9A0167-copy.jpg" data-mid="245711965" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/27bf29cc5002b3d953b02ce1f9982ba8203a62e2f65027a4760bbf0b618bd88d/BT9A0167-copy.jpg" /> <img width="1333" height="2000" width_o="1333" height_o="2000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/081b15007e01f3328828934b787eef0d9349e02a244ca0854b732bb21d3a9576/BT9A0173-copy.jpg" data-mid="245711979" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/081b15007e01f3328828934b787eef0d9349e02a244ca0854b732bb21d3a9576/BT9A0173-copy.jpg" /> <img width="1333" height="2000" width_o="1333" height_o="2000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/331a2f9c3ccae75570c83319f8a575eace8ad88a510516da42a763c49c74d6c4/BT9A0191-copy.jpg" data-mid="245711980" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/331a2f9c3ccae75570c83319f8a575eace8ad88a510516da42a763c49c74d6c4/BT9A0191-copy.jpg" /> The title of Ľuboš Kotlár’s exhibition is suggestive, descriptive, and articulated in the first person. Yet rather than simply opening a window onto the artist’s private life, it constructs a situation in which viewers may either identify with the statement or consciously distance themselves from it. The phrase sometimes i like to go to gym with my hair loose refers to a seemingly inconspicuous yet emancipatory gesture that unsettles the unwritten codes governing bodily conduct, discipline, and self-presentation within the fitness environment. This everyday statement condenses the tension between individuality and social convention that permeates the installation as a whole. Going to the gym with one’s hair loose may appear impractical. Hair gets in the way of movement, clings to the perspiring body, and disrupts the ideal of optimised performance. Yet it is precisely this apparent impracticality that becomes a subtle gesture of resistance to a regime in which the body is expected to remain constantly controlled, functional, and performance ready. It opens up the possibility if only momentarily—of stepping outside the logic of efficiency that governs not only bodily movement but also the ways in which the body is socially performed. The fitness centre is not merely a site of exercise. It is also a space in which the body is observed, compared, measured, and shaped through repetition. The mechanisms of modern disciplinary power organise bodies across space and time, rendering them more efficient while simultaneously making them more governable (Michel Foucault). Kotlár’s installation, however, does not feature machines designed to shape the body; instead, it presents objects that evoke the changing room—a place of temporary pause, of undressing, changing clothes, and transformation. The changing room exists in the interval between arrival and departure, between one’s public image and the partially exposed body, between preparation and performance itself. It constitutes a liminal space that requires the presence and movement of viewers in order to be activated. The objects evoke familiar utilitarian furnishings, yet their function remains ambiguous. The body is left uncertain whether to pause, conceal itself, set down its belongings, touch the objects, or merely observe them. The learned choreography of the changing room thus gradually begins to unravel. The ways in which bodies move through space and orient themselves in relation to objects are not neutral. They are shaped by social norms and by their continual repetition (Sara Ahmed). Kotlár unsettles these learned orientations, disrupting our habitual behaviours as well as our assumptions about how we are expected to conduct ourselves within a particular type of space. The dysfunctionality of the objects, therefore, should not be understood as a technical flaw or a sign of incompleteness, but rather as a deliberate artistic strategy. This approach is closely connected to Kotlár’s long-term artistic practice, which draws on research and the theoretical frameworks of queer temporality and failure as artistic strategies. His work explores failure, dysfunctionality, and liminality as modes of resistance to normative regimes of time, success, and productivity. He relates his practice to “moments when the normative function of space is disrupted or transformed” (Ľuboš Kotlár). Space, therefore, is not conceived as a neutral container into which a finished work is simply placed. Instead, it becomes an active component of the work itself and one of the materials through which the artist operates. Each new installation transforms not only the specific site but