Altars and Grandpa - Grandma are Listening to the Radio

Filko always also asks as to the relationship of the beholder to the object. This leads to questions concerning the nature of art itself and of the author, and also the origin and production of the work, which both as an object and as a symbol is, like in a religion, directed to an emotional content. Filko’s work is characterized by this reflective approach right from his early days, as referred to in this room recalling an apse and decorated with mirror foil, in which a series of altars and the work Grandpa – Grandma are Listening to the Radio (1965) are presented.

In the mid-1960s Filko’s artistic career begins with a series of hybrid pieces for which he uses found objects. He utilizes the technique of assemblage in order to liberate the objects he finds from their own contexts and he adds objects to them that he makes himself, thereby altering them. Filko’s avant-garde approach is here already linking up with international developments in art at the time, and can be seen as evidence of his own capacity to innovate. These objects open up an unusual view of things and themes that seem to have fallen into a realm beyond time. This room is characterized by a nostalgic and archaic atmosphere.

A large early series of works presented is titled The Altar of Contemporaneity (1963−66), which was included as part of Filko’s first important solo exhibition in 1967 in Prague. Many of these assemblages begin as wooden paneling to which the artist adds fragments of mirrors, nails, ropes, and various images. There is a striking juxtaposition of erotic images of women and reproductions of gothic artworks, including several madonnas. While these works are today seen as rather conservative, in the context of Czechoslovakia in the 1960s they were clearly provocative. Both religion and eroticism were seen by the socialist régime as aspects of an unacceptable Western ideology. Both offer an alternative form of faith, a different kind of salvation beyond the spaces of desire permitted in the socialist system. Filko here contrasts the different worldviews and at the same time attempts to involve the beholder by adding mirrors. He spoke of overcoming the distinction between beholder and artwork and making art ​“inhabitable.” As well as using reflecting mirrors he also added specific objects such as a gas mask and painted garments to this purpose, as these could be activated in actions.

A further series of objects cites wooden tools such as old farming carts and looms. Wheels are conspicuous elements in the structure of these works, on the one hand indicating movement and productivity and yet on the other they are blocked by meshing and strings, which are sometimes reminiscent of spiders’ webs. The aspects of ageing and a loss of functionality suggested here are particularly emphasized in the most striking work in the series, Grandpa – Grandma are Listening to the Radio (1965). In these works there is always an element of opposition politics that negates the totalitarian socialist doctrine of the time, with its vision of an ideal social order and a blessed future based on a state-prescribed optimism.

Grandpa – Grandma are Listening to the Radio / Dedko – babka počúvajú rádio, 1965
Assemblage, Readymade, gefundene Objekte
Variable dimesions
Courtesy The Slovak National Gallery, Bratislava

Chair II. / Stolička II. (From the series The Altar of Contemporaneity / Zo série Oltáre súčasnosti), 1965
Assemblage, collage, metal, gold pigment, mirror, metal, wood
90 x 60 x 55 cm

Chair I. / Stolička I. (From the series The Altar of Contemporaneity / Zo série Oltáre súčasnosti), 1965
Assemblage, collage, found objects, metal, gold pigment, mirror, metal, wood92 x 45 x 58 cm

From the cycle S.F. EGOQ / Z cyklu S.F. EGOQ, ca. 1995
Acrylic, cord, wood
65 × 88 × 90 cm

The Shattered Reality / Rozbitá skutočnosť, 1960 – 65
Assemblage, wood, metal
91 x 69,8 cm
Courtesy The Slovak National Gallery, Bratislava

From the series The Altar of Contemporaneity / Zo série Oltáre súčasnosti, 1965
Assemblage, collage, paint, mirror, metal, wood
143 × 127 × 31,5 cm

From the series The Altar of Contemporaneity / Zo série Oltáre súčasnosti, 1965
Assemblage, acrylic, paper, mirror, wood, textile, metal
161 × 83 × 25 cm
Courtesy The Slovak National Gallery, Bratislava

From the series The Altar of Contemporaneity / Zo série Oltáre súčasnosti, 1965
Assemblage, collage, wire, golden pigment, mirror, metal, wood
88 × 52 × 8 cm

From the series The Altar of Contemporaneity / Zo série Oltáre súčasnosti, 1964 – 65
Assemblage, collage, golden pigment, mirror, metal, wood
130 × 72 × 8 cm

Aus der Serie / From the series The Altar of Contemporaneity / Zo série Oltáre súčasnosti, 1965
Assemblage, wood, wire, found objects
150 × 80 × 15cm
Courtesy The Slovak National Gallery, Bratislava

Malfunctioning Reality / Nefungujúca realita, 1964 – 65
Assemblage, found object
94 × 94 × 12 cm

Aus der Serie / From the series The Altar of Contemporaneity / Zo série Oltáre súčasnosti, 1964 – 65
Assemblage, collage, golden pigment, mirror, metal, wood
130 × 92 × 8 cm

Aus der Serie / From the series The Altar of Contemporaneity / Zo série Oltáre súčasnosti, 1965 – 66
Assemblage, oil, acrylic, paper, mirror, wood, textile, metal
170 × 68 × 10 cm
Courtesy The Slovak National Gallery, Bratislava

Aus der Serie / From the series The Altar of Contemporaneity / Zo série Oltáre súčasnosti, 1965Assemblage, Assemblage, collage, wire, golden pigment, mirror, metal, wood
113 × 77 × 10cm

Aus der Serie / From the series The Altar of Contemporaneity / Zo série Oltáre súčasnosti, 1964 – 65
Assemblage, collage, golden pigment, mirror, metal, wood
120 × 84 × 22cm

Mobile III. / Mobil III., 1964
Ready-made, wood, paint, wire
74 × 82 × 48 cm
Courtesy The Slovak National Gallery, Bratislava

Object (Reliquary) / Objekt (Relikviár), 1964
Found objects, glass, wire, acrylic, metal, wood
54 × 40 × 30 cm

Dresses from the exhibition Dwelling 66 of Reality Contemporaneity, 1967
Found objects, paint, textile
4 pieces, variable dimensions

Gasmaske aus der Ausstellung Obydlie 66 skutočnosti súčasnosti / Gas mask from the exhibition Dwelling 66 of Reality Contemporaneity, 1967
Found object
Variable dimensions

All works if not otherwise stated Courtesy Linea Collection, Bratislava; Layr, Vienna