Magdaléna Feilhauerová↓

About the work

Slate

The art of Magdaléna Feilhauerová clearly reflects her strong relationship to nature and her native region. She makes use of old, forgotten, leftover materials that she finds lying around in gardens, courtyards, old houses, or abandoned parts of the landscape, which she carefully sorts and rearranges in new ways to create a place of worship for the world today. Through these objects, she tells stories of home, security, family, and the fragile nature of stability. Some things she celebrates, some things she ridicules; the line between the two is very thin.

The idea behind Feilhauerová’s graduation work came from the discovery of stories and her personal connection to the subject. The work’s central object consists of four long posts with strings stretched into a cross and a tent-like canvas. Running down the sides are pieces of fabric with a slate print pattern, sewn together to form a curtain. These inspired the use of actual slate tablets, bound together with wire into a semicircle – the shape of a church apse. Into this slate, she has carved scenes relating to the old traditions and customs of the Sudetenland, with family defined not by shared genes but by interpersonal relationships and rural life in the 21st century.

Magdaléna Feilhauerová’s object is a kind of protective wing coming down from the mountain. Since prehistoric times, it has stood outside and offered shelter like a cave. It evokes a feeling of safety and, if we take a deep breath, can transport us to the countryside.