The central theme of Wolfchen's (not only) painting is contemporary war history and the associated militaristic iconography. As a nationally acclaimed model maker, he has been creating models of war machines - aircraft and tanks - and battlefield scenery since childhood. During his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts, he professionalized this amateur passion and transformed it into a distinctive Dadaist concept, which he strengthened through his active participation in the ZTOHOVEN group. The exhibition at the Kabinet T. gallery wants to be a celebration of Wolfchen's skillful DIY, a manifesto of his pacifist struggle against absurd evil. Like his idol Josef Švejk, he has chosen irony and sarcasm as his weapon of choice, with which he undermines the shaky pillars of our history built on monuments of psychopathic warlords and mass graves of unknown soldiers.
Annotations to the exhibited works or their thematic areas:
1- If you want peace, prepare for war - 2024 - a powdered inscription of a Latin proverb (Flavius Vegetius Renatus, De Re Militari, Book Three), which is unfortunately still relevant in our time.
2- The War Cross for Private Josef Švejk - 2017 - Although this is a completely fictional character, I am convinced that Private Švejk has made, by his mere existence, an extraordinary contribution to our culture. I awarded him the 1918 War Cross with the decree of award as part of the event. I should certainly also award him the Czechoslovak Revolutionary Medal 1918. The author of the decree was none other than František Kupka, on whose designs for the decoration the medallist and sculptor Antoine Bourdelle based himself.
3- Czechoslovak War Cross 1939 - 2012 - comes from the collection of historical military decorations. I am a passionate phalerist, which is an auxiliary science of history that allows me to better study specific personalities of war history and our resistance.
4 - BE READY - 2014 - is the international Scout motto. I proudly subscribe to the ideas of Scouting even in my adult life. I am glad that our own children are also little wolves.
5 - from the HAVEL series - from 2021 - our former President Václav Havel was also a Scout in his youth. His nickname was "Beetle." I wanted to create a portrait of him, but in the end I chose a completely conceptual portrait when I found Chrobák in the forest in Šumava.
6 - from the series KUNST IST VERBOTEN - 2023/2024 - airships, such as the Zeppelin LZ 129 Hindenburg, were the ideological propaganda of the totalitarian regime, which is why I started writing the slogan ART IS FORBIDDEN on them. I was thinking of using them for the first time directly for an exhibition in Zlín.
7 - from the series CZECH COUNTRY - after studying at the academy I was an assistant to doc. Milan Perič and Dr. Jitka Handlová at the summer landscape plein air workshops organized for the public by the National Gallery in Prague. Painting was done en plein air and almost all over the country. It was an extraordinary experience.
8 - from the series BUNKERS AND LANDSCAPES - since 2005, the first one I painted was an artillery fortress
in Šatov near Znojmo. I continued in other locations around the country, often in the plein air, but sometimes working in the studio. Of course, I studied more deeply professional publications and drawings of our and foreign bunkers and fortresses. There is a question whether the Republic should have defended itself. It would have defended itself for a few days or maybe even weeks. We should have defended ourselves. With the BUNKERS series (2008) I was a finalist for the NG 333 prize organized by the National Gallery in Prague, which we (2007) won as the ZTOHOVEN group.
9 - BUMZTOHOVENBUM - 2008 - a personal documentation through painting and my participation in the early days of the ZTOHOVEN group. It was one big adventure, like the Fast Arrows crew.
In the beginning we didn't even know each other's real names. I was Mila Mikule, Virus or Wolfchen, but no ö.
10 - from the series PYROKRAJINY - since 2003 - I like to work with gunpowder and incendiary cords, it's mostly an intimate pyroperformance or personal type of ritual.
11 - from the CACTUS series - since 2021 - a civilian subject without historical context, it is completely outside my areas of study, it is an example of a peaceful civilian painting.
12 - from the series SINGLES - from 2020 - we have a young daughter. If I hung a fighter jet or a tank over her crib, I don't know what I would hang over my slightly older son's crib. He likes tanks and she likes unicorns. And my world has been greatly enriched by it.
13 - from the MARRIAGE BACKGROUND series - from 2022 - this is a personal take on the male-female principle and situations of cohabitation in marriage. It is impossible to exist without love.
