The friendship between Wales and the Czech Republic continues with an exhibition of the work of two visual artists Ivan Bukovsky and Lubomír Pesek at The Dylan Thomas Centre in Swansea 13th January to the 22nd February. This exhibition also displays a part of the Orbis Pictus Scroll described in the following article by Czech writer and poet, Joseph Janda.
Orbis Pictus Europa Project
In 2000 an exhibition by Czech artists took place in the gallery of the National Monument in Terezín, the largest museum of the holocaust in the Czech Republic. It received good reviews and was greeted with great interest by the public. As a result, the artists were invited to exhibit in other venues in the Czech Republic and abroad. Thus something which was originally conceived as a single event took on a new dimension.
A question arose - whether to continue presenting art work in a traditional way, or whether to try to create a program, a project, an idea, which would go beyond the usual scope of visual art presentations. The artists decided on the latter.
They established the Orbis Pictus Arts Society, with the philosophy of focusing on present day concerns that can be successfully reflected through the visual arts.
One of the major issues facing us is, undoubtedly, the ongoing process of European integration. The Orbis Pictus Europa Project, was initiated to raise awareness of the fact that we, the Czechs, have always felt ourselves to be an important part of Europe.
The authors of the Project noticed that activities aimed at promoting the EU enlargement are focused on practical aspects of the process. Thus cooperation between European countries is, in the minds of ordinary people in the Czech Republic, confined to politics and economics.
Cultural activities can play an influential role as an intermediary between nations, since it addresses and affects individual people directly.
The Orbis Pictus Europa Project is based on the concept of a “never-ending” scroll of canvas where individual artists present their own ideas according to their artistic nature. Thus, for more than three years, a unique work of art has been unfolding in an authentically creative document.
The Project was officially launched in June 2001 in the Senate, the Upper House of the Czech Parliament. The organizational backup for this Project has been provided by Czech Centres, an institution promoting Czech culture abroad.
Since the project was launched, it has been presented in about 20 venues, not only in the Czech Republic, but also in the capitals of several European countries: the Netherlands, France, Austria, Rumania, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Slovakia, Poland, and most recently, Russia and Swansea, Wales. To date some 190 meters of canvas have been covered. In addition, the authors of the Project have met dozens of artists from different countries. These informal meetings are a good starting point for possible future collaborations and co-operation. In this respect, the project has already started to fulfill its authors’ intention, to create a vehicle of communication between nations.
In May this year, the Czech Republic is to access the enlarging family of the countries making up the European Union and in celebration of this the “never-ending” scroll of canvas will be housed on its completion in a gallery which will soon open in the city of Pr¹íbram in the Czech Republic.
The Gallery in Pr¹íbram will be a part of a new museum currently being converted from the premises of a former communist prison and a forced labour camp. The whole complex will officially open in the spring of 2005. All of the artists who have participated in the Project will be invited to have their own work represented in the galleries permanent collection. Thus, they will create and contribute a new and unique gallery of contemporary European art, and will thus become members of the Orbis Pictus Association and will be entitled to participate, free of charge, in symposiums held there.
Ivan Bukovsky and Lubomír Pesek
Although these artists each use different means of expression, they have much more in common than it may seem after a first glance. They were born in the middle of the last century. They share similar life experiences, which are often far from being happy. They were both young in the nineteen seventies and nineteen eighties when the opportunities of presenting free art work in the Czech Republic were considerably restricted. Very rarely were they were allowed to hold even minor exhibitions or to undertake projects, thus the essential focus of their work remained practically unknown to the public. For many years contact and cooperation with foreign artists was also curbed. This may be the reason why the concept of an Orbis Pictus Europa Project was born in a country where many artists experienced an enforced and long-term isolation from cultural life.

Ivan Bukovsky’s early work was based on concepts of figuratism, but since 1990 his work has undergone a fundamental change; he no longer paints real life scenes and objects. His paintings now constitute autonomous areas for existential and symbolic visions, often inspired by Greek or Jewish mythology.
	The motifs are, however, metamorphosed and decend to the core of basic human feelings. The effect of Bukovky´’s paintings on the viewer is intensified by the distinctive and expressive colours. The figures, in some of his paintings, are deconstructed into a mere entanglement of flesh and bones. There is also a certain analogy with a famous British painter Francis Bacon; like Bacon, Bukovsky´ presents borderline cases of human life. Bukovsky´’s scepticism, however, tends to be more philosophical, his canvases evoke an impression of intense meditation. He continues his endeavor to find answers to the fundamental questions about the meaning of life, but this time from a more detached, more dispassionate point of view.

Lubomír Pesek’s recent paintings are not easy to define and interpret. As an artist, he moves in a broad area between the reality and abstraction. Fundamental to his work is playing with vaguely defined forms/shapes, the light, and the meanings of symbols.
	His range of themes is wide and rich; coming from natural motifs, and traditional symbols, as well as purely metaphysical ones. Pes¹ek’s paintings provide an enigmatic scope for the completing of his vision, which is a combination of conscious intentions and subconscious impulses. The titles of his painting play an important role in evoking the theme, however, at the same time, the title is only an instruction, a clue as to how the viewer may ( but does not have to) perceive the painting. Lubomír Pes¹ek’s works can be regarded as symbolic abstractions, which often question human archetypes. They offer no definitive messages for the viewer, but they require active cooperation from a sensitive and interactive partner, who is able to query and seek out the artist’s metaphysical point. Josef Janda