Students from Ladislav Sutnar Faculty exhibited at an international festival in Texas

Transformations of nature, space and the question of the significance of human existence on Earth. Students of the Ladislav Sutnar Faculty at UWB in Pilsen showed videos and photos to audiences in the United States. They presented their works on sustainability at the Texas festival.

Sustainability is currently a very topical issue, permeating art, design, and technology. Students at the Ladislav Sutnar Faculty of Design and Art at the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen have also found strong inspiration in it. In November, the theme of sustainability brought them together with creators from around the world at the Sustainable Stories festival and exhibition in Texas, USA.

From ecology and natural processes to social issues. The films and videos at this year's festival covered sustainability in a wide range of areas. The curators therefore selected several works by students and one graduate of the Ladislav Sutnar Faculty in Pilsen. All of them were sent to Texas electronically, which was a relatively sustainable way to travel.

The Multimedia studio was represented by the experimental video Taking Space, Making Space by Veronika Hrdinová and Barbora Vagnerová. An intimate visual play with sand becomes a metaphor for friendship, its development, and the transformation of space between two people. Studio graduate Tomáš Dunaj caught the curators' attention with his film Tardigrade. He allows a microscopic tardigrade to grow into a monumental organism, reminding us that humanity is only a small part of a complex natural system and that human presence on Earth may not be as essential as we usually think.

Denis Holub, Jan Maher, and Kristýna Černá from the Photography studio also presented their work in Texas. They showed how nature is changing through its own processes and under the weight of human intervention. In doing so, they created a visual probe into a fragile and increasingly difficult to restore world.

Participation in the festival, which is becoming an international platform for sharing visions of the future of the planet, confirms the international relevance of the Pilsen faculty. "It is not just a presentation of student projects, but also confirmation that the faculty is actively involved in discussions on topics that move the world and that the perspectives of its students and teachers can attract attention in an international context," explained Lenka Kodýtková, head of faculty external relations. Sustainable Stories is jointly organized by the University of Houston – Clear Lake and Alvin Community College. Both American institutions have long-standing friendly ties with Ladislav Sutnar Faculty of Design and Art.