also the work itself. Its meaning, proportions, rhythm of movement, and relationship to the viewer’s body are reconfigured in response to the architecture, former function, and social context of the location. sometimes i like to go to gym with my hair loose was originally created in Trnava for the Oskár Čepan Award 2025. Its presentation at Artivist Lab, however, is not merely the relocation of an existing work from one exhibition venue to another. Rather, the Prague installation constitutes a new iteration of the work, and with it, a new manifestation of its form. Here, the transformation of the work is not a secondary consequence of its transfer between exhibition spaces, but a fundamental component of the artist’s site-specific strategy. The work has no single definitive form. Instead, it is continually reconstituted through its relationship to a particular place, moment in time, institutional context, and the bodies that encounter it. It changes not in order to become more efficient or more complete, but because it embraces instability, incompleteness, and dependence on a given situation as its defining qualities. This spatial mutability is closely intertwined with queer temporality, which disrupts the linear conception of time as a progression towards a predetermined goal. Within the fitness environment, the present body is often understood merely as an imperfect precursor to its future, stronger, healthier, or more attractive version. Time is organised through training schedules, repetition, measurable outcomes, and the expectation of transformation. Queer temporality, by contrast, offers a way of understanding time through pause, waiting, return, cyclicality, or delay—through trajectories that need not culminate in a predetermined outcome. Queer time departs from the normative sequence of education, work, partnership, reproduction, and the accumulation of property (Jack Halberstam). Failure, in this context, need not signify deficiency; rather, it can become a means of escaping dominant notions of success, productivity, and social recognition. Time itself is not a neutral medium. It functions as a social organiser of bodies, determining which rhythms of life are considered proper, productive, and valuable (Elizabeth Freeman). In Kotlár’s installation, the temporality of the changing room is extended. It ceases to function merely as an interval preceding performance and instead becomes the very experience of the work itself. Viewers are invited to remain within a liminal state, inhabiting a space without a singular function and without the imperative to move swiftly from preparation to outcome. Kotlár describes this possibility as follows: “Artistic practice functions as a queer technology of time: as a tool for rejecting a futurity defined by productivity, growth, and reproduction, while simultaneously articulating alternative modes of existence grounded in the present, in dysfunctionality, and in shared experience.” (Ľuboš Kotlár) A significant visual motif of the installation is the colour green. In photography, film, and advertising, the so-called green screen functions as a backdrop intended to be removed and replaced by another image. In Kotlár’s installation, however, this substitution never takes place. The green surface remains visible, unanimated, and open. Technical images are produced within apparatuses and programmes that predefine the range of possible outcomes (Vilém Flusser). Kotlár, however, leaves this programme incomplete. The prepared backdrop does not generate the expected illusion but remains a surface for potential projections that have yet to be realised. Images, moreover, come to stand between human beings and reality, shaping what we are capable of perceiving as real, memorable, and worthy of attention (Susan Sontag). In this installation, however, the final image of the body is absent. We are not presented with an ideal form towards which we are expected to strive. Instead, the body emerges not as a completed image of performance but as a mutable, vulnerable, and politically legible presence. Queer temporality can open up, already within the present moment, glimpses of another mode of existence that has not yet been fully realised (José Esteban Muñoz). Such moments may also arise through small gestures that refuse to subject every movement to the imperatives of utility and self-presentation. sometimes i like to go to gym with my hair loose thus does not construct a space of complete liberation from bodily and social norms. It does, however, allow those