Some worlds we live in physically, others only virtually or in thought. People are building a parallel digital universe in which they spend more and more time and which, thanks to AI, is beginning to live a life of its own. Our lives play out in many universes, and some of them exist only to make life possible in another. A person swallowed up by the digital universe, alone in the middle of the wild, or simply swallowed up by their own thoughts.
The theme of the parallel universe will therefore appear in all the objects and works on show. Sometimes quite plainly and visibly, at other times hidden from the eye, connected to the artist's own parallel universe. Several artists have prepared entirely new sculptures for this year's festival. Among them are Veronika Psotková with the installation My Pet, My BFF in Panská street, Jan Dostál with the giant Flow for Piaristické náměstí, and Zdeněk Chmelař, who will let visitors walk through his Portal on the Golden Bridge. Josefína Jonášová will light up her Stars in Budějovice for the first time, and Diana Winklerová will offer a look into her universe in stone.
This year Art in the City also gives space to young artists from Professor Petr Stanický's Glass Design studio at Tomas Bata University in Zlín. Three students — Karolína Manová, Chris Hewitt and Matija Jankovič — will present glass interventions made for the public space of Budějovice.
A special project of this year's festival is the presentation of two mobile galleries: a smaller one for pictures and a large mobile one for sculpture. Alongside art, these objects present new technologies and ecological approaches. The large sculptural one also carries something of the tiny house and of modular living. The galleries are thus artistic interventions in their own right, bringing art into the city — and greenery with it. Living plants, like art, are a value felt emotionally, and cities are short of them.
The small mobile picture gallery combines a planter of greenery with an exhibition surface for original paintings. During the festival the paintings on show will change, so that the work of several artists is presented over the summer. From mid-August the large twelve-metre glazed sculpture gallery will take over the main square in České Budějovice and offer a view into Michal Trpák's underwater world.
This year's Art in the City will set the pulse of the city from 15 June until the end of September — not least thanks to two hearts on show, by Lukáš Rais and Veronika Durová.
Michal Trpák,
founder of the festival, sculptor
