Anna Štefanovičová, Anna Fiedlerová: Trinket Keeper

We are inviting you to the exhibition Trinket Keeper by Anna Štefanovičová, Anna Fiedlerová, curated by Šárka Koudelová.

opening of the exhibition: 04/23/2024 at 6 p.m.
exhibition: 04/24 – 05/14/2024

The fresh air seemed to sharpen the colours and small details. The bouquet on the plastic bag makes me smile unwittingly – it reminds me of my grandfather and his shopping bag with speckled flowers he has cherished for years. My eyes are drawn to the brooch of a passerby, pinned askew on the lapel of her coat. It gives me the desire to put on my new earrings, so I pull out the mirror…

The furniture without her has completely lost everything I liked about it. The grain of the old wood, the little drawers in the secretary where she kept all her treasures and worthless forgotten trinkets, the well-thumbed handles of the dresser, it’s all gone. All that was left was an impenetrable matte finish and heavy, impractical silhouettes.

The Trinket Keeper exhibition brings together materials and colours with an opposite emotional charge. The bright, clean hues of Anna Štefanovičová’s modernistically reduced paintings evoke glimpses of a city stroll on a Sunday. Flawless lines and subtly decorative elements recall tiny memories that everyone can identify with. Almost all of us have been given a cheap bauble at some point, but we still keep it carefully tucked away because it’s a reminder of an emotion we don’t want to forget. Almost all of us have brought back from vacation a kitschy miniature cast of the most famous landmark in town, but the lightheartedness and ease with which we paid a few cents for it with no unnecessary judgment makes it a souvenir worthy of a place on a shelf or at least in a drawer. In contrast to this lightheartedness, Anna Fiedlerová’s objects are weighed down by the context of the material itself – the neutral brown box cardboard is something that has already lost its purpose and in fact exists beyond its own transience. Anna, however, with great care made antique-looking pieces of furniture out of it. Her work makes visible what seemingly futile care can do. Small acts and fleeting gestures that may seem trivial, but in terms of the transience of life, they are priceless treasures. In addition to the cardboard furniture, Anna exhibits a series of simple, almost fairytale-like drawings. These tell the story of a gardener who takes care of his garden and thujas in it. Or do they take care of him?

It is probably thanks to this formal contradiction that the common space of the exhibition has the cosy feel of a simply furnished apartment, but with plenty of drawers and cabinets for storing memories whose value is not in the precious materials, but in their subjectively perceived symbolism. Both authors reflect on the real meaning of objects of questionable purpose and aesthetic qualities, and the unappreciated importance of everyday activities. While one and the other may seem easily replaceable and fleeting, at their core lies what makes us human – a sentiment of self and a concern for ourselves and our surroundings. In order to attach a gifted drawing to our fridge with a colorfully decorated magnet, we need both.

The project is implemented with the financial support of the City of Prague, State Culture Fund of the Czech Republic.