Exhibitions & events

“I want to work with clean principles. I believe that shapes, in and of themselves, have a powerful psychological impact – for example: angular, sharp, inorganic shapes convey a sense of coldness; rounded, organic shapes convey warmth; and touching rounded shapes can evoke a feeling of a tenderness, an embrace – perhaps even erotic sensations.” / Maria Bartuszová

The exhibition was originally designed by curator Želmíra Grajciarová. It opened in 1998 on the first floor of Pálffy Palace following complete reconstruction of the building and its subsequent opening to the public under management of the Bratislava City Gallery.

The Primate's Palace, one of the most beautiful classicist buildings in Bratislava, was built in 1778 by Archbishop Cardinal Jozef Batthyány in accordance with the project of architect Melchior Hefele. The palace and its famous Hall of Mirrors have been the scene of many important historical events: in 1805, the Treaty of Pressburg between the Austrian and French armies was signed there; and the Hungarian Parliament, although it convened in the building of today's University Library, used to be opened there.

The painting was administratively transferred from the Municipal Museum in Bratislava to the GMB Collection in 1965. It is classified under inventory number A2470. An original assumption that it had continuously formed part of the interior of the Clarissine Church in Bratislava since dissolution of the monastery of the same name in 1782 proved incorrect.

The installation Totems comprises a series of five unique sculptures made of burnt books on concrete bases. Individual book titles are not recognisable, however, as in the process of burning they merged into a complete sculptural work that reflect wellknown geometric forms, for example Brancusi’s pedestal sculptures, and in terms of content is connected with social utopias in the tradition of artistic avant-gardes of futurism or constructivism. Authors who systematically analyse regimes of patriarchally constructed female representation work with books as symbols of literacy, a purportedly masculine and unquestionable sign of progress. From the books, which form majestic objects in a new vertical arrangement and suggest the fragility of burning, they created irrational, difficult to verbalise, totemic figures of the language of the sculptural work.

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