Jan Wojnar's The Whole of Existence, Existing as a Whole: A Conceptual Art Exhibition at Museum Kampa

This exhibition at Museum Kampa presents the lifelong work of Jan Wojnar, a key figure in Czech conceptual art known for his visual poetry, paintings, and conceptual series. The exhibition explores themes of order and chance, geometry, and the visualization of relations through text and various artistic mediums.

Jan Wojnar (1944–2014), regarded as a highly radical conceptualist in Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic, was a visual poet whose oeuvre spanned paintings, objects, and conceptual series. This exhibition at Museum Kampa, the first to present his lifelong work alongside an accompanying monograph, delves into his significant contributions to conceptual art from the late 1960s onwards. Wojnar's practice often employed text to model situations and visualize relationships, while other works explored the intersection of geometry and concretism, focusing on dualities such as order and disruption, or controlled chaos. Key series like the "Hourglass Poems" (Přesýpací básně) and the multi-year "Grid Poems" (Mřížkové básně) exemplify his innovative approach, merging found elements with new structures to offer fresh perspectives. He also pioneered auto-photograms and photographic analyses of events. Wojnar's work is characterized by its emphasis on process, in-depth analysis of specific problems, and the sophisticated aesthetic solutions of his final pieces. This conceptual approach, combined with his ability to engage viewers directly or stimulate new thought processes, distinguishes him from many contemporaries. His lifelong intention, implicitly conveyed through his art, was to alter perceptions of reality. The exhibition, curated by Helena Musilová and realized in cooperation with Jan Wojnar's family and the Gallery of Art in Ostrava, offers a comprehensive insight into his unique artistic vision.