In Pieces. The Fragment and Torso in Visual Art

What is a fragment, both in the context of history and of the present? How and what do we read into it? A fragment, part, segment, or torso depicts the body and a thing wounded, deformed, incomplete, imperfect, but also "beauty in disfigurement", the image of death, tragedy, revolution, eroticism, memento, and absence. Simultaneously it engages our imagination, inviting us to complete the missing part and to find meaning in an unknown whole.

The sculptural exhibition of predominantly three-dimensional works explores incompleteness and fragmentation in visual art across multiple centuries. Emblematic works from early art can be seen in contrast with modern and contemporary art, showing the popularity of the human torso in later sculpture. During this period, it was perceived as the essence of sculptural art, as a distinctively existing form that captured the substance. The exhibition comprises material works and objects from various historical periods, complemented by artistic and documentary photography, experimental film, performance, and installation.

Sociologists consider current society to be fragmented, dismembered, divided, fractured, opaque, and disjointed. According to contemporary philosophy, the whole is less than the sum of its parts, and the whole is not the truth. It is the pieces, parts, fragments, and torsos concentrated into one installation that we could interpret as a  prevision of the state of society before the gates of the end of the world. Paradoxically perhaps, the unified theme and space of the exhibition will ultimately help us to perceive these individual fragments and differences as a whole – unity and strength despite the inadequacy and imperfection of partial knowledge.

Exhibiting authors:
Tibor Bartfay, Štefan Belohradský, Ján Fadrusz, Alina Ferdinandy, Juraj Gavula, Matej Gavula, Milota Havránková, Vladimír Havrilla, Tibor Honty, Rudolf Hornák, Julie Horová, Jozef Jankovič, Bohumil Kafka, Szabolcs KissPál, Martin Kochan, Ján Koniarek, Jozef Kostka, Eduard Kudláč, Karol Lacko, Otis Laubert, Erna Masarovičová, Michal Moravčík, Milan Paštéka, Martin Piaček, Štefan Prokop, Ladislav Snopek, Milan Tittel, Dana Tomečková, Pavol Tóth, Alexander Trizuljak, Miro Trubač, Rudolf Uher and unknown sculptors or sculptresses of the 18th through 20th centuries