Visual Stage at Pohoda 2025
For the ninth time, the grounds of Trenčín Airport will be transformed into an open-air gallery of contemporary art. Under the curatorial direction of Prof. Ilona Németh, Pohoda will once again showcase works responding to social issues, environmental challenges, and human struggles — created by both Slovak and international artists. As is tradition, the Visual Stage will also feature the winning pieces from the Visual Art Contest 2025.
02. July 2025
Braňo Matis: Časová os Otvorená Kultúra! / Open Culture! Timeline (2025)
At Pohoda 2025, the Open Culture! platform will present a visual installation in the form of a timeline, charting over a year and a half of resistance by the Slovak cultural community against destructive political interference in the arts. Come and explore the key moments of this struggle, join an open conversation, and leave your comment, question, or words of encouragement. During the festival, members of the Open Culture! collective will be present at the installation for meetups. The installation also serves as an invitation to search for answers together: Where has this journey taken us as a cultural community? What could we have done differently? Where do we go from here?
Džumelec: Dlhý nos / Long Nose (2025)
Long nose, from Pinocchio to his Czechoslovak counterpart in the 1984 film The Three Veterans, based on Jan Werich’s fairy tale and animated by the legendary artist Jan Švankmajer. And now, a new Long Nose by Džumelec as a twenty-metre sculpture. A monument to boosted lies. Lies that travel the whole planet. As old as humanity, as fresh as the latest viral post. Yet at the end of this nose, there’s no liar – only the lie itself, springing from its own existence. A grand, portable sculpture of lies, cosy and soft, like a little sofa. A nose that knows how to whinge.
Marco Scotini: Disobedience Archive (2025)
Disobedience Archive is a multi-phase, mobile, and continuously evolving video archive that explores the relationship between artistic practices and political action. It has been presented fifteen times in various countries, transforming each time without ever adopting a final form. Whether in the shape of a parliament, a school, or a community garden, the project turns the archive—typically static and taxonomic—into a dynamic and generative medium.
Olia Fedorova: You Are Now Leaving III (2025)
After Russia started the full-scale war against the artist’s home country Ukraine, thoudands of people including herself were forced to leave their homes. Driving away by car the last thing that they saw before leaving their home city, town or village – were the road signs «You are now leaving...». In Ukraine, like in many other European countries, they are white metal boards with black alignment that have a black location’s name crossed out by the bold red line. In Fedorova’s work these signs symbolise hundreds of cities, towns and villages that Ukrainians had to leave without any clue when they would be able to come back – and if they would be able to come back at all. At the same time, the signs with the red crossing line are about the very tragedy of «deletion» of these cities, towns and villages, their brutal destruction commited by the Russian troops every day for already more than 3 years.
Dalibor Bača: Myslím na teba / I Think About You (2025)
All that remains of the original ice object is a memory. This memory evokes themes of impermanency, the climate crisis, and the collective experience of ice as a symbol of cold in a drink. The viewer may come to realise the connection between the object, nature, and everyday human actions, as well as their impact on sustainability. By creating this processual object, I too have contributed to the climate’s tally. I think about you.
Oto Hudec: Kým plávame spolu / As Long as We Float Together (2024)
The installation and performance titled As Long as We Float Together is a tribute to endangered trees and people—the activists who stood up in their defense. It continues the Floating Arboretum project, which was part of the Slovak representation at last year’s Venice Biennale. A symbolic wooden boat carries an oversized wooden cone of the Lebanese cedar, a species threatened by climate change.
What can we do when forests and trees are in danger? Is there a safe place to transport them to?
Diana Paulová: Tu nateraz / Here for Now (2024)
For many, Pohoda is a carefree oasis. A town that comes to life just once a year, where we wander and explore a rich tapestry of sounds, colours, and flavours. Our only real concern is how to anchor our temporary home to the sun-baked ground. The site-specific work Here for Now depicts a tent peg, which becomes both a symbol of summer relaxation and an invitation to reflect on the idea of home – the place we’ve chosen, for now, to stay.
Diana Paulová is the winner of last year’s Pohoda Visual Art Contest. Her work Here for Now will once again feature on the Visual stage, Pohoda’s platform for contemporary art.
Kalmus na Pohode
For several years now, visual artist Peter Kalmus has been creating and presenting a new mobile object at Pohoda. This year is no exception. He approaches this with full awareness that the festival is a celebration, a moment of joy, and so also his objects are playful. But it would not be Kalmus if his objects were not also provocative with their unconventionality and layered with hidden messages. Kalmus, the artist, is known for collecting things. His creations often emerge from old, discarded materials. In a sense, he is an ecologist, giving objects a second life, one with added value. In a world driven by consumption, he does not escalate the curve of production growth but rather repurposes what has already been made and seemingly consumed. Just as his lifestyle is ascetic, so is his art. Perhaps this is exactly what unnerves those who always seek for the new, the shiny, the expensive, the things no one else has—even at the cost of deceit and theft, even at the cost of impoverishment of the entire nation…
Dusts Institute: Vzduchohľadňa (2025)
Airsight Deck is an interactive installation by the collective Dusts Institute, making visible what we usually overlook in the air around us. A five-metre rotating wheel fitted with twelve coloured filters allows visitors to gaze at the horizon through various air scenarios. Each filter represents a specific atmospheric condition, based on real data collected throughout the year in Trenčín on airborne dust particles.
Jozef Pilát Agrofuturizmus – Ticho prerastá kov / Agrofuturism – Silence Grows Over Steel (2025)
Agrofuturism – Silence Grows Over Steel (2025) is an interactive site-specific installation by Jozef Pilát, telling its own story at Pohoda Festival. Created in collaboration with curator Nina Vidovencová, it imagines a landscape where monocultures have lost the battle to the vitality of unwanted plants. Rather than a narrative of domination, we encounter a vision of connection, reverence, and quiet resilience.
PROGRAM
FRIDAY
10:00 – 10:30 Braňo Matis: Časová os Otvorená Kultúra! / discussion with OK! members
10:30 – 11:00 Oto Hudec: Kým plávame spolu / performance
11:15 – 11:45 Disobedience Archive / guided tour
15:00 – 15:15 Diana Paulová: Tu Nateraz / guided tour
16:15 – 16:45 Disobedience Archive / guided tour
17:30 – 18:00 Oto Hudec: Kým plávame spolu / performance
19:00 – 19:45 Erik Sikora: Dlhý nos / exhibition
20:00 – 20:30 Dusts Institute: Vzduchohľadňa
SATURDAY
10:00 – 10:30 Braňo Matis: Časová os Otvorená Kultúra! / discussion with OK! members
10:30 – 11:00 Oto Hudec: Kým plávame spolu / performance
11:15 – 11:45 Disobedience Archive / guided tour
15:00 – 15:15 Diana Paulová: Tu Nateraz / guided tour
16:15 – 16:45 Disobedience Archive / guided tour
17:00 – 17:30 Olia Fedorova: You Are Now Leaving III / guided tour
17:30 – 18:00 Oto Hudec: Kým plávame spolu / performance
19:00 – 20:30 Jozef Pilát: Agrofuturizmus – Ticho prerastá kov / guided tour
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