Interventions on Works on Paper and Photographic Material

Alongside his important contribution to installation and object art, Stano Filko began in the 1960s to undertake artistic interventions by means of smaller works, including collages, works on paper, and photographs. The gradual development of his System SF led to an increased reuse and adaptation of this material. Especially the photographic works say much about Filko’s artistic strategies when using fragments of found reality.

Filko begins with the depicted reality of photography, then alters the specific constellation of space and time by confronting the work with elements of an expanded and abstract understanding of space. This is most apparent in the two works Cosmos – Man (1968) and Monument of the Solar System (1967). In the first one, the added element is the word ​“cosmos” above a figure on the firmament, and in the second there is an orbital system that has penetrated the collage-like real space. In both works we see human realities that Filko’s interventions cause to meld with an abstract cosmic reality which he called Super-Space-Time. This experience is the focus of two works that each show an important balloon sculpture by Filko, Cosmos. BREATHING – RESPIRATIONSF (1967/​ca. 2000) and BREATHING – RESPIRATIONSF (1967/​ca. 2000). Here Filko’s artistic exploration addresses the subject of breathing, which brings the human organism into constant harmony with the movement of the universe expanding and contracting. As so often, Filko is concerned to establish a new perspective on reality, which in these cases leads to the overarching space of the cosmos.

The works of the series Sculptures of the Twentieth Century (1968−69) consist of photographic depictions of urban areas and also photographs from popular magazines that Filko has overwritten with elongated outlines. These lines partly allude to the shapes of space rockets, but they are also strongly reminiscent of military rockets and projectiles. A superior reality is exchanged, and the cosmic space gives way to a symbolism that seems to embody the contemporary reality of the Cold War. The territorial rationale of the superpowers USA and Russia and the arms race come to mind. Filko’s interventions thus also address the political space. This is particularly obvious when looking at works like Occupation of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic – Pink Heart (1968/1978) and EGOQ with Alexander Dubček (1968/​ca. 1995), which are about the events of the Prague Spring in 1968. Filko’s adaptations add a subjective component to the concrete, historical snapshots. In the first work he places pink hearts into the picture, and in the second the letters EGOQ are placed over the politicians depicted. These subjective components are seen as the projection of Filko’s artistic principle of the ego, which manifested itself in a public action in which he undertook a measurement of the distance between trees. As an artistic document the work The Space Among the Trees – The Masses. Plan – Project Art (1969) recalls this kind of nonconformist behavior which the régime at the time most likely would have seen to be suspicious.

Cosmos – Man / Cosmos – Človek, 1968
Felt-tip pen, pen, found printed material
14,2 × 20,2 cm

Cosmos. BREATHING – RESPIRATIONSF / Kozmos. BREATHING – RESPIRATIONSF, 1967/​ca. 2000
B/W photograph, whitening liquid, paper
18,2 × 24 cm

BREATHING – RESPIRATIONSF, 1968/​ca. 2000
B/W photograph, felt-tip pen, pen, paper
22 × 18,2 cm

From the series Sculptures of the Twentieth century IV. / Zo série Sochy XX. storočia IV., 1968 – 69
Felt-tip pen, pen, found printed material, paper
25,7 × 18 cm

From the series Sculptures of the Twentieth Century / Zo série Sochy XX. storočia, 1968
Found print, felt-tip pen, paper
21 × 17 cm

From the series Sculptures of the Twentieth Century / Zo série Sochy XX. storočia, 1968
Found print, felt-tip pen, pen, paper
29,7 × 21 cm

Occupation of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic – Pink Heart / Okupácia ČSSR – Ružové srdce, 1968/1978
Intervention in photographs by Ladislav Bielik, montage, B/W photograph, tempera, paper
25 × 17,5 cm

From the cycle EGOQ with Alexander Dubček / Z cyklu EGOQ s Alexandrom Dubčekom, 1968/ ca. 1995
B/W photograph, whitening liquid, paper
13 × 18,3 cm

Cathedral of Humanism / Katedrála humanizmu. Environment, 1968
Stano Filko in front of the slide projection of Alexander Dubček / Stano Filko pred diaprojekciou Alexandra Dubčeka
B/W photograph, paper
25,8 × 19,8 cm
Photo: Anton Podstrasky

S.F. = ALTRUISTEAOQ (From the Seven Chakra System to the Twelve Chakra System) / S.F. = ALTRUISTEAOQ (Zo sedemčakrového do dvanásťčakrového systému), ca.1995/2010
Pen, digital print, paper
17,7 × 20 cm

From the series Sculptures of the Twentieth Century (FEMINA) / Zo série Sochy XX. storočia (FEMINA), 1968/​ca. 1995
B/W photograph, felt-tip pen, pen, perforation, paper
15,8 × 22,8 cm

From the series Sculptures of the Twentieth Century (FEMINA) / Zo série Sochy XX. storočia (FEMINA), 1968/​ca. 1995
B/W photograph, felt-tip pen, pen, perforation, paper
17,4 × 22,7 cm

The Space among the Trees – The Masses. Plan – Project Art / Priestor medzi stromami – hmotami. Plán projekt art, 1969
Pen, felt-tip pen, found printed material, paper
28,8 × 20,8 cm

Flight of Cosmonauts to the Moon in Stages and their Return to the Earth / Let kozmonautov na Mesiac po etapách a ich návrat na Zem, 1969
B/W photography, pen, perforation, photographic paper
23,5 × 18 cm

Flight of Cosmonauts to the Moon in Stages and their Return to the Earth / Let kozmonautov na Mesiac po etapách a ich návrat na Zem, 1969
B/W photography, pen, perforation, photographic paper
23,5 x 18 cm

From the series Monuments of Contemporary Space I. Plan Project Art / Zo série Pomníky súčasného priestoru I. Plán projekt art, 1967−68÷1995
Collage, pen, felt-tip pen, paper
32 x 44 cm

From the series Monuments of the Solar System / Zo série Pomníky slnečnej sústavy, 1967
Collage, pen, ink, felt-tip pen, paper
24,5 x 30 cm

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