Testimony about the Soul(1)

Start in 2012 at 4th station, then 2013

Wooden sculpture Soul by Lubo Kristek 1983Kristek’s sketch of sculpture covered with sheet.Lubo Kristek: Soul II – Collective Intuition, 2013, assemblage, height 260 cm.In 2012, Open Studio Days were held at Chateau Lubo. Lubo Kristek allowed visitors to look at an exhibition of his lifetime’s work so far, but he also wanted to involve them actively in the creative process. He shrouded his wooden sculpture Soul from 1973, symbolising the penetration of forms in the process of development, in a white sheet. Its final gradational point is the absolute form of the sphere.

Creation of the assemblage Soul – Collective Intuition during the happening by Lubo Kristek align=Everyone who came had the chance to touch Kristek’s Soul and add his own creation to it without seeing the object under the sheet. Perhaps it was merely tactile exploration, so everyone created their impression of their own soul according to their own fantasy. They could represent it through painting, drawing or sewing on objects... A work called  Soul II – Collective Intuition was created.

Following the 2013/2014, theatre season the sculpture Soul and assemblage Soul II – Collective Intuition have been on display at the Horacké Theatre Jihlava, along with documentation of the entire project(2). The exhibition was opened (this time planned in advance) by the happening touch Testimony about the Soul in the theatre foyer.

Video: Open Studio Days – exhibition and creating the assemblage Soul II – Collective Intuition
(20–23 September 2012, Podhradí nad Dyjí)

Video: happening Testimony about the Soul
(14 September 2013, Jihlava)

Text: Iveta K. Pavlovičová, Barbora Půtová

Iveta K. Pavlovičová (born 1974) is a Czech theatre studies specialist and director of the Research Institute for Communication in Arts in Brno.
She has long been engaged in the postmodern theatre and its sources. She is the author of scientific-research projects supported by the Grant Agency of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Fund for Development of Universities, Czech Literary Fund and the European Union (European Fund for Regional Development), as well as theatre projects supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic and the Czech-German Fund for the Future. She participated in the 3rd and 4th International Symposium of Theatre Anthropology at the Janáček Academy of Music and Performing arts Brno (JAMU), where she lectured in the years 2003–2004. She also gave a lecture at the Masaryk University Institute of Anthropology in Brno. Since 2009, she has worked on the forming of an exhibition programme at the Baroque Palace of Riegersburg.
She published the article Modely v nás a možnost jejich změny (Our Inner Models and the Possibility to Change Them) in the magazine Vesmír (2/2005) and a teaching video programme for high schools. She is the author of the textbook Tělo, znak a rytmus (Body, Sign and Rhythm) for JAMU and the book Divadlo Neslyšících a nové cesty (Theatre of the Deaf and the New Ways, 2002) that was published as part of a publication project supported by the Grant Agency of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic.

Barbora Půtová (born 1985) is a Czech anthropologist and art historian lecturing at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague.
She deals with history of culture, artwork and cultural heritage. Other fields of her expert interest include historical anthropology, visual anthropology and anthropology of art.
She has published dozens of articles and experts studies as well as several expert monographs such as Pravěké umění (Prehistoric Art, co-authors Jean Clottes and Václav Soukup, 2011), Félicien Rops: enfant terrible dekadence (Félicien Rops: Enfant Terrible of Decadence, 2013), Kristkova podyjská glyptotéka (Kristek Thaya Glyptoheque, co-author Iveta K. Pavlovičová, 2013), The Genesis of Creativity and the Origin of the Human Mind (co-edited by Václav Soukup, 2015) or Královská cesta: všední i sváteční život v proměnách času (The Royal Route: Ordinary and Festive Life Over the Course of Time, 2016).
In her monograph Félicien Rops she offers the first comprehensive view of the life and work of one of the most prominent representatives of decadence and symbolism; in her last book Královská cesta (The Royal Route) she writes about the creation, development, meaning and historical changes of the Royal Route in Prague. In her book Skalní umění (Rock Art, 2015), she published the results of her field research of Palaeolithic art that she carried out at archaeological sites in France and Portugal.
At presents she is carrying out research of African rock art in the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco.

The event was held as part of the project Porta culturae.

The exhibition was under the aegis of the advisor for culture and care of historical buildings of the South Moravia Region, Bohumila Beranová.