Eduard Klena

a multimedia installation (old Kunsthalle Bratislava, 2025), built on four objects - scenes, passing from point A to point B. The individual points have the character of a timeline, from safe hiding places in corn during childhood and avoiding bullying, through disappointments in partner life, securing oneself against unwanted glances and interventions of a higher power, to an assessment of the current socio-political and cultural situation in Slovakia, where there is a renewed feeling of searching for a safe place in the converging boundaries of life. The connecting moment of the installation is anxiety, from harm, from the loss of a loved one, from surveillance and helplessness and a potential terrifying end. The sound art for the installation was created by Berlin artist Bernhard Hollinger, whom Klen met during a joint art residency in Fukuoka, Japan, which was the space for developing the concept. The author lets us into a cornfield - "elementary school grounds", shrouded in fog at sunset, a field whose tall growth both forces the recipient to walk through, and at the same time allows him to hide from shadows, blurred objects in the distance, or stoic persons / beings (?) who observe him. Anxiety and uncertainty play a role in the attenuation of daily sensations, after lying down to sleep, in peace, silence - "portrait of an ex", a safe space behind the locked door of the intimate environment of the home. They pass through solid walls and deny the laws of physics, find us naked and defenseless. They confront us in unfortunate weakness and incite frustration and panic. The author says that solitude only confirms and strengthens these "words", a person does not find comfort and positive thoughts, he twists in a spiral of heckling chaos. There will be no peace, no shutdown, no rest, no reset for a new day. The feeling of an indefinite presence, a mute observer with unpredictable intentions “obake (a spectre)” is the forced need to guard one’s safe space from a supposed enemy, an unknown entity. It is a control system, a second / control eye, or another perspective. Is it there? Is it not there? The finale of the “road” is closed by the stalking entities, who have finally stepped out of the shadows, admitted their color, admitted their goals, demonstrated their ideals and herded us to the “pile of 2025”. The pile of bodies leads us to the realization that the entities are on the move, we are not alone - we are in the same situation. Uncertainty, anxiety and existential fear are all around.