Exiled to the Forest - Zuzana Janíček Muranicová

June 15 – July 28, 2023
Artist: Zuzana Janíček Muranicová
Curator: Jana Gombiková

The onset of the Covid-19 pandemic and the extended lockdowns that followed prevented people from working and living their lives in the way they were used to. One could say that much of Slovakia was “driven into the forest.” During this time, artist Zuzana Janíček Muranicová went on several-hour-long walks in nature every day.

“Over time, I began to see this activity as a kind of progressive poetry. Overall, it’s my personal reflection on this period—on my life and how I experienced it,” she says.

In addition to analog and digital photography and prints, the exhibition also includes objects collected in the forests of Bratislava—often used in the artworks in absurd combinations. The forests bear traces of our presence, marked by both playfulness and ignorance, negligence, or even brutality. Some of the works offer ironic commentary on the state of the republic, while others critique the condition of human thinking and our treatment of the forests.

Photo by Jana Gombiková, Zuzana Janíček Muranicová