The opening was taken place on Tuesday 13 January at 5 p.m.

Guided tour with curator Renata Skřebská has taken place on Thursday 15 January at 5 p.m. Only in Czech. Advance booking necessary HERE.

This exhibition presents the works of photographers who are connected with Ostrava and its region. At the same time, the photographs also function as identifiers of specific places and people’s lives in those locations. Although it may seem like a trite, clichéd statement, photographs taken in various eras attract our attention with their distinctive atmosphere.
The first generation of photographers that began capturing the uncharted worlds of everyday life in the Ostrava region included Gustav Aulehla (1931–2021), Fedor Gabčan (*1940), Viktor Kolář (*1941) and Petr Sikula (*1941). In their work we can see inspiration from Henri Cartier-Bresson. Their photographs harbour everyday secrets, a strange sadness in the ravaged landscape, yet also human defiance and dignity. Roman Polášek (*1967) expresses deep empathy in his portraits, while Martin Popelář (*1971) depicts unexpected situations with a fantastical atmosphere, shifting the captured moment towards the eternal. With his sensual glimpses of the female body, Otakar Matušek (1953–2022) places the viewer in the role of a voyeur. What links all these works is their raw attraction. Even if we wanted to look away, our eyes are constantly drawn back – and perhaps it is this attraction that draws Jiří David (*1956) back to this theme and this place.

Exhibited author:

Gustav Aulehla (1931–2021), Jiří David (*1956), Fedor Gabčan (*1940), Viktor Kolář (*1941), Otakar Matušek (1953–2022), Roman Polášek (*1967), Martin Popelář (*1971), Petr Sikula (*1941)

Curator: Renata Skřebská
Text: Renata Skřebská
Translation: Christopher Hopkinson
Graphic design: Katarína Jamrišková
Promotion: Jana Malášek Šrubařová, Magdaléna Staňková