Congratulations, It’s Growing

1#
To moon is to stage the body as a site of refusal. If the humoresque is laughter steeped in sadness, then mooning is its perfect choreography: a brief lifting of the weight of the world, trousers down, gravity winning, absurdity revealed. The mooning body is not only mocking power but mocking itself, knowing that revolt may fail, that history keeps marching on regardless of how many backsides it encounters. It is exposure as both resistance and surrender, a small theater of flesh interrupting seriousness for a fleeting moment of collective laughter. absurdity becomes a kind of epistemology: a way of knowing the world by refusing to bow to its logic, the clumsy poetics of refusal.

2#
In this landscape, everyday communication collapses into its barest form: the question how are things growing—a phrase devoid of expectation or judgment. It carries no opinion; it is a weather report, an acknowledgment that growth is something outside our control. In that simplicity lies a paradox: language as both presence and absence, speech as sediment where meaning is both buried and preserved. Like myths, such simple phrases hold a kind of collective unconscious logic, embedding cultural attitudes toward time, change, and expectation without explicit explanation.

A key feature of Valentýna Janů’s (*1994) work is her essayistic narrative, addressing feminism, emancipation, technology, and global social issues. She primarily works with video, often incorporating photography and textile-based objects. Laureate of the 2021 Jindřich Chalupecký Award. Co-leads Intermedia Studio at FaVU with Jonáš Strouhal. Exhibited widely in CZ and abroad. Her work is in private and state collections incl. National Gallery Prague and Prague City Gallery.

Jakub Pohlodek (*1997) graduated from UMPRUM Prague. Through text, objects, drawings, and installations, he explores the memetic nature of language and the border between meaning and emotion. His work uses repetition, ambiguity, and layered structures as psychological strategies. Fascinated by cryptic systems and the emotional residue of words, he constructs tangled wordplay and emotional cues to invite subtle disorientation.

Marek Meduna (*1974) studied at AVU Prague (1998–2004). Member of Rafani (2000–2018). Married in 2009. Assistant at UMPRUM Painting Studio (2010–2017). Since 2014 in Skutek Association. Became a father in 2018. Since then co-leads Painting Studio 4 at AVU with Petr Dub. Likely represented by Svit Gallery, Prague. Exhibits since 2000. His work explores complexities of understanding, using various media, mainly painting.