norms to fail, if only momentarily. The lockers lose their unequivocal function, the green backdrop refuses to produce an image, and the changing room no longer leads towards the anticipated performance. For a brief moment, the body is able to step outside the programme that compels it towards constant optimisation, existing without the obligation to become a better, more efficient, or more socially acceptable version of itself. Tamara Moyzes <img width="2000" height="1334" width_o="2000" height_o="1334" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/2905ddc822b263d60bd4c30728c081c1de81fb9e5c14293e426812adf34024e9/0H4A3580.jpg" data-mid="250896797" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/2905ddc822b263d60bd4c30728c081c1de81fb9e5c14293e426812adf34024e9/0H4A3580.jpg" /> <img width="2000" height="1334" width_o="2000" height_o="1334" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/43e451907138face22e092d26a3049f8fa0ce1f2c0c2df06ea541c77811431cc/0H4A3760.jpg" data-mid="250896798" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/43e451907138face22e092d26a3049f8fa0ce1f2c0c2df06ea541c77811431cc/0H4A3760.jpg" /> https://luboskotlar.com/chapels Wed, 15 Jan 2025 18:13:45 +0000 Ľuboš Kotlár https://luboskotlar.com/chapels chapels object various sizes wood, stain, acrylic paint, mother of pearl, leaf gold 2024- <img width="1200" height="1500" width_o="1200" height_o="1500" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/65f6e0d8b83b4f40951c2491386f21ee3ab9487b1042156af648ac4e19805a67/BT9A2836.jpg" data-mid="224831917" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/65f6e0d8b83b4f40951c2491386f21ee3ab9487b1042156af648ac4e19805a67/BT9A2836.jpg" /> <img width="1200" height="1500" width_o="1200" height_o="1500" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/7c86123d8bec8b0f6e4f38eef5bb54a54a5ce23585ac1868bb55ae5a9e8b3b5c/BT9A2832.jpg" data-mid="224831916" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/7c86123d8bec8b0f6e4f38eef5bb54a54a5ce23585ac1868bb55ae5a9e8b3b5c/BT9A2832.jpg" /> *installation view at Atchin Than; Willa Oksza, Muzeum Tatrzańskie w Zakopanem, Zakopane, PL; 2024 During summer of 2024 I took part in a symposium organised by Fundacja Jaw Dikh in Rzepiska, Poland. These objects are directly inspired by the chapels found in the area, that are being built by the residents in front of their homes and serve as spiritual protection. I became increasingly interested in this subject, since while a house itself serves as a shelter for our physical safety, i assume these chapels are supposed to deliver spiritual one - bring a peace of mind, a warmness and calmness to the house. I actually very appreciate the idea of building a talisman to look after you, after all, it is very typical for people accross various cultures to put meaning into objects. I was working with physical form of these chapels, which when stripped down to their bare shape suddenly become very obscure and inherently queer objects, leaving the viewer questioning their purpose. They might be reminiscent of a dollhouse, a birdfeeder, an actual cabinet etc. While the arrows keep showing the directions, without the information provided it’s impossible to know where the roads are leading. The viewer is left with the idea of having to choose a path, while not knowing what is at the end. These objects, robbed of their original religious meaning, might still be able to bring a sense of fellowship and hope. <img width="1200" height="1500" width_o="1200" height_o="1500" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f72df290e48061e8e03346eb2f4fd55e1db0e2773e098422ac8bb81d5d3f7479/BT9A2880.jpg" data-mid="224831919" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/f72df290e48061e8e03346eb2f4fd55e1db0e2773e098422ac8bb81d5d3f7479/BT9A2880.jpg" /> <img width="1200" height="1500" width_o="1200" height_o="1500" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/9e6a608b443c3ece9695390f0a9b73e79f0b69353d7cc33f6314510eb9385545/BT9A2872.jpg" data-mid="224831918" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/9e6a608b443c3ece9695390f0a9b73e79f0b69353d7cc33f6314510eb9385545/BT9A2872.jpg" /> *installation view at Atchin Than; Willa Oksza, Muzeum Tatrzańskie w Zakopanem, Zakopane, PL; 2024 <img width="1200" height="1500" width_o="1200" height_o="1500" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/777fadd7efa40ccbd983d0dde8b7c891c59d14178d103848605685f41ac15859/BT9A0894.jpg" data-mid="231801761" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/777fadd7efa40ccbd983d0dde8b7c891c59d14178d103848605685f41ac15859/BT9A0894.jpg" /> <img