Patrik Proško

The portrait of the Czech composer Bedřich Smetana (1824–1884) forms only one part of a two-view anamorphic installation, whose opposite side creates a portrait of Antonín Dvořák.Both portraits emerge from a shared set of musical instruments and their parts, arranged in space so that each of two precisely defined viewpoints produces a different image. At the centre of the installation is a piano more than a century old, into which individual instruments are inserted or suspended from both sides. The piano functions as a shared spatial and conceptual backbone, allowing two independent pictorial compositions to be connected within a single object. As the viewer walks around the installation, the portrait of Bedřich Smetana gradually dissolves into a structure of individual objects, from which the portrait of Antonín Dvořák emerges on the opposite side. Historical objects intermingle with contemporary musical instruments, creating a temporal layer that connects the era of both composers with the present and the continuing life of their music.