Afordances - Kristína Seidlová

7.2. – 28.2.2025

Artist: Kristína Seidlová
Curator: Veronika Marek Markovičová

Is there an ideal space for upbringing, education, and work? What is the lifespan of ideas once they are materialized?
With this exhibition series, Seidlová uses photography and short videos to explore the stories of values cast into concrete, their decay, and their impact on the present. Through abandoned industrial buildings—and especially through the example of the Children’s Town in Zlatovce on the outskirts of Trenčín, a pioneering project from the mid-1960s by author and architect Peter Brtka—she examines the fate of spaces once filled with vision. The Children’s Town functioned from 1974 to 2005 as a unique family-type children’s home and at the same time a complex that provided not only upbringing, but also a space for everyday life and education.
The author combines archival footage with her own photographic research and interviews with former residents and architect Peter Brtka to analyze the interaction between people and their environment—from the intimacy of interior spaces to the public areas of the complex. Her work is framed by the concept of affordance (James Gibson, Don Norman)—perceived or actual properties of objects that determine how they can be used. She visualizes the possibilities for action available in a given environment, regardless of an individual’s ability to perceive them.

Photo report: Kristína Sedilová