Fighting Aikor

• In a landscape of luminous fruits and persistent greenery, the primary energy source is close to extinguished. Sight begins to transform into an achromatic spectrum of emptied nothingness and absorbing the absolute; in a hazy greyish requiem of fragments of memories and dreams. It is necessary to make the pilgrimage quickly before the source is extinct entirely while, at the same time, waiting patiently for the moonlight to have charged the source with its power. Failure would be fatal. While they bathe in the cold light and refresh themselves with the intoxicating sweetness of various juices, their guides tell them of the cunning creature that awaits them on the other side. A stealthy creature that no one can avoid. However, this is not the first time they have been on this or other worlds. They know the being better than anyone else; they call it by different names and recognize its various forms, but for now, they call it Aikor.
• The narrative of the fictional world of the global pop icon of the 1980s, an adored toy, and a collector's piece, Monchhichi, is brought to life by the artistic expression of Jakub Janovský (1984) and Eva Maceková (1984) in a multitude of ways. Formally, both artists' expressive and media-rich works are based on the themes of childhood, adulthood, coping with emptiness, or their inability to create. Just as furry friends in a fairy tale world try to restore the sight of one of them in a duel with a wicked sorcerer to save a glowing fruit that is crucial for the dreaming of others, both authors often find themselves in imaginary fights – in Maceková's case, it is a duel with her own self, in Janovský's it is mainly played out through hostages. A certain degree of infantilism and a return to a period of ambiguous growth is linked explicitly by the motif of childhood (generational) play, which appears as deformed, anonymous, or untimely in the authors' practice. Janovský's work interprets human nature, including that of children, based on archetypal situations, in the manner of a probe of a particular type – bringing to light the frequent ironies of a glorified age of innocence. Maceková's scenes can be considered a kind of scenario in which one can trace recurrent attempts to reconstruct episodes of one's own experience, possibly attempts to understand the uncertainty and incompleteness of current episodes. Both artists have in common the non-illusiveness of colors, which, in combination with the selected techniques, sometimes reaches anarchizing positions. Therefore, the fading glowing fruit can be distantly perceived as a parallel to the exhibited works, when Jakub Janovský's fading tones sometimes turn into shades of Eva Maceková's poison.
• The sun rises; a land of parched soil and black bramble awaits.

Prague-based Jakub Janovský (*1984, Jihlava) is a graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, specifically the Studio of Drawing of Jitka Svobodová. The wide range of media used in his work is represented not only by canvas in the form of small and large-scale paintings or paper as a collage but also by enamel, video, and/or sculpture. Janovský is a prominent figure in contemporary domestic figurative painting, he is thematically consistent, and his works are represented in many private collections. He has been exhibited at the National Gallery, the Aleš South Bohemian Gallery, DOX, Jilská 14, AKATE Alfons-Kern-Turm Pforzheim, and the Ostrale Biennial in Dresden, Germany.

Eva Maceková (*1984, Martin, Slovakia) graduated from the Studio of Illustration and Graphic Art at UMPRUM in Prague. Currently, she creates and works in Prague, and her work is characterized by a variety of techniques: she utilizes painting, illustration, printmaking, and handmade textiles. Maceková has also been collaborating with the cultural fortnightly A2 as the cover artist for quite some time. Her immediate handwriting is characterized by solid draftsmanship and color. She has exhibited at DOX, City Surfer Office, Ville Pellé, Etc. gallery, Trafo Gallery, and Halle Saint Pierre in Paris. In 2018, she was nominated for the Czech Grand Design Awards in the Illustrator of the Year category.