Blind Spot

Blind Spot

The joint project of Petra Feriancová and Jaroslav Kyša at the Morra Greco Foundation, Napoli explores the idea of individual perception and the possibilities of its share-ability in relation to generally valid agreements in perception."In fact, we are not only ignorant but also blind. Just as it was at the beginning of the world, when life did not yet have sight, it was blind, and it was only created so that predators could hunt and their victims could hide. Élan vital is a mere and constant struggle which does not provide much opportunity for care or consideration. In fact, we are terribly and utterly alone with our sight, but also with our own survival." Generally valid theses overlay new versions of interpretations of history; there are new and legitimate positions of insight. However, perspective is an illusion on which we can all agree. Sight is deceptive. The same still life or object in a room cannot be seen in the same way since our position changes; it is a constantly shifting act, and we are alone in it, no one is looking at the object with us exactly and at the same moment, no one can. We can talk about it and we can even agree on what we see, give or take. Is the agreement the truth?It is a research on personal position, the position of micro-perception and its individualization within society. Contemporary science proves that there is no global presence. At most we can speak of a relative presence – relative to the moving observer. We look at each thing, object, from different angles but we never get a wholesome view. The distortion of reality is very difficult to measure. We would first have to be able to define reality as such, and only then deal with its distortion, a distortion that thematizes the problem of our mutual and at the same time different world view. Petra Feriancová works with what is currently available to her. This choice is mostly arbitrary and beyond her own control or choice... It is an on-site improvisation, and it creates a new narrative for Jaroslav Kyša's works, manipulating the author's original intentions. Through Feriancová’s associative reactions, Kyša's works acquire shifts and new possibilities of interpretation, confirming the concept of individual disconnection in the perception of one thing by two or more pairs of eyes... Narrative is in this case a term that replaces her previous approach to collaborations in which she has in most cases completed the exhibition fundus or display (the architecture of the exhibition). Similarly, in this case it is an acknowledged manipulative device through which she uses her non-authorial work as material to manifest her own version of the narrative. In addition to objects reflecting accelerated human time, Jaroslav Kyša presents a video installation Breathe Deeper, Should You Need to Come Back consisting of film footage taken in the Okno cave in Slovakia. Man, as the discoverer of this space, brought light into the cave with his presence, changing its existing state forever. Kyša used light as a metaphor for human presence. In his hands it is a tool with which he can reconstruct the darkness. Using pre-prepared props, he simulates a "dark mass" gradually engulfing the entire scene. He returns the cave to its natural state. Karst cave complexes are complex structures beneath our feet. They have a similarly unexpected size as the inner volume of a lung. Deep breath in – deep breath out. The video installation functions as a never-ending story without beginning or end. Do we not find ourselves in exactly the moment when the time horizon is curved?

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