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The exhibition showcases artworks created as part of a year-long collaboration between students of the Department of Art Education and Culture at the Faculty of Education, UWB, and the Department of Art Pedagogy at the University of Osnabrück. Under the guidance of Dalibor Smutný, Věra Uhl Skřivanová, and Sigrun Jakubaschke-Ehlers, students explored through painting dialogues the question of what boundaries surround us — and how they can be transcended. The opening took place on October 1 at the European House Gallery in Pilsen.

"The very theme of borders and their crossing became an impulse for a cross-border dialogue. Mental and physical borders are the result of our thinking, but also of political, economic, or aesthetic perspectives,” said Věra Uhl Skřivanová from the Department of Art Education and Culture at UWB.

According to the project’s authors, students touched upon a wide range of motifs. “One approach, for example, was the visualization of a specific geographical location based on historical maps and its current state. The goal was to capture the meaning of the place in its temporal transformations,” explained Dalibor Smutný from the same department.

“Crossing borders is a constant effort of human creative forces. The aim of the exhibition is to present diverse ways of thinking among the students responding to this theme. The result is a rich range of artistic expressions – from realistic depictions through expressive styles to abstraction. The exhibition shows various levels of empathy toward the complex issues of today’s world. It is a probe into the thinking of a generation that combines pedagogical and artistic education and seeks its own language in the global debate,” added Smutný.

For example, UWB student Věra Formánková Rubášová focused in her triptych on the story of three university towns where nature is reclaiming what it once lost. “Each painting has multiple layers, and each represents a different time level — once and now,” explained Rubášová. From Germany, the exhibition includes works by Kata Balazs, who explored the courage of refugees crossing the sea, wishing that one day the sea will symbolize freedom rather than separation. Laura Kruse created a painting titled Journey of the Lapwings, inspired by the migration routes of birds. Her work illustrates the freedom and connection embodied by birds flying across Europe.

The exhibition is open to the public at the European House Gallery until October 31. The project is supported by the Ministry of Culture.

Photo by Adéla Petrilaková