The concept of the historically focused collection exhibition How to Collect Art: the Karel Tutsch Story will be expanded by a series of exhibitions of the youngest generation of artists, current students or graduates from art school studios. In this way, the curators will revive Tutsch’s basic strategy of discovering and presenting the works of previously unknown artists in a new context. Gallery Na bidýlku II will thus become a laboratory for new approaches to the traditional medium of painting and installation, whose transformations Tutsch has followed and supported for several decades.
The work of artist Klára Vlachová (b. 1998) is characterized by a sensitive combination of technology, natural materials and personal memory. Her installations work with sound, light and scent to create a multisensory environment that immerses the viewer in a contemplative experience. Vlachová explores themes of remembering, sleep and our relationship to nature, for instance through an interactive peephole or through objects that simulate sleep. Nutella for Breakfast is a return to childhood, but not a sentimental one. And yet: When is the last time you ate a piece of bread thickly smeared with Nutella? The artist presents an exploratory look back at a time when everything was ideal, inspiring us to notice these small joys even in adulthood.
Using hand-made, DIY, though nevertheless technically sophisticated objects, Vlachová explores personal yet universal memories. For her installations, she works with materials, shapes and methods that recall homemade craftwork, children’s experiments and little inventions. She makes inventive use of the DIY phenomenon, which is crucial to coming up with fast and efficient solutions. Working with one’s hands can also be an effective form of mental hygiene.
In her art, Vlachová creates situations in which technology is combined with available materials and simplicity is joined with a deep inner symbolism. With the help of playful yet symbolic elements, she presents us with a place to stop and observe. Her interactive exhibition explores the relationship between the object and the viewer and actively works with our observational skills, our perception and our ability to let the seemingly calm situation act upon us.
The exhibition’s main feature is a marble run titled Pendolíno (2025), a reference to children’s fascination with movement, speed and unexpected changes in direction. The marbles speed through winding tunnels, into turns and loops, their movement accompanied by sound effects that evoke a sense of travelling, of returning to the past, of uneasy children’s dreams. Pendolíno is more than a game; it is a metaphor for our path in life – with all its back and forth, speeding up and slowing down.
The object resembling an endless wooden staircase, along which a colourful Slinky moves with help from gallery visitors, recalls one of the archetypal experiences of a carefree childhood – repeated movement, a game without a goal, fascination with a simple concept. The moving spring symbolizes joy from the unexpected, from fluid movement, while the stairs symbolize time and growth. The result is a picture of childhood as a place where nobody is in a hurry.
Each of the exhibited objects can be understood as an imprint of the past, recorded with playfulness and respect. The artist’s goal is not to create a precise reconstruction but to capture moments when time stood still – the sound of the Slinky on the stairs, the clinking of beads in a doorway or the rhythm of marbles racing down a track. All these are moments that today’s and the previous generation (and the next one, too, we hope) will remember. Childhood in Vlachová’s art is not perfect; it is a fragile pole of memories in which reality and the imagination are intertwined. The exhibited objects recreate the atmosphere of a children’s room or playground. At the same time, they are aesthetic objects and functional elements that enable interaction – viewers can play, touch, create. Through them, Klára Vlachová gives viewers a chance to remember their own creative, playful and carefree relationship to the world.
