Someone is watching you.
It is not clear who. Nor from where.
Opening: October 29 from 6 pm
Roman Košťál’s (b. 1999, Ústí nad Labem, lives in Prague) visual language reveals at first glance that his inspiration does not come from today's world. He delves into the past, drawing upon classic cinematic language—from Italian giallo of the 1960s and 1970s to Hollywood film noir of the 1940s and 1950s—their striking aesthetics, grotesque violence, and erotica. His works are created primarily in black charcoal, with occasional use of acrylic. Raw, expressive, yet realistic drawing is confronted with a texture reminiscent of dirt on a damaged analogue photograph or the grain of 16mm film.
Košťál does not reproduce specific film scenes. Instead, he selects fragments of characters, bodies, and gestures that resonate with him, and—much like a director working with a cast assembles them into new, fictional, and at times surreal situations. Film characters who died long ago remain alive on canvas in a state of timelessness—they look at us, and we look at them. At the core of the series lies the motif of observation, which gradually takes on a disturbing form: the gaze is never one-way, and together with the characters, we ourselves can become the object of observation.
Curator: Michal Stolárik
