SCULPTURE AND OBJECT XI.
29.06. - 03.09.2006
. Your Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, dear colleagues, . . Director of Gallery Z and principal organiser of the event
Allow me in the name of the organisers – the ARTpoint and ARTlines agencies, the Staré Mesto district of Bratislava and the Staré Mesto Culture Centre, to extend you a warm welcome to the official opening of the eleventh year of the international exhibition SCULTPURE and OBJECT.
SCULTPURE and OBJECT is one of only a few international events dealing with the creative arts to take place regularly each year in Slovakia.The event was born back in 1996 and at the first exhibition
in the central district of the city some 13 Slovak authors presented their works.
Over the years this humble display of works has turned into a large international event,
which has even already managed to establish a strong international reputation.
This exhibition is already a key part of the summer cultural programme of Bratislava, and has captured the attention of the cultural community, not only of Bratislava. This year the event has been organised as part of the project Old Town Summer Games.
Bratislava will thus transform in the summer into a place where quality art meets distinguished artistic figures.
In past years of the exhibition various artists from both home and abroad have exhibited their works.
Just as the objective of the exhibition is to acquaint the audience
with the broad scale of possibilities and forms of sculptural creativity, from an artistic perspective various styles,
forms and programmes are represented here, from objects that work with figures, installations, objects of a geometrical nature and minimalism, it also regularly presents a fairly broad range of generations, from renowned artists to novice authors,
or fresh graduates of art school.
The variability of the concept endeavours, at least in essence, to give the audience an insight
into the manifold nature of contemporary sculpting.
Even though this year we did not manage to totally satisfy the principal idea behind the exhibition, which is to put art in direct contact with the audience in open-air spaces of the city (exceptions are the balanced hanging sculptures
of Polish artist Jerzy Kedziora on Ventúrska street),
this year’s SCULTPURE and OBJECT XI. has seen the involvement of a record number of galleries. In addition to several permanent partners to the event, for the first time the event welcomes the participation also of the Gallery of the Bulgarian Culture and Information Centre, the Slovenská Sporiteľňa Gallery, the Gallery of the French Institute or K Gallery.
The exhibition this year sees the participation of 37 authors from 14 countries, coming from the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Austria, Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro, Germany, France, the USA, and for the first time also artists from the Scandinavian countries of Sweden, Norway and Finland, as well as Bulgaria and Turkey.
It is my pleasant duty to welcome to the event not only exhibiting Slovak authors,
but also the many foreign artists who are taking part personally in the event:
Hellmut Bruch, Gerhard Frömel and Roland Kollnitz from Austria,
Michaela Gorcova, Michal Cimala and Michal Škoda from the Czech Republic,
Cseh Lili ,Varga Eszter and Huszár Andrea from Hungary,
Jiří Chmelář from France, Pasi Eerik Karjula from Finland, Jerzy Kedziora from Poland, Vesselin Lambrev from Bulgaria, Annika Löb Mossberg from Sweden, Hans Martin Øien from Norway, Beatrix J. Piesh from the USA and
Jürgen Stimpfig from the Federal Republic of Germany.
Welcome to Bratislava and please feel at home with us.
VIKTOR HULÍK
