Dialogues on Art Reproductions II/IV
Structure of the Image System
AAAAA4 ("A4"), Ian Mikyska, Jan Nálevka,
Adéla Svobodová
10. 6 – 23. 8. 2026
guided tour with Adéla Svobodová: 20. 8. at 7.30 PM
at Cursor Gallery
How can we consider art reproductions at the level of our visual interpretation of images?
What do we perceive in a reproduction beyond what is explicitly depicted? Is it merely an illusion, or is it a structured system?
A deception of our retina? What does a reproduction look like when it is multiplied by the number of times it is viewed?
How is a book reproduced over time? Can value be transferred from reality to a printed image?
The image is not only a bearer of what it represents but also a trace of the process that formed it. It is not merely a neutral imprint of reality; rather, it is a reality whose materiality and underlying principles also convey meaning.
It is this level of decision-making about the “how” – the manner of depiction, print, and format – that interests me. The image as an imprint of the system.
The technology most commonly used to print reproductions is based on the halftone screen, which can also be understood as a distinctive visual language founded on the screen dot. Unlike written language, however, the dots come together to compose not words but images. We perceive the resulting image not only as a surface intended to allow us to view what is depicted. It becomes a structure that can be analysed and read. Decisions regarding the size of the reproduction, the screen dot, the density of the screen, or the spectrum of print colours determine what we see.
I invited several artists to join me in these meditations on printing: Jan Nálevka, who prepared an installation titled Emissions for the Cursor Gallery; the AAAAA4 (“A4”) practice with their 2025 project Axiom Please, and Ian Mikyska, who will present a sound performance titled Reproduction, Replica, Copy (2026) at the exhibition opening.
Adéla Svobodová
Jan Nálevka
Emise (Emissions)
Using a 17th-century illustration as a starting point, artificial intelligence was used to generate one thousand distinct digital images of tulips, which were then printed on a black-and-white printer. The body of each tulip was then dimensioned using a blue marker on the foundation of a standard lined sheet of paper. Since every tulip has a unique shape, each drawing produced an individual barcode describing the form of the digital code that the image itself consists of. The series is inspired by the first historically recorded investment bubble in the 17th-century Dutch Republic, when speculation caused tulip bulb prices to soar to astronomical levels – exceeding the cost of a house. This was followed by a market crash, panic, a rapid price decline, bankruptcies, financial losses, and a long-term erosion of trust across Dutch society. The current AI bubble, fueled by massive investments that reflect today’s speculative capital and carry significant risks, also raises fears of a similar investment bubble. The drawings thus serve as symbolic representations of the emissions of the quasi-shares of artificial intelligence. The installation of drawings is accompanied by an AI-generated video animation in which all the tulip images continuously blend into one another, with the flower moving and transforming. Artificial intelligence consumes enormous amounts of energy and water. The digital flower comes to life not only through electricity but is also physically watered.
Adéla Svobodová
Nothing Odd Will Do Long
The project Nothing Odd Will Do Long explores the precursor to the modern experimental novel, Laurence Sterne’s The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman. The installation’s title is a quote from the British man of letters Samuel Johnson, who used the phrase “nothing odd will do long” to comment on Sterne’s novel in 1776.
On offset prints in the British Foolscap format, the installation presents visual quotations of graphic elements found in the book across three different editions: the 1793 English edition and two Czech translations published in 1968 and 1985.
The prints are installed on desks covered in Hexachrome colours expanded to include violet. At the turn of the millennium, this combination of seven colours was intended to broaden the range of colours that could be printed. However, the technology never became widespread and gradually fell out of use.
AAAAA4 (“A4”)
Axiom Please
Axiom Please is a series of glass panels in two formats, 80 × 100 cm and 43 × 54 cm, that explore the relationship between language and the space in which text exists and is depicted. It utilises text fragments from various sources and explores language as a material contaminated by associations of meaning. The work investigates the possibilities of language in a culture oversaturated with information, with words becoming partially detached from their communicative function and gaining the potential to exist as abstract objects beyond their original meaning. The aim is not to provide a clear definition, but to create a space for reflecting on our own interpretations.
Ian Mikyska
Reproduction, Replica, Copy
At the centre of this musical performance is the viola da gamba, a historical musical instrument, or rather a replica of the Baroque “Bertrand” model. Its acoustic sound resonates through the spaces of the Kurzor Gallery, contrasting with electronically processed sounds and loops – copies of time in sound. The result is an encounter between replicas and copies in the present moment and in concentration on sound and listening.
Zbyněk Baladrán is a visual artist, curator, and exhibition architect. He is interested in the contradictions of the contemporary world and the possibilities of understanding them through art and artistic practice. In 2001, he co-founded Display – Association for Research and Collective Practice, where he works as a curator and organiser.
Hana Buddeus is an art historian specialising in the history of photography in relation to the history of art. She has worked closely with Fotograf Zone as both a curator and editor. She has been employed at the Institute of Art History of the Czech Academy of Sciences since 2016, specifically at the department covering the period from the 19th century to the present. She is currently a researcher in the project titled “The Matrix of Photomechanical Reproductions: Histories of Remote Access to Art”.
Meghan Forbes is a writer, translator, curator, and gardener. She has a long-standing interest in the history of Central Europe and experimental forms of mediating art. She recently participated, as a curator, in the exhibition project Lucia Moholy: Exposures (2024) and published the monograph Technologies for the Revolution. The Czech Avant-garde in Print (2025), in which she explores the relationship between technology and the artistic avant-garde.
AAAAA4 (“A4”) reflects on social and technological issues through collaboratively produced graphic design objects and media. The practice was established following the exhibition “We’re not looking for a compass that points to a static North Pole, but toward that which we most desire. Or to nowhere, if we don’t know what that is” in Ostrava in 2025.
Jan Nálevka is a visual artist whose installations often combine various media, incorporating drawing, print, repetition, and standardisation. Through his work, he reflects on themes including labour, the structure of social and institutional rules and relationships, and pan-societal issues.
Ian Mikyska is a composer, musician, and intermedia artist. He is one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary and experimental music in Czechia. He also creates his own installations, primarily involving sound, and collaborates with visual artists, theatre makers, and filmmakers. He also works as a translator from Czech to English and serves as the deputy editor-in-chief at Czech Music Quarterly.
Adéla Svobodová is a graphic designer and artist who primarily works as a book designer. She is particularly interested in the structure of books, which largely influences their appearance. Currently, she is pursuing a PhD on the structure of artistic publications at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague.
The program of the Cursor Gallery is possible through kind support of Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic, Prague City Council, State Fund of Culture of the Czech Republic, City District Prague 7,
GESTOR – The Union for the Protection of Authorship
Partners: Art Hotel Praha
Thanks: Joinmusic
Media partners: ArtMap, jlbjlt.net
