State of man/ State of human

exhibition in Industra gallery, Brno

19/6-17/7/2025

curated by Alexia Alexandropoulou

art director Anna König Vlk

STATE OF MAN/ STATE OF HUMAN is an artistic playground of objects weaving together reflections on the human condition. It unfolds within a landscape of dofferent materias - traditional and contemporary, fragile and sturdy- forming a space that invites movement and fluidity. They are presented in an enviroment that is not passive, it is materialized through gesture, texture and spatial relations.

At the core of this project lies a series of glass blown heads made by Daphne Klagkou (Δάφνη Κλάγκου) . Their combinations with fabric, metal and their varied positions- on the floor, suspended, or alteed evoke systems that have shaped and past and continue to infuencethe present.Rather than merely representing life, they propose enviroments in wich experience is shaped and reconfigured. As Hannah Arendt notes in The Human Condition (1958),

"The human condition is not the same as the human nature, and the human artifice is not the same as the natural world."

This distinction is key to the exhibition's intention : to emphasize the ways human identityis constructed through material, space, and imagination. It includes the idea that human life is not just a biological fact but a constant fabrication across systems, structures and beliefs.

Colour is apparent, yet paradoxical element. Bold greens, electric blues and bright oranges convey a sense of play, although they act as visual triggers leading us towards deeper emotional connections. Despite their brightness, they carry the weight, echoing the contradictions of existence. Glass, as a central material, embodies also this duality. At once delicate and strong, it mirrors the complex aspects of human life-vulnerability and resilience. Its transparent and reflective qualities open space for introspection and mirroring, turning the gaze back to the viewer and their own perception. In Juhani Pallasmaa's words,

"Glass is the material of fragility and exposure, but also of illusion and lightness" (The Eye of the Skin, 2005).

Here, glass is more than a medium- it becomes a metaphorical threshols further suggests the fluid nature of identity. Like molten glass, the self is ever-changing, shaped by internal and external forces- personal growth and societal expectations. This shifting field of light, reflection, and texture opens up a space of transformation an (un)becoming - a terrain where nothing is fixed, and meaning emerges in motion, relations, and tension.

Alexia Alexandropoulou