I'm entering the gallery.
The objects that I see and their arrangement, resemble the interior of some living space.
But I slow down, close my eyes, and try to look at everything with my third eye.
I realize that I entered into a recently abandoned Sabbath site.
Smoldering coals flicker out on the floor. Smoke still rises from the hot ash.
Clay objects resemble chalices from which a magic potion was drunk.
Fantasque figures appeal to me from the walls, that are neither human, nor animal, nor plant
but all together.
Most visible of the omnipresent archaic symbols is a protective sign
hanging at the entrance to the ceremony.
Suddenly a girl's face looks at me from the spot where the fire was burning.
I open my eyes. I return to reality.
Yes, it might be true that my fantasy was a bit exaggerated.
And why mention again the magical aspects in the work of Anežka Hošková and Nik Timková?
Their form in itself, and the haptic quality of the works
incite one to analyse and concentrate.
The interplay of the materials and techniques
elegantly united by a earthy color pallette
can hex our gaze and lure us into a purely aesthetical contemplation.
The mind of the modern European trained by rationality, suspicious of the unscientific,
often tends to interpret the introduced themes as a mere ornament of meaning
which might be appealing but shallow in its inability
to offer us a insight into real life
and the practical questions we face every day.
Only dreamers and fools might take it seriously.
References to magic, mysticism and witchcraft
might seem to be obsolete, irrational, unproductive.
The figure of the Witch is constantly commodified and undermined by mainstream culture
whether by its infantilization or demonization
or by referring it to the realm of fantasy and horror.
However, how the riveting account of Silvia Federici,
in her book Caliban and the Witch
and also as other examples from feminist theory, art or activism show,
a rehabilitation of the figure of the Witch from a historical perspective
and also in the context of a re-evaluation of the duality of rational and magical thinking,
may have a significant social emancipatory impact today.
I close my eyes again. A girl's face looks at me from the ashes
and reminds me that real people were burning at the stake.
Especially real women.
It reminds me of the history of oppression, which still lasts in its many forms.
It invites me to become an apprentice of this school of ash,
to let myself be guided by my mind and heart.
To rise like a Phoenix into a new life.