The artistic practice of the duo Julia Gryboś and Barbora Zentková has long been developed within the framework of sustainability, grounded in the exploration of various material layers, recycling, upcycling, and a return to traditional textile techniques and craftsmanship. They belong to a younger generation of artists who turn to traditional artisanal, originally non-artistic techniques and materials. They work with second-hand textiles whose original function has already been fulfilled. They handle colored pigments, wide strips of gauze, and draperies marked with various imprints. These imprints record temporality, capturing something that was once there but no longer is. The textiles are applied directly to the gallery walls, creating a soft, site-specific wallpaper that envelops the exhibition space. The artists incorporate the architectural elements of the space into the complexity of their installation. Through focused work, they find protection and escape from a world saturated with stimuli, speed, and efficiency.
Much in their work is only subtly hinted at, slightly revealed. They work with the duality of absence and the present moment, with different scales of time for the body and the planet. The human factor impacting the planet is represented by wall reliefs made by layering cotton—reminiscent of sedimentary rocks, planetary surfaces, or soil cross-sections. The motif of layering or sedimentation is echoed in objects composed of metal structures with rounded organic shapes and wax, where the gradual solidification of wax forms layers similar to hardened lava, resonating with the textile layers in the wall reliefs.
Observing the environments created by Julia Gryboś and Barbora Zentková evokes reflections on the need for relaxation, coziness, harmony, and refuge, as well as the weaving of friendships and pleasant encounters. The exhibition opening is accompanied by a sound intervention by Jan Tomáš and Michal Ondrička.
The exhibition is realized in cooperation with the Polish Institute in Bratislava.