14 - from the series EXPLOSIVE BALLS - from 2013 - originally a pyroperformance for the PUPPENKLINIK gallery, which I built in Prague's TRAFAČKA with my neighbour, the composer Anja Kaufmann. I used to make real rolls explode in the yard before TRAFAČKA was demolished in 2015. I had a studio there for about five years.
15 - SEKERA II. - 2011 - totem symbol of work in progress (starting a camp, founding a troop or troop, etc.)
16 - from the series PYROLOVE - since 2003 - this is one passion, an explosive type of love, diagrams of explosive landscapes, controlled experiments or sometimes also the basis for pyroperformance. Here is also one of the first pyroimages ART IS POWER - THE ART BOMB from 2003.
17 - ART IS A VIRUS - ART IS A VIRUS - since 2003 - this has been my personal motto since my studies, I still use it sometimes. I think it is still relevant and has a strong meaning.
18 - Ghost series - 2010 - portraits with gunpowder and incendiary cord.
19 - FECHTNER and KUTTELWACHER - 2014, these were Czechoslovak fighters in the Royal Air Force, fighter aces, heroes of my childhood, avengers of the Republic. The crosses are symbols of aerial victories they drew under the cockpits of their machines, it's not a promotion of Nazism, quite the opposite. These two were mainly after bombers... the models are installations for the paintings on display.
20 - PICASSOHELLBOY I and II - 2016 - I was thinking about Picasso and the comic book character Hellboy at the time and this is the end result.
21 - from the Minen! series - 2017 - this is a reconstruction of a warning sign from a German minefield in 1944/45 from the French port of Dunkirk where the Czechoslovak Armored Brigade was deployed. It was a trophy used by our soldiers as evidence of a successful patrol and then as an ornament in their hinterland (Jiri Flak - was a Czechoslovak soldier at Tobruk and Dunkirk).
22 - Battlefield - 2024 - room installation of a battlefield, demonstration of a board war game.
23 - Grenades and planes - 2014 - here I combined in a larger format the symbol of hand grenade cycles and fighter planes, the first image of the "holy" grenade is in the collection of the Klatovy/Klenová gallery.
24 - TOTAL CRAP - the silhouette of a Eurofighter fighter comes from 2003, when the Ministry of Defence was deciding whether to buy Eurofighters or Gripen.
25 - PEACE IS SUPER - electromagnetic pulse bomb (High Power Microwave) for destroying electrical equipment, 2003, when the invasion of Iraq began and the war on terror was in full swing, thousands of kilometres away and our European area was living in almost carefree peace. This is a painting that was exhibited in an installation alongside Maurizio Cattelan's "Ave Maria", 2007, in the exhibition (No)Power at DOX, 2022.
26 - GRIPENY - 2005 - This painting is part of a series of paintings within the thesis "Landscape that can explode." Gripens were equipped with our military air force at the time. I still think it is a beautiful machine.
27 - from the SPITFIRE series - 2019 - this is one of the most beautiful aircraft in aviation history, it's an icon that helped win the Battle of Britain and defeat the Nazis. I have been very lucky to have met many pilots who have flown it. (Antonín Liška, František Fajtl, Zdeněk Janda ...)
28 - HPM - electromagnetic pulse bombs - 2003, it's a smart weapon that throws a certain radius into the Middle Ages, the whole affected area is without electricity with non-functioning devices.
29 - SUBMARINES - 2015, a cycle of war machines. Haunting beauty - fascination with technology.
30 - Fishies and Pac-Man - 2021 - a blending of two themes that were present in the covid period, SO IT GOES, Kurt Vonnegut - Slaughterhouse 5 - Fishies and Pac-Man - I haven't been a member of ZTOHOVEN for many years.
31 - FISH - 2022 - civil rest theme. I'm not a fisherman, after 20 years a random invitation came from friends, they fished, I drew and photographed.
32 - Four Courts - almost classic landscape painting from plein air in the Highlands, 2005.
33 - from the cycle CHINESE SOLDIER - 2022 - my father-in-law, poet and painter Pavel Štýbr asked me during a visit to his studio whether I would not give him the title page to his poetry collection "Ride with a shitsucker" with a stencil. He saw a tin soldier and it was clear.
34 - Explosive Roll - 2022/2024 - this one is specifically for the exhibition here. I'd love to do it again in monumental format sometime.
35 - PUBLIC ENEMY - 2009 - A public enemy, a mosquito from a summer plein air painting session. 36 - PUTIN - 2023 - no need to comment.
