April 7 – May 5, 2021, Czech Center Sofia
The Czech Center and the Embassy of the Czech Republic in Sofia invite you to the presentation of the exhibition “On the Surface” by Milan Pekar.
The magical world of ceramics will be shown at the Czech Center from April 7 to May 5, 2021.
The author Milan Pekar personally told on April 7 from 4 to 7 pm about his experiments with the ceramic glazes presented in the exhibition “On the Surface”. The curator is Radek Vohlmut. The project is organized by the Czech Center and the Embassy of the Czech Republic in Sofia.
The objects presented in the exhibition will be sold.
Milan Pekar (1980) is a Czech internationally recognized ceramics designer and lecturer at the Higher Institute of Applied Arts in Prague. For more than five years he has been mainly involved in experiments in the field of glazes. His methods combine scientific knowledge with intuitive interventions and give rise to unique visual compositions, most often arising on the principle of crystal growth. The artistic research, in which he works with basic chemical elements and their compounds, partially relies on the joint work with the Institute of Geochemistry, Mineralogy and Mineral Resources of the Faculty of Natural Sciences at Charles University. An interesting part of his work are his reflections on the action of glazes in terms of morphology and typology of ceramic objects. Although an integral part of Pecarge’s creative work is the chemical-technological basis, the success of the presentation of his glazed artifacts at the Milan Fair and in galleries from Paris to Korea proves that he managed to discover and develop, within the traditional craft techniques, a neglected field in an innovative way that has the ability to aesthetically and qualitatively attract viewers and collectors in an international context. The issue of glazes became the main topic of his doctorate.
The exhibition, prepared for the Czech Center in Sofia, is entitled “On the Surface” and is a continuation of the successful presentation of the project at the Institute of Applied Arts (UMPRUM) in Prague last September. Conceptually, it is a spatial exposition of zonal type with intertwined character, formed successively through the interconnected whole of the individual components, the results of technological research and the experimental work of Pekar. The project can be perceived in several ways. As a complex visual installation based on the dynamic principles of contemporary art exhibitions, on the one hand. Another possibility is to trace the presented logical units that emphasize selected phases of the creation process – for example, technological or experimental thinking, or specific formally defined cycles and their handling. The last option is, of course, to focus on each exhibited artifact individually and to perceive it as an artistic uniqueness without attributes.
The main carriers of the appearance are the hand-made ceramic objects of three types. First of all, there are several types of porcelain vases of different sizes, which the author specifies in detail through plaster molds, which in the background helps to revive the forgotten production approaches, famous for their long tradition in the Czech Republic. A separate category is represented by several hundred small identical approximately twelve centimeter vials used for testing, i. as substrates for the application of effective crystal glazes, colored with oxides of nickel, cobalt, copper, manganese and other elements. It is they who recreate the open range of possibilities and especially the breadth of the topics that Milan Pekar decides to observe, as well as the results of this observation.
Self-discipline, concentration, and patience in casting vases subsequently compensated for the immediate plastic modeling of “ceramic furniture” from extruded profiles, sculptures relating to a particular morphology or mechanical approach, rather than home furnishings in the true sense of the word. Although their practical function is also acceptable, which suggests their use in the exhibition as pedestals. The situation is similar with cylindrical objects, whose outline profile to the decorative elements resembles ancient or medieval architecture. The objects in this series are also naturally covered with glaze and practically used as pads for color and structural interventions.
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