The Missing Family Head

he maturity of a person and an artist converges in the personal project Family Vintage, which began 20 years ago. The exhibition "The Missing Family Head" is a continuation, and above all, an evolution of the self-portrait created throughout a lifetime. The artist invites us into his studio, located not only right next to the family home but also at the very center of his heart. Collected personal items and mementos from loved ones, modified and transformed, form a new narrative about the past, present, and future. The viewer engaging with the content encapsulated in physical works of art is given space to believe or cast doubt on its credibility. Similar to the artist, the time spent at the exhibition has the power to transform the audience. The Family Vintage series began with curiosity - from the perspective of an observer, researcher, narrator, introducing outsiders to the roots of one's own identity. Time conducive to fully immersing oneself in stories influences the evolution of personal perspective and incorporates the artist as a full-fledged hero in the family narrative.

The entire journey is encapsulated in gestures and objects present in the space. It initiates a play with the physical boundaries of the body, a series of non-functional objects, items ranging from construction, music, DIY aesthetics, heritage, roots, Slovak taste. Alongside ironic exaggeration and subversive humor, the attempt to reach the inner self becomes a powerful weapon in Viktor Frešo's expressive arsenal. The deeper he delved into family roots, the closer he got to his own needs. One of these needs, the presence of all immediate family members captured in a photograph, materialized and found its place within the walls of the Contemporary Museum Wrocław. Understanding its truth or falsehood remains a layer to be explored. Balancing artistic gesture between fiction and fact occurs among the still-fresh traces of paint left by the artist's hands. It is a story about people we lose over time, and after their departure, in most cases, only individual memories remain - small pieces of significant lives. The same small objects make up complex family scenarios and equally intricate identities of the protagonists.

Skrátka, zistil som o nich viac, a tým som zistil aj viac o sebe. Dúfam, že vás moja cesta a bádania pobavia. A ak nie, to nič. Aj tak všetko zmaže čas a ďalšie generácie budú na to kašľať, ako aj ja som kašľal na tých predo mnou. Až kým som sa nerozhodol v tom hrabať a fiktívne ich spojiť.

Viktor Frešo, Family Vintage

“Thus, by finding out more about them I now know more about myself. I hope you’ll have fun with my journey and exploring. And if not, never mind. Everything will be wiped out by time and the generations to come won’t give a shit about it, just as I didn’t give a shit about those before me. Until I decided to dig through it and in fiction connect them”.

Viktor Frešo, Family Vintage

The exhibition space transforms into a labyrinth woven with dynamic intergenerational interactions and subtle nuances of identity. Broken ties - against the backdrop of parental divorce - have embraced equally complex relationships of grandparents who had already gone through this legal procedure. A four-year-old boy, subject to the energy of change, experienced the closest family members separately. Nevertheless, adult decisions remain adult decisions - from a child's perspective, these divisions are just an agreement. Today, the maturity of a creative gesture builds a new dimension of everyday life that would not be possible based on complicated family relationships, and its driving force is the desire for unity. Family attributes bonded by a universal cohesive force, consisting of love, respect, and the creation able to transform reality, coexist with the EGO lurking in the corners. It is an opportunity to immerse oneself in the idea of exploring family identity, which may culminate in rediscovering lost parts of oneself.

Curator: Karolina Łapucka