Filko/Laky/Zavarský
In 1973, the three artists Stano Filko, Miloš Laky, and Ján Zavarský began working on the collective project “White Space in White Space” or “Biely priestor v bielom priestore” in Slovak. In early 1974, the artworks created up to that point were installed for the first time at the House of Arts in Brno, where they went on exhibit for only a few hours. Because of the growing political control over cultural institutions at that time, the presentation could not be staged as an official exhibition and was therefore not accessible to the general public. Nevertheless an accompanying manifesto, photo documentation, and explanatory text did reach a selected audience as an illegally printed publication mailed out or passed on personally by the artists.
Another impressive manifestation of the “White Space” was realized in the apartment of Miloš Laky and Anna Lakyová, which was transformed into an all-over installation on the topic of ”white in white.” Laky designed and built the minimalist furnishings, while the walls were hung with works from the “Sensitivity series” (1974–1975). All three artists made constant efforts to adapt and develop the White Space vocabulary with possible spaces in mind. These ideas, which frequently could not be realized, are documented by sketches and architecture models. In their second manifesto, dating from 1974–1975, they radicalized proclamations from the first manifesto and formulated ten sentences—all of which revolved around the words “pure sensitivity” and “pure sensitive art.” Shortly after Miloš Laky’s death of leukemia, Ján Zavarský travelled to Paris to install 10 monumental White Space banners at the 9th Paris Biennale in 1975. As Stano Filko exceeded the age limit for participating artists, only his two younger colleagues were named as authors of the work. The two remaining artists from the collective, Filko and Zavarský, persisted in their project (doing so in the name of Miloš Laky, as well) until 1977, the year in which they were invited by Lázló Beke to exhibit at the Young Artists’ Club in Budapest. From 1977 onward, Stano Filko continued developing “White Space in White Space” on his own—in the process of which he published the manifesto “Emotion.” Until 1980, he also spent a great deal of time in Poland, where it was easier to show works in exhibitions than it was in Czechoslovakia. As early as 1978, he had had an opportunity to do so at Galeria LDK Labirynt in Lublin. That year also witnessed the initial publication of his new manifesto “Transcendency ,” which was also included in the catalogue produced for Filko’s next exhibition in March 1979 at Galeria gn ZPAF in Gdańsk. In 1980 Filko, exhibited his recent work series “Transcendency“ at the Mała Galeria PSP−ZPAF in Warsaw. And in a further manifesto, published in 1980, Filko transformed his “Transcendency“ concept into “Transcendental Meditation.” His continual efforts to reshape the White Space idea ultimately culminated in the documenta 7 presentation “Love for Ontology” in 1982. L.G.
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