The Forest Passage

Juliana Höschlová, Pavel Jestřáb, Martin Kochan,
Martin Kubica, Tereza Samková, Jiří Šigut,
Šárka Zahálková, Martin Zetová

12. 3. – 1. 6. 2025
opening: 11. 3. 2025 from 6 pm

curators: Tomáš Knoflíček and Kateřina Štroblová

Picasso used to say that when a painter finds himself, he is lost, and this exhibition is more about losing rather than finding oneself. Nevertheless, it’s probably necessary to admit that it does not look for the requisite differentiation and thus blurs the meaning of both concepts. In the forest, which, albeit somewhat metaphorically, frames the exhibition, it is very easy. It is here that acquired meanings are easily transformed into their opposite, so that for some it remains Dante’s dark forest (selva oscura), in which one loses oneself before the very gates of hell, while for others it is literally the opposite, a place where one can find oneself, and where obstacles culminating in a thick fog perhaps only protect the primordial “paradise”.

The latter, however, is only true if we believe that a straight path distances us from our goals, and that the very word goal smacks of pragmatism, as in Ernst Jünger’s slim volume from which the exhibition borrows its title. Far from representing merely a romantic escape, the forest passage in this book is a form of resistance. For Jünger, this practice marked above all a way to counter the advancing technological and political totalitarianisation of modern and contemporary society: “The wanderer in the forest (Waldgänger) is determined to offer resistance. He is willing to enter into a struggle that may appear hopeless. Hence he is distinguished by an immediate relationship to freedom which expresses itself in the fact that he is prepared to oppose automatism and to reject its ethical conclusion of fatalism.” In Jünger’s view, automatism refers to modern civilisation, its instruments of power and technical innovations, the adoption of which leads to disempowerment and ultimately the loss of freedom of choice. 

To better understand what Jünger had in mind, let us compare walking through the forest with travelling along a road. Whereas the forest allows for movement (albeit complicated) in all directions, the road offers only two possibilities, forwards and backwards. And so it is with “technology”. Jünger compares the person who uses the road to a passenger in a fast vehicle, of whom he says: “As long as the weather holds and the outlook is pleasant, he will scarcely notice the curtailment of his freedom. He may even be filled with optimism and with the consciousness of power produced by the sense of speed. But all this changes when the fiery volcanic islands and icebergs emerge on the horizon. Then not only will technology claim a right to dominate fields other than the procurement of comfort, but at the same time the lack of freedom will become apparent…“

In contrast, Martin Kubica’s disjointed, robust and fragile, sometimes stable structure, which grows into the gallery space, virtually forbids direct movement. It only allows movement along a curvilinear trajectory. And just as it integrates the work of other artists, it eventually draws in other potential pedestrians and motivates them to lose themselves and to entertain doubts, as necessary prerequisites of an unprejudiced mind.

Tomáš Knoflíček and Kateřina Štroblová
transl.: Phil Jones

The program of the Cursor Gallery is possible through kind support of Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic, Prague City Council, State Fund of Culture of the Czech Republic, City District Prague 7, 
GESTOR – The Union for the Protection of Authorship

Thanks: Joinmusic

Media partners: ArtMap, jlbjlt.net, Radio1