“DISEGNO INTERNO_Eva Švankmajerová/Jan Švankmajer”
location of the exhibition: Daugavpils Mark Rothko Art Centre, Daugavpils, Latvia
duration of the exhibition: 13/09/2024 – 15/02/2025
Jan Švankmajer and Eva Švankmajerová (Czechia)
While the globe is swept up in the celebration of Surrealism’s centennial, “Disegno Interno” marks the ninetieth anniversary of Jan Švankmajer, one of the world’s most influential surrealist filmmakers.
“Disegno Interno”, or “internal design”, is a retrospective exhibition that pays homage to two creative greats, Jan Švankmajer (b. 1934) and Eva Švankmajerova (1940–2005). The legendary couple worked together since the 1960s, producing collages and assemblages, drawings and paintings, book illustrations and tactile experiments, medium drawings, and, most famously, iconic films.
“Disegno Interno” is a surrealist voyage into a world where the lines between animal forms, abstract drawings, and intricate book illustrations are blurred to near erasure. The only way to make sense of its internal design is through documenting the bottom layers of our deep subconscious – that is, by chronicling our numerous obsessions and recording our complete surrender to utter mental liberation.
All the artifacts in this comprehensive display are the fruit of both artists’ obsessed imaginations and meticulous manual work – their limbs have moved, their minds have roamed, and the result is now on show and talking to the viewer. There is no single code to viewing and deciphering what you are seeing, touching, or maybe casually passing by. The only key is your surrender. It’s the best you have anyway. So come, surrender to your burgeoning obsession to experience the show!
Curator Aivars Baranovskis
