You are invited to the exhibition!
The past is the hardest thing to predict.
Artist: Jana Gombiková
Curator: Piotr Gąska
Nová vlna, Kukučínova 781, Trenčín
Opening (Vernissage): 18 December – 7:00 PM
Guided tour: 9 January 2026 at 5:00 PM
Jana Gombiková was born in Trenčín. She is a graduate of the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava and the Institute of Creative Photography in Opava. In her artistic practice, she explores themes of individual and collective memory, identity, and subjective experience, often working with a combination of text and image.
,,The past is the hardest thing to predict. This paradoxical idea reflects how unreliable and elusive our memory can be. The past is often reshaped by our current emotions, experiences, and knowledge. Each time we revisit a memory, we create a new version of the story, making it almost impossible to truly "predict" or fully understand the past.
In my series The Past is the Hardest Thing to Predict, I explore the functioning of memory and the possibilities for constructing alternative versions of one’s own narrative through the medium of photography.Through re-scanning and intervening in my own negatives, I generate new interpretations of what has been recorded, just as happens when we recall memories. Analog material is physical proof of a moment’s existence. But is the person looking at the photographs today the same one who created them?
Our memories shape us just as we shape them.''
The exhibition is an activity of the project With Roots in Trenčín, which is part of Trenčín 2026.
The project is financially supported by the City of Trenčín, the Trenčín Self-Governing Region, the Ministry of Culture of the Slovak Republic, and the European Union.