The building of the former Lutheran high school on the town square in Velké Meziříčí has undergone many transformations over nearly five centuries. The exhibition Through by the graphic arts group Pres Nostres engages with this space in a way that highlights the traces and layers that have accumulated here over the centuries. Here, a space bearing its own memory meets art whose essence lies in imprint, transmission, and trace.

The exhibition Through presents the printmaking group Pres Nostres (Bronislava Bakule Malá, Eva Vápenková, Jiří Hanuš, and Peter Kollár), a quartet of artists who push free graphic art beyond the boundaries of the classical format. Contemporary art offers many ways to relate to the world. Pres Nostres chooses the path of direct sensory contact. The exhibition will present works rooted in a focused perception of the world around us and, in many cases, in the observation of the landscape.

This principle of direct contact with the world is naturally reflected in their primary medium—printmaking. Printmaking itself involves the transfer, overprinting, and transition of an image from a matrix to paper. On a conceptual level, this principle takes on further significance: the experience of reality passes through the artist and is imprinted onto the work. The artist thus becomes a mediator between the world and the image. Through is, in this sense, not only the title of the exhibition but also a principle inherent to printmaking itself—something that passes from one place or medium to another and is transformed in the process.

The exhibition, held at the Lutheran High School, features works created using linocut, intaglio, and structural printing techniques. At the same time, it presents works that transcend the classical format of printmaking and experiment with it through large-format prints, graphic objects, and site-specific installations.

The exhibition takes place at a time when Velké Meziříčí is coming alive with the 20th edition of the European Philosophy Festival, themed Bridges and Chasms , and thus enters into a visual dialogue with it.

Curator: Hana Zrno Vondrů

Venue: LuGy – former Lutheran high school, Náměstí 11/13, 594 01 Velké Meziříčí