Intervention
Breathing: The Celebration of Air /
Dýchanie: oslava vzduchu, 1970

The year 1970 is an important turning point in the history of the neo-avant-gardes. In Czechoslovakia, artists began to perform more actions, multimedia installations, and interventions in public space. Stano Filko is also known for his installations in public space, through which he resists the monumental representation of the socialist régime and imposes a more expansive reality.

Filko uses a (retro) futuristic formal language in his public installations and turns to cosmic space. The dynamic environment Breathing: The Celebration of Air (1970) can be understood as an early key work of Filko’s cosmic consciousness. With the installation’s spherical shape, which resembles a giant balloon, Filko picks up on a trend around geodesic structures that enjoyed great popularity, especially in the progressive architecture of the 1960s. The monumental object is reminiscent of a spaceship or a mechanical organ. Inside, air is made to circulate, with the round shape constantly expanding and contracting. Filko draws on the concept of breath with this dynamic, linking this fundamental functioning of the human body to the pulsation of the universe. The historical installation will be on view as an intervention at the opening of the exhibition Stano Filko: A Retrospective.