Tomáš Cetera: glob/lok

The multimedia exhibition by the Spišská Nová Ves-based artist Tomáš Cetera is a record of glocal fragments in the postfactual era. The artist’s past plays an important role in the exhibition, in particular his childhood spent in a vast, grey housing estate during the dying days of the socialist utopia. The omnipresence of propaganda and latent surveillance created the impression of a panopticon – an aquarium with transparent walls. The project is presented as part of the Profiles cycles of exhibitions.

The title of the exhibition references the fusion of global and local factors, the intersections between chaotic flows of information. At the same time, it is a form of onomatopoeia which reflects the absurdity of the world and emerges as a symbolic immersion in the dwelling spaces of idiosyncratic neighbours. The artist is particularly interested in individuals who have turned their backs on commonly accepted patterns of behaviour and who thereby create a parallel reality. The passionate interests of collectors, animal breeders and hunters reflect wider social relationships and form a pretext for the elaboration of new conspiracy theories.

The exhibition is not a random collection of works from a relatively wide period of time. Instead, it demonstrates the sheer breadth of the artist’s thought which oscillates between global and local, between private and public. The aim of the exhibition is to present work from an (in)complete series, to show the use of various media ranging from watercolours to object art or even video. The artist often works with recycled or found materials which he then combines and augments. The works both aspire to and achieve an authenticity, standing, first and foremost, as testimony to naked truth through manipulated fiction. 

Mgr. art. Katarína Balúnová, ArtD., exhibition curator

About the artists

Tomáš Cetera (*24. 7. 1983) studied plasterwork at the School of Applied Arts in Kremnica from 1997 to 2001. From 2001 to 2005 he studied sculpture at the Faculty of Fine Art at the Academy of Arts in Banská Bystrica, where he also completed his master’s studies in free fine art in 2007. In 2002 he undertook study residencies under Prof Juraj Meliš at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava and from 2006 to 2007 under Prof Jan Hendrych at the Studio of Figural Sculpture and Medalling at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague. He teaches advertising art at the Secondary Vocational School of Woodworking in Spišská Nová Ves and multimedia at the J. Fabini Elementary School of Art. He is also involved in the restoration of stucco decorations in historic buildings. He has exhibited his work and participated in symposia in Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Poland. In 2014 he gave a performance at the Studio of Heroes in the Trade Fair Palace, the National Gallery of Prague. His works feature in the collection of the Gallery of Spiš Artists.