Guided tour of the exhibition Ready or Not, led by Ondřej Kotrč and curator Risto Ilič.

Ready or Not explores the relationship between motif, material, and surface, observing how their interaction changes depending on how we view the image, and when individual scenes are not entirely sure of themselves. 

The figures are lost in the sheen; the surface takes their place, and what seems clear at first glance begins to disintegrate upon closer inspection. Ondřej Kotrč allows the material to enter the painting to such an extent that it is no longer merely its medium but becomes part of the entire situation.

Gloss, shimmer, and the tension between attractiveness and strangeness—between precision and disintegration—recur throughout the exhibition in various forms. Even diamond painting, a medium based on assembling an image into a clear result, functions in the opposite way here. Instead of becoming sharper, the motif blurs, and the figure slowly dissolves into the surface itself.

The exhibition oscillates between allure and unease, between what lies before us and what we ourselves project onto the image. Meaning appears, disappears, and reassembles itself depending on where we’re looking from. Ready or Not?