The Rite of Spring
10.4.2026 - 17.5.2026
Eva Yurková, Tomáš Kurečka, Filip Kůrka, Pavlína Kvita, Bystrík Klčo, Karíma Al-Mukhtarová, Nikola Emma Ryšavá, Zuzana Svatik, Markéta Špundová & Viktorie Macánová, Jan Uldrych, Žil Julie Vostalová, Jan Vytiska, Adam Žufníček
Folk traditions are deeply rooted in the cultural landscape as well as in our souls. They have survived in behavioural patterns, gestures, rituals, power structures, and fairy tales passed down from generation to generation. The Rite of Spring exhibition presents folklore as a set of archetypal forms, customs, and images that have shaped the collective social identity throughout history. Yet the exhibiting artists do not bow to traditions in awe, nor do they approach them with romantic nostalgia or exploit their aesthetics. Rather, the creators explore the intrinsic tensions, where memory is juxtaposed to hypocrisy, poetry to anxiety, and protection to violence. They shed light on the pressure of social norms and hidden traumas lurking behind the sacred order, which we have learned to tolerate as something “customary”. However, the title of the exhibition, which refers to Igor Stravinsky’s eponymous composition, accentuates the motif of transformation. Inspired by the famous composer, who turned to the pagan rite celebrating the rebirth of nature as an impetus for disturbing the established musical structures, The Rite of Spring exhibition opens an imaginative space for critical review and updating of traditions – whether through a subversive gesture, empathy, or subtle humour.
In our cultural background, folk traditions are inherently linked to Christianity, which at its inception strategically absorbed ancient pagan rites and rituals mirroring natural cycles and myths, through the prism of which people understood the world. The intrinsic human urge for order, stability, and grasp of the transcendent was anchored in the narrative about the life of Jesus Christ and in an ethical framework that has fundamentally formed European society. Along with this came the binary conception of a world composed of opposites: good and evil; spirit and body; nature and culture; man and woman; purity and sin. This dichotomic concept reduces even female identity to two extreme images – the idealized carer Virgin Mary and the stigmatized sinner Mary Magdalene – as if no in-betweenness existed. The residues of Christian morality still permeate our everyday life, going mostly unnoticed yet vigorously awakened in shared rites that revive collective memory.
The spring rites in particular, with the tradition of Easter whip, uncover these latent structures. This seemingly innocent custom, presented as a symbol of renewed vitality, clearly shows the patterns of unequal power. While the women’s body is the object of the rite – allegedly necessary for their “revival” – the violent aspect of the act is veiled with tradition and collective consent. The whipping of women at Easter thus uncovers deeply rooted mechanisms where violence is concealed under the guise of rites, and domination becomes a culturally accepted norm.
Nonetheless, traditions need not be perceived as a rigid pattern that must be adhered to; rather, each of us can decide which values we want to profess and share. Eva Yurková (* 1996) sensitively articulates this possibility, suggesting alternative forms of the spring customs in her reliefs and collages. Turning back to nature as its primary source, the artist re-conceives the rite and instead of the whipping, she concentrates on collecting the withies and cleansing oneself with a stream dip. Her dreamy, poetic images resemble fleeting memories where fragments of women’s bodies dive into organic plant arabesques.
The artistic duo Markéta Špundová (* 1997) and Viktorie Macánová (* 1995) take on the traditional baking of an Ester lamb cake with distinctive lightness and humour, challenging the rigid form of the holiday celebrations. Perceiving tradition as a living organism that can naturally evolve and reflect contemporary social values – including gender issues – they supress the shame, embarrassment, and pain to bring joy, tenderness, and shared experience to the fore. In the artists’ concept, the Easter celebrations provide an opportunity to come together, play, and enjoy a fresh surge of vitality.
The motif of mutual sharing and communication is also explored in the installation by Karima Al-Mukhtar (* 1989). The intricate embroidery in a wooden table desk, depicting a silhouette of joined hands, reflects the fragility of human relationships and the search for one’s own identity in the bosom of nature.