width="1200" height="1500" width_o="1200" height_o="1500" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/2820cb90316bba269b6c702f204b93674771a797824a89675684e50fabdba274/BT9A0885_2.jpg" data-mid="231801760" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/2820cb90316bba269b6c702f204b93674771a797824a89675684e50fabdba274/BT9A0885_2.jpg" /> *installation view at The New Stage, National Theatre, Prague, CZ; 2025; commissioned by Ara Art https://luboskotlar.com/last-summer-i-have-fallen-in-love-madly Fri, 25 Oct 2024 17:37:42 +0000 Ľuboš Kotlár https://luboskotlar.com/last-summer-i-have-fallen-in-love-madly last summer i have fallen in love madly site/time-specific event/performative installation 17 October 2024 Summer swimming pool MičurínBratislava, Slovakia space design/production: Gabriela Smetanovásound: NaiKavols voiceover:&nbsp;Jana Kovalčíkovátexts: Ľuboš Kotlár, Gabriela Smetanovátext edit: Katarína K. Cvečkovágraphic design: Ľuboš Kotlárlight design: Juraj Čechcatering: Štefan Sekáč photo documentation: Leontína Berková video documentation: Martin Toldy *project was financially supported by Bratislava City Foundation and the Slovak Arts Council in the form of a stipend <img width="1061" height="1500" width_o="1061" height_o="1500" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/763b69d6d3f54afac8489bef426142111ed31177b1da13a4c72c21770ab128f1/plagat-a4-web.jpg" data-mid="220315221" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/763b69d6d3f54afac8489bef426142111ed31177b1da13a4c72c21770ab128f1/plagat-a4-web.jpg" /> I conceived the project "last summer i have fallen in love madly" as a performative multimedia installation in the space of a drained swimming pool. My work has long been concerned with concepts of non-normative time and space, emanating primarily from the field of queer theory. The period after the end of the summer season is associated with a cooling of the climate, an intense return to work and school duties, and seasonal affective disorder. The swimming pool, as a space primarily intended for public relaxation and/or sport, is often tied to a set of individual memories that are largely associated with childhood, family life and collective activities. In its emptied/non-functional form, it loses the purpose of its own existence and loses its justification. A popular public place becomes a dreary and disturbing space which in turn disturbs and/or poses a direct physical threat. It becomes a space that is inherently non-normative, and as a result has the potential to exist autonomously outside of established social patterns. The installation in the swimming pool area is formally based on stage design. The original sketches for the project, which I have been gradually developing since October 2022, include objects installed directly in the pool area. These objects were partly based on the concept of scaffolding, construction, or reconstruction of the space. The installation was to include ladders and platforms into which glass panels, doors, lightboxes and other objects were embedded to imaginatively divide the space.&nbsp;Gradually I came to the conclusion that the conceptual framework of the whole project does not stand on the objects that I bring into the pool area. On the contrary, each new artifact in the space, although it adds a new contextual layer, is not a carrier of the main meaning itself. I decided to leave the pool space empty, filled only with the "necessary" technical equipment (i.e. light and sound) that directly encourage the expectation of performative action. Around the pools, imaginary communities are formed. It is common that if you regularly visit a swimming pool close to where you live, you meet the same people, just like in cafés, fitness centres or even public transport. If the swimming pool area in its transformed form becomes emptied, its function of building an imaginary community can be restored precisely by embracing it as our own at every stage of its cycle. In its emptied form, we have the opportunity to find new uses for it, new ways of spending time together and thus unconventional ways of establishing and strengthening social relations. Today, October 17, is the brightest full supermoon of 2024. The October full moon symbolizes the definitive end of the summer season, which is why it is also called the "Hunter's Moon" in Western culture, and is associated with the preparation of supplies for the winter (however, it carries various other names and meanings in different