In a flash of lightning, the project brings together a theatrical performance and an exhibition into a séance, a healing ritual, or a celebration of art and creation. It invites everyone unafraid to get their hands dirty into a landscape of objects that conceal the seeds of transformation. Robert Smolík and Veronika Vlková here jointly reflect on the work and legacy of the visual artist, performer, educator, and art theorist Joseph Beuys. His thinking brought about a significant shift in the 1970s in the perception of art—as something that belongs to the life of every individual and as a means of changing the world. In a quiet dialogue with his work, Smolík and Vlková seek possibilities for renewing our relationships with the Earth and its inhabitants. In doing so, the duo seamlessly continues their previous collaboration with Terén on the Návštěva, a production presented in South Korea, Mexico, Finland, Croatia, Slovakia, and numerous Czech festivals.
Robert Smolík
The visual artist and theatre author Robert Smolík focuses primarily on puppet making and stage design. He studied scenography at the Department of Alternative and Puppet Theatre at the Academy of Performing Arts (DAMU) in Prague, where he has been a full-time lecturer since 2004 and led the Scenography Studio between 2011 and 2018. Since 2020, he has been teaching in the master’s program at KALD. His main teaching focus is sustainable theatre. As a scenographer, he collaborates with professional puppet theatres – most recently mainly with the Naive Theatre in Liberec. Between 2005 and 2018, his theatre work centered on collaborations with the group Buchty a loutky and, above all, on research and development with the group Handa Gote. He is currently working with the collective Škrobotník, Šlundra and Šibrová. He is also active as a civic activist in his hometown of Jičín, where he serves as the chairman of the Balbineum association, which aims to revitalize the Jesuit College in Jičín. He is the recipient of numerous scenography awards from the Mateřinka and Skupa’s Pilsen festivals. For the film The Magic Quill (Čertí brko), he was nominated for the Czech Lion Award in the category of film scenography.
Veronika Vlková
Veronika Vlková is a visual artist, illustrator, and educator. She has long been engaged in work for children, children’s therapy, and children are also often a motif in her personal artistic practice. As a children’s book illustrator, she often collaborates with Jan Šrámek. Among their award-winning works are the book To je metro, čéče (“That’s the Metro, Dude”), which received the Most Beautiful Czech Book of the Year award in the category for children and young adults and was included in the selection of exhibited illustrations at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair in 2020, as well as Apolenka z modrotisku (“Apolenka from Blueprint”), for which the duo won the Illustrator of the Year award at Czech Grand Design 2020.
