CONATUS (with Jana Hojstričová)
Two corporealities, two memories, two ways of grasping vulnerability. Together, they create a mapof an existential archive, where the body is not only an object of biology but also a carrier of memory. Within
this framework enters the notion of conatus, the inner striving of every being to preserve its existence
and move toward life. The project connects two artists of different generations, whose works reveal the body
as a site of inscription and trauma. In her series, Klára Kusá explores anemia and its impact on the individual’s
physical and psychological experience. Bandages and fragments of plaster appear in her installation, while
blood becomes the primary element of her exhibition entry, a bearer of both pain and transformation.
The photographic work of Jana Hojstričová presents the body’s surface as a map of the past: scars, birthmarks,
clusters of pigmentation, or hair. Skin becomes a medium that preserves memory in the form of a bodily archive.
Mário Drgoňa, curator
Hojstričová-UV print on plexiglass and aluminum composite and silver-plated copper sheets, Petri dishes with photo emulsion sealed in water glass. Kusá-Petri dishes, gauze, plaster bandages, pipette, funnel, glass rod, metal rod, microscope slides on copper sheets, fragments of clay and plaster, thread, hair, nails, red spray.
Čepan Gallery, Trnava, Slovakia, 2025