cultures). Today's event can therefore be understood as an imaginary closing of the summer season and its related activities, or, on the contrary, it can be understood as an opening of the collective imagination in connection with a space that has ceased to serve us at first glance in its current state. Ľuboš Kotlár <img width="6473" height="4315" width_o="6473" height_o="4315" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/3bf4cdcd1a64fa1ce3ed8411b54094fd9d818a229f1f0853c2cbe07191c8d0c5/3S6A2241.jpg" data-mid="221774791" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/3bf4cdcd1a64fa1ce3ed8411b54094fd9d818a229f1f0853c2cbe07191c8d0c5/3S6A2241.jpg" /> <img width="2000" height="1333" width_o="2000" height_o="1333" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/5af799f748f8a0b07774aef0e613751c263a508e1960d75c6d55c8d75460e741/3s6a2176-foto-leontina-berkova.jpg" data-mid="221774900" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/5af799f748f8a0b07774aef0e613751c263a508e1960d75c6d55c8d75460e741/3s6a2176-foto-leontina-berkova.jpg" /> <img width="2000" height="1333" width_o="2000" height_o="1333" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/e5fffd9b8ab6bd535cac2f2acc4dcc247435a0969cbd3fd734785d6ef35e584a/3s6a2232-foto-leontina-berkova.jpg" data-mid="221774891" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/e5fffd9b8ab6bd535cac2f2acc4dcc247435a0969cbd3fd734785d6ef35e584a/3s6a2232-foto-leontina-berkova.jpg" /> <img width="2000" height="1333" width_o="2000" height_o="1333" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/d53fd88f29f046203f5659ab3a25f53f21c457e29d0000a93ef9eb96bbb5f3e3/3s6a2214-foto-leontina-berkova.jpg" data-mid="221774977" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/d53fd88f29f046203f5659ab3a25f53f21c457e29d0000a93ef9eb96bbb5f3e3/3s6a2214-foto-leontina-berkova.jpg" /> <img width="2000" height="1333" width_o="2000" height_o="1333" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/68889be6e1d2c1ba19945a00850127f08f6fcca2608ff33b36b0bfa8fc40a898/3s6a2317-foto-leontina-berkova.jpg" data-mid="221775014" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/68889be6e1d2c1ba19945a00850127f08f6fcca2608ff33b36b0bfa8fc40a898/3s6a2317-foto-leontina-berkova.jpg" /> <img width="2000" height="1334" width_o="2000" height_o="1334" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/6a925b48a7c185a1b6a62146a4e02802299123b08321427497c274fd242be4c6/3S6A2297.jpg" data-mid="220315320" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/6a925b48a7c185a1b6a62146a4e02802299123b08321427497c274fd242be4c6/3S6A2297.jpg" /> <img width="2000" height="1333" width_o="2000" height_o="1333" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/6a4cf9331f54d73cb914a27606f4219fc04512c593d02cc7c04fa1ba4288f077/3s6a2272-foto-leontina-berkova.jpg" data-mid="221775011" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/6a4cf9331f54d73cb914a27606f4219fc04512c593d02cc7c04fa1ba4288f077/3s6a2272-foto-leontina-berkova.jpg" /> <img width="2000" height="1333" width_o="2000" height_o="1333" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/73dbb5e4b77ac9a2b9cb46018f7a9ad051dd3fcca5fcc0000ab1c062ce39dd94/3s6a2284-foto-leontina-berkova.jpg" data-mid="221775012" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/73dbb5e4b77ac9a2b9cb46018f7a9ad051dd3fcca5fcc0000ab1c062ce39dd94/3s6a2284-foto-leontina-berkova.jpg" /> <img width="2000" height="1333" width_o="2000" height_o="1333" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/a744b00f6a083ac5d508102b479d0f1942639aac7b5998a4f64cdd57e96121f3/3s6a2353-foto-leontina-berkova.jpg" data-mid="221774793" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/a744b00f6a083ac5d508102b479d0f1942639aac7b5998a4f64cdd57e96121f3/3s6a2353-foto-leontina-berkova.jpg" /> https://luboskotlar.com/untitled-climber Sat, 13 Dec 2025 18:49:21 +0000 Ľuboš Kotlár https://luboskotlar.com/untitled-climber untitled (climber) object 150x200x50cmanalog photography, digital print, stainless stell, plexiglass, LED 2024object production: holyhotpunx film scanning: David Mackovičphoto documentation:&nbsp;Leontína Berková, Adam Šakový, Ľuboš Kotlár <img width="2000" height="2667" width_o="2000" height_o="2667" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/5fa26f8e45b73eccdd1b4610468e8bb5a380c0620c1643a9fa3f715b24708de2/print-lightbox-copy.jpg" data-mid="241778636" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/5fa26f8e45b73eccdd1b4610468e8bb5a380c0620c1643a9fa3f715b24708de2/print-lightbox-copy.jpg" /> Untitled (Climber) is an object that operates