Exhibition: 1+2

Date: 3.9. - 3.10.2025

Jaroslav Fišer – Ondřej Přibyl – Matyáš Páleníček

At the beginning of the year, the Beseder Gallery launched a remarkable exhibition cycle that emphasizes intergenerational dialogue. It connects established personalities with their younger colleagues – often former students. Similar to Jiří Černický and Antonín Střížek, Jaroslav Fišer decided to approach two creative individuals with whom he has a pedagogical relationship: Ondřej Přibyl, one of his first students from his time at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design, and Matyáš Páleníček, a recent graduate of the Michael School and now a student at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam.

However, the joint exhibition is not limited to presenting the teacher-student relationship. All three authors come together here on the theme of landscape – specifically, the landscape of the present, marked by the Anthropocene and the civilizational imprints of human activity.

Jaroslav Fišer comments on the transformation of the Czech landscape under the pressure of our desires, business visions, and consumerist ideas. This creates a space full of Baudrillardian simulations – images of a landscape that is changing before our eyes, often into kitschy imitations: cowboy towns, dinosaurs, Smurf villages, and other pop culture curiosities. The real landscape is being pushed out by these "masks" and is losing the ability to defend itself. The result is an environment whose real identity is slowly disappearing in favor of an illusory world of substitutes.

Jaroslav Fišer (*1965) is a graduate of FAMU in Prague. His studies were enriched by internships at the Intermedia Studio at the Academy of Fine Arts in Amsterdam and at Aleš Veselý's studio at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague. In his work, he often crosses the boundaries between media and combines photography with objects or installations. He is represented in the collections of Czech and foreign institutions, such as the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and Fotostiftung Schweiz. In addition to his own work, he also works with film cameras, especially in the field of animation. He has collaborated on films that have won numerous international awards or been nominated at festivals such as the Berlinale, Annecy, Zlín Film Festival, Animafest Zagreb, and Český lev.
www.jaroslavfiser.cz

Ondřej Přibyl finds support for his work in the historical technique of daguerreotype, which he has been working with for a long time. His fascination with this medium contrasts with modern questions of technical reproducibility of works of art, as discussed by Walter Benjamin. Daguerreotype—as a technique that cannot be transferred or copied—raises questions of authenticity, uniqueness, and durability of photographic records. Přibyl's photographs do not attempt to imitate the nostalgic aesthetics of the 19th century. On the contrary, they focus thematically on contemporary technical and industrial structures, whose rawness and functionality create tension with the delicate and meticulous material nature of the technique itself. The result is a visual paradox that raises unsettling questions in the viewer about the form and meaning of today's landscape.

Ondřej Přibyl (*1978, Prague) graduated from the Photography Studio at UMPRUM in Prague, where he later completed his doctoral studies on the uniqueness and reproduction of photographic images, with a special emphasis on the daguerreotype technique. He completed internships at the Studio of Typography and Graphic Design under Prof. Rostislav Vaněk and at the Studio of Visual Communication at the Universität der Künste in Berlin. He is a member of the KunstWerk art group.
www.ondrejpribyl.cz

Matyáš Páleníček approaches photography as a means of visual fabulation. In his works, he transforms visions, dreams, and imaginative landscapes into images that deceive the viewer and transcend the boundaries of reality. In his studio, he creates sets and models that then come to life through the camera as dreamlike scenes. His exhibited collection is strongly influenced by sci-fi aesthetics and literary images – it was created as an illustration for the novel The Day of the Triffids, John Wyndham's apocalyptic vision. Páleníček's landscapes are thus not a reflection of the real world, but autonomous fictional environments that seem both alien and subconsciously familiar.

Matyáš Páleníček (*2003, Kladno) is a graduate of Photography and New Media at the Michael School. He is currently studying at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam. In 2022, he received the Prague Photo Young Award, and a year later, the prestigious title of Personality of Czech Photography under 30, awarded by the Association of Professional Photographers of the Czech Republic. In his work, he combines photography with spatial thinking and a scenographic approach.

www.matyaspalenicek.com

Exhibition opening: September 3, 2025, at 6:00 p.m.

Entrance free.