Exhibition opening: Nocturnal Measurements and the Invisible State of Shine

Nocturnal Measurements and the Invisible State of Shine

Katarína Poliačiková, Nikolai Nekh
Curator: Markéta Stará Condeixa



“It is not technology itself that is dangerous but the forgetting of “seeing” that realises it self through it.”


At the core of any technological or scientific advancement lies the inherent notion of human desire for proximity and understanding. The greater the distance between the human and its subject, the greater is our longing to capture it. With the break of the Enlightenment, followed by Modernity’s plea for progress, growth and the conquering of the unknown - may these be the “distant lands” on Earth or the Interplanetary -, have become one of the driving forces of mankind. Representation as a solid proof has naturally played a vital role in this process, by reducing the distance between the human eye and its subject, allowing thus visibility to take its lead as the dominant sign and the proof of being. 

Although living in a highly abstract world determined by the virtual flow of capital and information systems, the idea of abstraction in the original sense of the term of alienating subjects from their source(s), in many ways still generates a feeling of unease, feeding into our desire to further capture and explore reality as a means of lasting proof. To what extent however, does this virtual materialisation bring us closer to the real subject/object and what is as a result of these operational systems lost on the way? Does technology allow us to see more or only better and less? And to what extent do technological advancements allow us to see only static fragments or video loops of distant realities that feed into our need for permanency and understanding, yet simultaneously conceal the so called real with the illusion of greater proximity? 

Nocturnal Measurements and the Invisible State of Shine brings together newly developed works by Slovakian artist Katarína Poliačiková, currently in residency at SYNTAX and Portuguese artist Nikolai Nekh.