Tradition untraditionally: Wood

The first part of ÚĽUV’s new exhibition cycle – “Tradition – Untraditionally” – presents wood in contexts that have never been seen before. Design from museum collections to contemporary works looking towards the future. The exhibition is open to the public from January 20^th to November 4^th 2022 in the ÚĽUV Gallery at Obchodná 64 in Bratislava.

ÚĽUV’s central theme for 2022 is wood, and it will also dominate the organisation’s other activities throughout the year. The philosophy behind the first material-based exhibition of wooden items is to help discover a new energy for cooperation between master craftsmen and ÚĽUV.

The exhibition curators, designers Ferdinand Chrenka and Václav Kautman, aim to introduce the multi-faceted nature of wood to the public: how it lives alongside us, changing and always ready to surprise. The exhibition is made up of a selection of design from three time periods: past, present and future, installed in thematic contrasts. The sections are organised into individual rooms depending on the main functions of the items, where wood is dominant as a material: containers, furniture, toys, jewellery, music instruments and walking sticks.

“Wood offers endless opportunities as a material for making practical items, and even just a single one of this exhibition’s themes, for example containers, could easily fill the whole gallery. However, we decided to express the variety of working with wood and chose those areas in which it is naturally present. Careful viewers can thus follow the technical challenges posed by working with wood, from traditional manual forms, through mechanised methods, all the way to digital technology”, explain the exhibition curators.

The size of the exhibition premises makes it impossible to present in person all contemporary artists working with wood. A selection of the most striking can be seen in this exhibition thanks to the virtual gallery of ÚĽUV masters. While walking through the gallery of practical wooden designer items, you can enjoy the large-format pictures of the structure of wood, as well as the atmosphere evoked by the audio-visual installation consisting of iconic old film shots.

The exhibition’s focus on the practicality of the exhibits is in line with tradition. The old bowls or furniture we admire today were once everyday household items; only their lifespan and the feeling that people had for them were longer-lasting than is the case in today’s era of mass-produced objects. The works by contemporary master craftsmen and designers retain their longevity through their primary aesthetic function, even though their appearance makes them seem suited to practical usage.

The exhibited items are on loan from the collections of the Museum of Folk Art Production, the Slovak National Museum – Museum of History, the Slovak National Gallery, the Slovak Museum of Design, the Josef Vydra School of Applied Arts in Bratislava, the School of Applied Arts in Ružomberok, the Private School of Applied Arts in Kremnica, the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava, and from the private collections of the exhibiting designers and master craftsmen.

The exhibition is promoted by a poster featuring a wooden bowl by the artist Tibor Uhrín. The “Fossil” bowl is milled on an instrument designed by the artist. A small paper boat floats on the waves of ash wood; its image in the wooden sea represents the symbolic journey of the eternal search for the beauty of wood.