The exhibition Witness to Oneself presents a curated selection of works by Ivan Pinkava, one of the most distinctive Czech photographers working in the field of staged studio photography. Held in the former ossuary in the garden of All Saints Church, the exhibition offers an inspiring dialogue between Pinkava’s work and the space itself. Pinkava has long explored themes of physicality, transience, and human existence, which, in the context of this sacred site, will present viewers with an unexpected thematic overlap. 

Human existence and its transience are the fundamental themes that shape Ivan Pinkava’s artistic language. This is precisely why, in his carefully composed studio photographs, he works with layers of meaning that often remain hidden and are gradually revealed and then veiled once more. This interplay of revelation and concealment is not limited to the photographs themselves but extends to the relationship between the photographs and the space in which they are presented—thereby opening up new possibilities for interpretation.

The exhibition space at Rožnov’s Galerie Kostnice can thus function as an interpretive lens that highlights references to traditional iconography, vanitas motifs, or memento mori, whose established meanings the artist constantly shifts, strips of their original content, and reinterprets. The composition of the photographs themselves is shaped in the same spirit of ambiguity: what seems unambiguous at first glance eludes interpretation upon closer inspection. Structures and surfaces that at first might suggest stone or concrete ultimately reveal themselves to be ephemeral and fragile, as the viewer realizes they could just as easily be foam rubber, construction polystyrene, or an old tarp. This same uncertainty permeates the subjects of the photographs themselves: figures and gestures, seemingly clear and unambiguous, transform upon closer inspection and open up to new interpretations.

Nothing in Pinkava’s work is definitive—both form and content are constantly shifting depending on the viewer’s perspective. It is precisely this impermanence that gives rise to a distinctive visual language through which Ivan Pinkava reflects on the human story and poses questions—to himself and to the viewer—about the fragility of the soul and the body, uncertainty, and the finitude of existence. In his photographs, the moment of dissolution is simultaneously the beginning of something new and as yet unknown, something that transcends our understanding—and it is precisely thanks to this open, never-conclusive meaning—along with his distinctive approach to composition and visual formal reduction—the artist leaves the viewer room for their own interpretation, without predetermining it in any way.

Ultimately, each viewer does not seek an unambiguous key to Pinkava’s photographs, but rather finds themselves within them—in the way they see, what they believe, and what they infer where the image remains intentionally ambiguous. This freedom of interpretation, however, has its limits: the artist does not offer the viewer unlimited space, but rather a carefully defined field of possibilities, into which he directs the viewer through his composition, choice of motifs, and the degree of revelation and concealment. In this sense, the exhibition *Witness to Oneself* turns the interpretive gesture back toward the viewer: it is not merely a testimony to the artist’s themes of transience and existence, but also a revelation of the viewer’s own way of perceiving, which each visitor brings to the work. To become a witness to Pinkava’s photographs thus means, above all, to become a witness to oneself.

Ivan Pinkava (*1961) studied at the Secondary School of Graphic Arts in Prague from 1977 to 1981, then majored in Art Photography at FAMU from 1982 to 1986. In 1989, together with other photographers, he helped found the Prague House of Photography. From 2005 to 2007, he headed the photography studio at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague. His works are represented in major collections in the Czech Republic and abroad, including the National Gallery in Prague, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Musée de l’Elysée in Lausanne, and the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston. Over nearly four decades of artistic practice, he has developed a distinctive visual language that is inextricably linked to his perspective and reflections on human existence in both its universality and its uniqueness.

Curator: Štěpán Mikulenka