Bystrík Klčo (* 2002) reconciles the traditional Christian cross with the issues of identity, gender, and the LGBTQ+ community. To commemorate the anti-queer terrorist attack at a gay bar in Bratislava, the artist created a cross as a symbol of death, sacrifice and salvation. The artist follows from the traditional Slovak cross, on the top of which he places rainbow-coloured canopy, which unites a reference to the LGBTQ+ community and to the biblical motif of the rainbow that God set in the cloud as the sign of hope that disasters would not be repeated.
The sculpture by Pavlína Kvita (* 1988) relates to traditions and folklore rather indirectly, through profounder meanings. The artist transforms the archetype of a vessel as a container for keeping of things, and thus as a symbol of continuity, into the closed form of a biomorphic sculpture. She thus creates hieratic monument on the borderline of a vessel and the body, where folk ornaments are subtly disturbed by traces of erosion.
Zuzana Svatik (* 1993) uses the motif of a vase as a symbol of home where women are assigned the role of housewives, caretakers, and vain decorators. The traditional type of vessel serves the artist as a means for vigorous disruption of social and gender concepts, whereby she criticises the nuclear family and the persistent patriarchal social structures.
Nikola Emma Ryšavá (* 1990) has systemically focused on gender stereotypes, which are ingrained inter alia through traditional fairy tales. In these narratives, the only strong and wise women who dare to defy the established patterns tend to be impersonated by witches, who embody the principle of evil. Therefore, in her latest works, the sculptor has turned to the pagan religion of Wicca, a contemporary version of witchcraft based on balance and attunement of opposites.
Jan Vytiska (* 1985) perceives folklore as the basic framework for expressing the elusive evil and pathological social patterns, omnipresent in his paintings of Wallachian cottage interiors and dramatic landscapes. The fixed gazes of girls, goats, and skeletons that inhabit the painter’s fictional realms emanate the sense of terrifying secrets and inevitable fates.
Jan Uldrych (* 1983) also explores the borderline of the visible and invisible in his paintings, oscillating between realistic representation and abstract, symbolic images. In his works, fragments of reality dissolve into imaginative landscapes imbued with archetypal motifs and forms that reflect the myths and rites enshrined in the history of humankind. The artist perceives painting as a means of introspection, through which physical reality merges with transcendent experience.
Ambivalent tension is also present in the works of Tomáš Kurečka (* 1994). In his case, thought, it stems from one’s inner experience. The motif of dressing up for Mardi Gras transcends a mere folk rite, serving as a metaphor for the diverse identities and roles we take on every day. Masks are not just props in a symbolic play, but rather a means for disguise and disclosure, wherefrom the feeling of alienation is born.
Filip Kůrka (* 1993) uses the same motif in his paintings, but in the form of latex masks referring to BDSM practices. The contemporary visual language contrasts with the old master’s painting technique and creates a tension between the past and the present, between disciplined image and repressed physicality. In the same vein, the artist’s monumental painting interpreting a joke about the misers of the Haná region evokes a Dutch genre painting conveying a moral.
The traditions of the Haná region are also present in the work of Žil Julie Vostalová (* 1988), who transforms traditional elements of the local folk costume into 3D animation. The artist explores whether digital representation could provide a contemporary platform for traditional arts and crafts as well as a critical reflection on material overproduction and waste.
Adam Žufníček (* 1999) refers to the relics of a bygone past in his objects, which take form of peculiar mechanisms combining technical, organic, and magical elements. Archaic ways of thinking, where the mundane naturally mingles with myths and rites, emerge through the hybrid creations.
The Rite of Spring exhibition presents folklore and traditions as a dynamic process of constant transmission, selection, and reinterpretation. The tension between continuity and change shows that what we consider as a “given” is in fact driven by our own choices – and thus by our responsibility for what shall pass on the generations to come.
curator: Martina Mrázová