at the intersection of image, structure, and embodied perception. The work is defined by a large-scale printed image encased within a surrounding metal construction. The image captures waves breaking along a shoreline, frozen in a moment of motion. While the scene initially evokes romantic associations, it simultaneously carries an undercurrent of unease. Through this ambivalence, the artist draws attention to climate catastrophe, the regenerative and destructive capacities of nature, and humanity’s persistent inability—or refusal—to either protect the natural world or extricate itself from its consequences. Superimposed on the image is the phrase “we are so bound by time. by its order.” Quoted from Denis Villeneuve’s film Arrival (2016), the text gestures toward the present moment while invoking the disproportion between the brevity of individual human existence and the vast temporal scale of geological and cosmic time. In this context, the quotation underscores the instability of linear conceptions of time and space, exposing the limits of human perception and understanding. In contrast to the fluid, organic imagery, the surrounding metal structure is sharp, austere, and markedly industrial. Its defining element is a ladder that frames the image from behind. The structure is unmistakably anthropocentric in scale and design: its intended mode of use is immediately legible, and the viewer can almost physically sense the coldness of metal against the skin. As such, the object anticipates performative engagement—an action that is implied rather than fully realized. Although the form suggests playfulness and interaction, it ultimately speaks to absence, restraint, and deferred action. Interpretation of the object remains inherently subjective, yet it is clearly conceived as a physical confrontation between viewer and structure. Exceeding the viewer’s bodily dimensions, the work invites reflection not only through spatial presence but also through self-recognition: the plexiglass surface reflects the viewer’s image, implicating them within the work’s conceptual framework. (The ladder is, notably, climbable.) This object was originally presented during site/time-specific event “last summer i have fallen in love madly” that took place on October 17 2024 at Summer swimming pool Mičurín in Bratislava, Slovakia. It was funded by Slovak Arts Council in a form of stipend and Bratislava City Foundation. <img width="2000" height="1333" width_o="2000" height_o="1333" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/d08a92646af0e137cc612b7e6e17f657642718c8ea08e63723726a2468e4f6b6/107.jpg" data-mid="241778266" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/d08a92646af0e137cc612b7e6e17f657642718c8ea08e63723726a2468e4f6b6/107.jpg" /> *installation view at OFF Bratislava; OD Prior, Bratislava, SK; 2025 <img width="1440" height="1800" width_o="1440" height_o="1800" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/95ee754e362fd92f3e60eff189e4065c00af20273ae638d89f2d12cb85689a82/BT9A2054-1.jpg" data-mid="241778244" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/95ee754e362fd92f3e60eff189e4065c00af20273ae638d89f2d12cb85689a82/BT9A2054-1.jpg" /> <img width="1440" height="1800" width_o="1440" height_o="1800" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/c6119d9d5a0c2dc791c6792e28bdd096679b0e4a91ef90b99e716ff285dc0ad3/untitled-climber-1.jpg" data-mid="241778243" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/c6119d9d5a0c2dc791c6792e28bdd096679b0e4a91ef90b99e716ff285dc0ad3/untitled-climber-1.jpg" /> *installation view at Under a Shared Fragile Roof; Slovenský institut Praha, Prague, CZ; 2024 <img width="2000" height="1333" width_o="2000" height_o="1333" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/61b9a2516100a853ed48fee6e384dbe64406961f59b4bda3537d9535bc8f1765/3s6a2231-foto-leontina-berkova.jpg" data-mid="241778242" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/61b9a2516100a853ed48fee6e384dbe64406961f59b4bda3537d9535bc8f1765/3s6a2231-foto-leontina-berkova.jpg" /> <img width="2000" height="1333" width_o="2000" height_o="1333" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/ae64bb80f7bfd5eb441e5124851dbde2cacb2471a7395e61c98ee05d7747f0fc/3s6a2302-foto-leontina-berkova.jpg" data-mid="241789734" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/ae64bb80f7bfd5eb441e5124851dbde2cacb2471a7395e61c98ee05d7747f0fc/3s6a2302-foto-leontina-berkova.jpg" /> *installation view at last summer i have fallen in love madly; Summer swimming pool Mičurín, Bratislava, SK; 2024