Peripheral vision

LENKA VÍTKOVÁ ∙ ONDŘEJ VINŠ

Exhibition: 3 March - 27 April 2023

Curated by Caroline Krzyszton

It starts, as always, in the home environment. People live with people, in cities, in buildings, in their homes. They protect themselves by closing their doors. They fortify themselves with layers of building techniques and structures. Security bubbles.

At the same time, they send machines into space to extend their vision beyond the walls, through the atmosphere, because they are curious. They want to see what's beyond the limits of tangible space, so they build probes resistant to extreme temperatures to explore these uncharted territories.

The machine sends them images that they can view and interpret. At certain angles, however, the machine photographs mostly parts of its own mechanism. The images are used to refine, deny or confirm scientific theories. They are data for research, but also images of landscapes. Landscapes as seen through the eyes of the machine.

The images are often corrected and recoloured after they return to Earth to better suit the human eye and to make them easier to process. From that point on, scientific data is subject to subjectivity, it becomes culture. But culture is highly selective, limited by emotion and reference. It assumes pre-existing ideas, creates shortcuts, misinterprets. It follows a certain logic.

Thus, the use of language is a major cause of misunderstanding. Words cannot encompass reality, at most a tiny fraction of it.

Therefore, the horizon of human knowledge cannot extend in all directions. It goes round and round and always returns to its starting point: human life as the ultimate instrument for measuring time and space.
Massive remnants of the neglected remain out of focus. They may be visible but unnoticed, they may be ignored, forgotten, indecipherable or unthinkable, it doesn't matter. Information remains unnoticed.

It always starts inside someone's home. Sometimes you open the door and walk out. Outside, you can cross an alterity that you can't consciously comprehend. Sometimes you encounter an alterity that you are not willing to accept.

It could be some grass you step on on your doorstep. The same weed you're trying to get rid of but it never quite works because it keeps growing despite the concrete slabs, despite the dry air, despite the lack of a better environment. It continues to grow, lifting its symmetrical leaves to the sky as you turn to go back inside. And you may also know that it will survive long after you yourself are gone.

So be careful. There are plenty of mirages on the horizon, but everything else is right at your feet.