Floating Arboretum

Slovakia is represented by an installation by Ota Hudec, situated on the outer shell of the Czech and Slovak Pavilion and in its surroundings, prepared in collaboration with the Slovak National Gallery and curator Lydia Pribyšová. Oto Hudec works with an archive/database/file of stories, telling of a collective effort when a united community of activists prevented deforestation and the destruction of trees. He calls for their rescue, as well as for the rescue of other endangered trees in the world. He contemplates an arboretum, a symbolic utopian place, a sanctuary for trees threatened by human expansion and extractivism. The project is an imaginative glimpse into a dystopian future in which we select and save trees by moving them to a safe (fictional) arboretum. We believe that Floating Arboretum's stories can spark transformative imagination, and that they can be inspirational in our everyday lives. Oto Hudec (b. 1981, Košice, Slovakia, where he lives and works) is a multi-media artist, who created and exhibited his recent works in Slovakia, in Austria, South Korea, Cabo Verde, Portugal and the USA. He creates videos, murals, animations, sculptures, sound pieces and works for public spaces about immigration, refugees and the effects of globalization on the environment. His projects often include a utopian perspective as a way to understand the production of food, energy; he tracks transformations of the industrial landscape or the decline of bees. His research on the topics of climate change, ecology is often focused, instead on new scientific solutions, on how nomadic and indigenous people achieved sustainability. He often collaborates on projects with children and youth from disadvantaged communities. Since 2013, he has been working on a participatory project with Roma children in Slovakia - Project Karavan together with Daniela Krajčová. Currently teacher at Faculty of Fine Arts, Technical University, Košice, Slovakia, Associate Professor. He is represented by Gandy Gallery, Bratislava. His works have been presented both as solo shows and as part of numerous group exhibitions in Slovakia and abroad. Recently, his projects were presented in the Gandy Gallery in Bratislava (2024), in the East Slovak Gallery in Košice (2022), AlbumArte, Rome, Italy (2022), Biennale Zielona Góra, Poland (2022), Ludwig Museum, Budapest, Hungary (2022), Kunsthalle Bratislava (2021, 2019, 2017), Centre Pompidou, Paris, France (2017), De Appel, Amsterdam, Holland (2017) and many others. Commissioner: Monika Krčmárik Curator: Lýdia Pribišová

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Giardini

Venice, NY