Everything, including ephemeral phenomena, overlooked biographies, everyday memories, and found objects, sets something in motion in this art. Through montage and recombination, Tallová imbues bodies, objects, and materials with beauty, emotion, and new, universal meanings. In this process, there are no hierarchies; nothing is considered too insignificant, banal, or simple. Her practice is grounded in an idea that is as poetic as it is materialist: that history is inscribed into every form of matter, into every material, whether living or non-living, organic or artificial. This includes geological history, the histories of civilizations, progress, technology, and culture, as well as fleeting personal memories. Materials absorb these recollections as traces, like a subtle energy, and preserve them like sediment.
Tallová’s work can be understood as that of an archaeologist, historian, or sociologist: a form of artistic forensics that uncovers hidden narratives. Bratislava and Slovakia, together with the wider Central and Eastern European region shaped by the Austro-Hungarian Empire, form an important source of inspiration. The books, illustrated volumes, encyclopedias, and magazines she encounters in her everyday surroundings, in second-hand bookshops and at flea markets, offer a cross-section of what people here have read and looked at since the early twentieth century, revealing the images and ideals that have shaped collective consciousness, ideology, and social norms over the decades. The subjects of these publications range from Classical Antiquity and the Habsburg Monarchy to postwar modernity: the era of reconstruction, socialist progress, and industrialization in both Eastern and Western Europe.
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Everything, including ephemeral phenomena, overlooked biographies, everyday memories, and found objects, sets something in motion in this art. Through montage and recombination, Tallová imbues bodies, objects, and materials with beauty, emotion, and new, universal meanings. In this process, there are no hierarchies; nothing is considered too insignificant, banal, or simple. Her practice is grounded in an idea that is as poetic as it is materialist: that history is inscribed into every form of matter, into every material, whether living or non-living, organic or artificial. This includes geological history, the histories of civilizations, progress, technology, and culture, as well as fleeting personal memories. Materials absorb these recollections as traces, like a subtle energy, and preserve them like sediment.
Tallová’s work can be understood as that of an archaeologist, historian, or sociologist: a form of artistic forensics that uncovers hidden narratives. Bratislava and Slovakia, together with the wider Central and Eastern European region shaped by the Austro-Hungarian Empire, form an important source of inspiration. The books, illustrated volumes, encyclopedias, and magazines she encounters in her everyday surroundings, in second-hand bookshops and at flea markets, offer a cross-section of what people here have read and looked at since the early twentieth century, revealing the images and ideals that have shaped collective consciousness, ideology, and social norms over the decades. The subjects of these publications range from Classical Antiquity and the Habsburg Monarchy to postwar modernity: the era of reconstruction, socialist progress, and industrialization in both Eastern and Western Europe.
Further artworks from this exhibition
Deutsche Bank “Artist of the Year” 2026
Lucia Tallová: Moving Clouds
Deutsche Bank “Artist of the Year” 2026
Fragile worlds made of paper
Male fantasies, female bodies
Between new beginnings and decline