What remains continuous and authentic in Petr Willert’s work is a certain monothematic quality, in the positive sense of the word. This monothematic quality is also conditioned by a spatial, one might say, local limitation. This "locality" is a specific apartment from the 1950s and its immediate surroundings. The studio, landscape, and stage for the photographs are the four walls that define a space reflecting the personality of its inhabitants and their lifestyle; a real interior whose furnishings have remained largely untouched by the passing decades. The apartment and its inhabitants—the grandmother and the cat—have always been the primary subjects of photographs taken by the grandson, who returned there every weekend from his studies in Zlín.

This continuous, systematic, and long-term focus on the grandmother’s microcosm brought to the surface new layers and dimensions of meaning. Whether the main theme of the cycles became found still lifes reflecting the mass taste of the 1950s, complemented by family photographs, "products" of the grandmother's handicrafts, or the grandmother herself as a model, it was never about a superficial use of the "retro spectacle" of this specific, yet familiar, lifestyle. This is especially true since the author himself was and still is a part of it. It is a dialogue between two generations, two perspectives on the world, but also a reflection of a deep and loving relationship. In his own unique way, Willert sometimes humorously teases his grandmother, even through photographs, and tries to educate her. However, he is aware that many things are immutable facts and, as his recent series The Good Housekeeper and Homage show, relics of a specific approach to things that younger generations no longer carry in their veins. In the series Homage, the author, by connecting his photographs with Božena Němcová's novel The Grandmother, also examines the functioning of his grandmother’s household and her ability to live frugally. This is done exclusively through predominantly found still lifes. Here, more than ever, Willert employs his refined eye as a hunter navigating familiar territory. In his work, even accumulated PET bottles on the balcony or drying plastic bags on a line become subjects of contemplation and motifs for aesthetic still lifes.

It is precisely this purity of expression that opens up a space for deeper analysis of these images. Beneath the visual appeal of the grandmother’s kitchen still lifes or the gently ironic humor (an important and sympathetic part of the work), we must consider that Willert has managed to reflect on themes of aging and lifestyle in an average retiree's household without pathos, ridicule, critical engagement, or humanistic idealization. In his photographs, the grandmother is an equal partner, a challenge, but also a muse or even a co-creator without whom Willert’s sensitivity and imagination might never have developed.

The works presented at this exhibition are perhaps the best evidence of this. Willert moves from the final still lifes in the Homage series toward a certain reduction of forms. He continues to work within his grandmother’s space but, in a sense, removes familiar objects from it and abstracts them into formal shorthand. On one hand, this still allows for the identification (albeit sometimes very challenging) of the original object; on the other hand, it transforms them into ornaments with which Willert explores the uncharted waters of subversive subtexts. In other cases, he anthropomorphizes everyday objects (socks, slippers, paper) and seeks "hidden" creatures within them. Sometimes, he simply changes the angle of view or captures a slight shift that a casual visitor to the apartment might not notice but which can disturb the status quo for its inhabitants (a blanket on the couch turned the right or wrong side up).

These nuances in his approach to the banalities of everyday life may evoke the efforts of avant-garde photographers to view things with a clear, liberated vision and to reveal them in a new light through photography. While this is increasingly challenging in contemporary art, where appropriation and reference are more common than seeking new paths, Willert’s photographs retain a sense of discovery and joy in seeing things differently. Still life, as a genre that dominates the exhibited works and appears in the exhibition's title, recalls the work of Josef Sudek, who created some of his best works (still lifes) within the spatial limitations of his studio. Sudek’s window is referenced, with some exaggeration, by the projection of countless windows with orchids. In this way, too, Willert demonstrates his persistent scanning and processing of what he sees. Orchids are simply today’s new geraniums—try to notice them on your way to work.

Anna Mlynek Maximová