The Czech Japanologist, translator, journalist, calligrapher, photographer and educator Petr Geisler (1949-2009) has made his mark on the development of relations between the Czech Republic (former Czechoslovakia) and Japan in a very distinctive and unique way, and not only with the vigorous strokes of his brush.

The exhibition devoted to Geisler's life's work will present him in his most comprehensive form to date - from his expressive calligraphies, which he wrote spontaneously during free moments between work, to his photographic multi-exposures from Japan in the 1980s. to the monumental inscription of the Buddhist Heart Sutra that once adorned the wall of the passageway in the Metro Palace on Národní třída in Prague.

The exhibition space is an insight into Geisler's world. Geisler captured his powerful calligraphic strokes not only in the traditional ink-on-paper manner, but also in liquid enamel or even in savo on cardboard, foil or rolls of fax thermal paper, referring to the journalist-correspondent's office he himself inhabited until the turn of the millennium. For Geisler, calligraphy was not just an artistic expression, but part of everyday life, a ritual, a release, a means of thinking, a poetry, a pleasure for himself and his friends. He always had his brushes and ink stone on his desk. As an autodidact, he developed a distinctive style that completely defied convention and became in many ways a legend. A style that is often reminiscent of the calligraphy of the Zen masters, and far removed from the manifestations of amateurism and attempts at "pleasing writing".

For more than three decades Geisler worked as a foreign correspondent for the prestigious Japanese daily Jomiuri Shimbun. The exhibition emphasizes this aspect as well - Geisler's original newspaper articles, written in his bravura Japanese (often published without language editing by Japanese editors), his work background, and testimonies from his colleagues and friends or students bring to life his life between two worlds: Japanese writing and Czech reality, text and image, the exactitude of journalism and the freedom of artistic gesture.

The exhibition will also feature authentic objects from Geisler's private archive - calligraphic stationery, personal seals bearing the phonetic transcription of his surname into the characters 我意須羅 (GA-I-SU-RA), artefacts from Geisler's legendary office, where he used to work in the 1990s. In the 1990s, many Japanologists took classes in Japan, as well as slides from Japan, film footage of happenings of Japanologists from their student years, and a unique installation and historical reconstruction of the Heart Sutra happening, in which the visitor finds himself inside the text of one of the most famous Buddhist sutras.

GA-I-SU-RA is not only an exhibition paying tribute to the person and work of Peter Geisler, but also a tribute to calligraphy as a form of inner expression.