White Space in White Space: Space in Space

After the defeat of the Prague Spring by the Red Army in August 1968 and the totalitarian phase of ​“normalization” that quickly followed this, Czechoslovakia saw increased uniformity in society and long-term restrictions on personal freedoms. In 1972 Stano Filko was expelled from the Czechoslovak association of fine artists, which amounted to a prohibition to work. This made collective work with his artist friends and intensive exchange away from the public eye all the more important. It was during this phase that the project White Space in White Space began, which Filko developed over several years together with Miloš Laky and Ján Zavarský.

White Space in White Space was realized in different forms as installations. The first legendary event took place on February 18, 1974, for just a few hours in private at the Dům umění (House of Art) in Brno. White Space in White Space was presented as a large installation with objects and canvases that had been painted with white angular latex stripes using rollers, aiming at least on the surface for a non-artistic impression, whereby references to Western minimal and conceptual art are nonetheless clearly evident. The central element was the plentiful use of loose-hanging linen, suspended from the ceiling in long strips, and also placed on the floor and walls. This all-over suspended the ​“laws” of the space and confronted visitors with a radical emptiness heading toward nothing.

The original 1974 version of White Space in White Space was followed by versions for further exhibitions that were adapted by the artists to the different spatial conditions. Here felt strips and cardboard rolls were used as bearers of the white color fields. This further expanded the vertical structure of the installation, bestowed a strong rhythm onto the rooms, and further emphasized the gap between art and reality.

White Space in White Space asks as to the relationship between art and space, both in social and in material terms. To what extent is art dependent on a specific form, a certain material, or established institutions? In the tradition of Kazimir Malevich, Filko, Laky, and Zavarský pursue a process of dematerialization and transcendence, and they wish to hereby create an art of ​“pure sensitivity.”

White Space in White Space had a significant influence on the Czechoslovak art scene in the 1970s. To accompany their various versions, Filko, Laky, and Zavarský also published several manifestos and statements. For Filko the work on the manifestos marks an important step in his oeuvre toward conceptual and text art, which he continued to pursue alone after 1976. He also addressed the performance as artistic medium, rejecting it as Antiperformance by using a canvas painted in white. Following on from his artistic self-reflection of this collaboration, Filko continued to drive his own projects forward, leading to further concepts and actions such as EMÓCIA – EMOTION (Text-art) (1977), and TRANSCENDENCE I., II. (1979). This whole creative period stands under the auspices of White Space in White Space, and Filko later called it White Ontology.

This presentation does not recreate a specific historical continuity or a specific version of the work series, but rather presents the themes of these works as a space within a space, showing various items and elements from the different exhibitions and some of the accompanying texts, as well as other related works.

Stano Filko, Miloš Laky, Ján Zavarský, White Space in White Space / Biely priestor v bielom priestore, 1973
White paint, felt
300 × 140 cm

Stano Filko, Miloš Laky, Ján Zavarský, White Space in White Space / Biely priestor v bielom priestore, 1973
Cardboard, white paint, canvas
2800 × 85 cm

Stano Filko, Miloš Laky, Ján Zavarský, White Space I. / Biely priestor I., 1974
Felt, Plexiglas
10 pieces each 149 × 20 cm
Courtesy The Slovak National Gallery, Bratislava

Stano Filko, Jan Zavarsky, Album SYMPOSION III/76 White Felt Filko Zavarsky / Album SYMPOSION III/76 biely filc Filko Zavarsky, 1976
Felt, latex, glued latex
47,7 × 49, 5 cm
Courtesy The Slovak National Gallery, Bratislava

Stano Filko, Jan Zavarsky, Album SYMPOSION III/76 White Felt Filko Zavarsky / Album SYMPOSION III/76 biely filc Filko Zavarsky, 1976
Felt, latex
49,5 × 48,5 cm
Courtesy The Slovak National Gallery, Bratislava

Stano Filko, Miloš Laky, Ján Zavarský, White Space in White Space / Biely priestor v bielom priestore, 1974
Paint, canvas, cardboard
20 tubes, each 135 cm, Ø 3,5 cm

Stano Filko, Miloš Laky, Ján Zavarský, White Space in White Space / Biely priestor v bielom priestore, 1974
White paint, cardboard tube
300 cm, Ø 12 cm

Stano Filko, Miloš Laky, Ján Zavarský, White Space in White Space / Biely priestor v bielom priestore, 1974
Paint, canvas, wooden board, pencil
30 × 30 cm

Stano Filko, Miloš Laky, Ján Zavarský, White Space in White Space, Pure Sensitivity / Biely priestor v bielom priestore, Čistá senzitivita, 1974 – 75
Printed material, pen, textile bag
30 × 15 cm

Stano Filko, Miloš Laky, Ján Zavarský, White Space in White Space, Project Studies / Biely priestor v bielom priestore, štúdie projektu, 1973
Pencil, paint on paper
20,9 × 29,5 cm

Stano Filko, Miloš Laky, Ján Zavarský, The Envelope from White Space in White Space / Skladačka z Bieleho priestoru v bielom priestore, 1974/2000
Print, acrylic, pen, paper
37 × 23 cm

Related Works

Selection from the Oeuvre – 5th Dimension = Ontology – Metaphysics – Timeless Absolute Spirit – White Chakra – Transcendence = 1953 – 1995 / Výber z tvorby – 5. dimenzia = ontológia – metafyzika – nadčasový absolútny spirit – biela čakra – transcendencia = 1953 – 1995, 1995
Artist’s video performance within his solo exhibition in the Cyprián Majerník Gallery VHS digitalisiert / digitised
33 min.
Courtesy Library of the City Gallery, Bratislava

White Square / Biely štvorec, 1995
Wood, white paint, canvas
117 × 200 × 102 cm

ABSOLUT SOUL, 2000
Synthetic paint, wood, canvas
190 × 12 × 2 cm

From the cycle White Space (Verticals) I. / Z cyklu project Biely Priestor (Vertikály) I., 1973
Paper, pencil, collage, tempera
30,1 × 41,8 cm
Courtesy The Slovak National Gallery, Bratislava

From the series Verticals for Realization in Architecture / Vertikály na realizáciu v architecture, 1977
Collage, pencil, ink, paper
29,5 × 42 cm

EMOTION – Ontology (on the ceiling), 1977
Print, pencil, paper
19 × 28,7 cm
Courtesy The Slovak National Gallery, Bratislava

White Space – Antiperformance behind closed doors / Biely priestor – Antiperformens za zavretými dverami, 1978
Black-and-white photograph, paper
20 × 24,2 cm

Liebe zur Ontologie (Documenta 1982) / Love of Ontology (Documenta 1982), 1982
Photograph (installation detail)
11,8 × 17,4 cm

From the series 5th Dimension White Chakra / Zo série 5. Dimenzia, Biela čakra, 1995
Acrylic, pen, textured paper
78 × 52 cm

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