MIMEZIS - Portfolio - JOZEF PILÁT

Aristoteles defined mimesis as imitation of reality, which all art is based on. Piece by Jozef Pilát has two levels - one a personal story and the second one warning about ecological issues and nature preservation.The author reflects his own roots - small village Šuňava in Tatra Mountains. His grandfather as a young man bought a field here and planted two red spruces on it. With time passing, whole forest sprouted, with grandfather’s spruces as its highest points. Left to their own destiny, they fell vicitm to illegal felling. After several court hearings, Pilat family was able to get the wood back - however only in form of boards.

This history is the starting point of the installation. From the grandfather’s boards, he started to work with woodcut technique, pressing the wood’s structure to fabric. Resulting 54 pressings were assembled in the shape of a flower (54 is number of sunflower’s petals). Together they created a metaphor of tree log as well as cycle of universe. Pressed drawings of the wood symbolically again became wood. The boards returned to the nature.