Organised by Czech Centre London and part of Kensington and Chelsea Art Week, ‘TENDER IN LONDON: IN LOVE WITH CONTEMPORARY CZECH PHOTOGRAPHY’ opened on 24th June and running until 30th September 2021 at Vitrinka Gallery, Kensington.

This stirring group exhibition consists of contemporary Czech photography through twelve photographers whose images combined offer a broad spectrum of human vulnerabilities and desires. The subjects in focus differ and range from motherhood, inclusivity and nature to pollution, consumerism and wounds to the body and soul. Altogether, their series intrinsically bind a universal common need - the need for tenderness. It is a perfect collection that beautifully encompasses the human condition in its rawest form whilst concurrently highlighting areas of which are tender and bruised and places of society that have been neglected of tenderness through the callousness of human behaviour. Deliberately rich in photographic aesthetic, from iconic snapshot-esque images that have appeared in the context of fashion editorials to post-conceptual works by artists skeptical of the very photographic medium the theme remains and the message is clear: give a little tenderness (to me, you, us). Through depictions of intense personal relationships and vulnerabilities of people and their environments, these visuals are juxtaposed with lyricism by Kurt Cobain’s ‘In Bloom’; ‘the bruises on the fruit’ and the emotionally poignant photographs intertwine as tender poeticism.

The exhibit reworks an earlier display in 2019 when curator Michal Nanoru presented the show at Czech Centre New York to a highly tuned-in audience. A success that led to this current edit aims to reflect the world's changes in the last two years and offer a fresh perspective.

"Two years have passed since the original Tender exhibition in New York and since then my motivations to put on this show have only grown deeper. Long months of isolation and anxiety during the pandemic, the reality of Brexit and pressing climate changes, the Capitol attack and the long-overlooked topic of mental health – these are but a few themes of the recent years that have made the bruise of 'Tender' even darker, more swollen, more painful." - Michal Nanoru on Tender in London, 2021.

Nanoru also titled the exhibition, which he imagined from Allen Ginsberg's famous plea to then-Senator Robert F. Kennedy sometime in the late 1960s, which has influenced these raw representations. In this context, to be tender does not necessarily mean to be easily bruised, like a fruit, but that which can unapologetically show its bruises and still go on.

"What this country needs, if anything, is tenderness. Tenderness is the key to the solution of the ecological problem, as well as all the other human problems. Tenderness to mother nature, tenderness to our fellow man, including tenderness to fairies and junkies, is what at this point is desired by the entire younger generation" - Allen Ginsberg, 1960s.

So who are the artists? The selection sourced by Nanoru for this show is this generation of Czech's up and coming young artists, most of which are art graduate alumni. However, among the bunch is Adam Holý, a recognised Czech photographer who tragically passed away in 2016. He centres the exhibition with erotically charged photographs, a solemn homage to his work and influence.

Some of our favourites starts from the outside with work from Marie Tomanová. Her contribution to the show comprises six portraits of the youth from New York. Tomanová here hopes to recreate that crucial element of human connection she craved when she first moved to the big city, all alone. The piece highlights her loneliness and vulnerability living in a strange city and, on a deeper note, adheres to our loneliness as people living in a world far too big for our comprehension. The fact that this series was produced in New York City, a homage to the first Tender show, furthers this feeling of loneliness that is present in our lives but that ties us together. From New York to London, everyone feels the same everywhere, which is enough to connect us as people and stresses our universal desire to belong.

Moving inside and an installation by Radek Brousil immediately draws your focus. His fabric curtain piece discusses the commoditisation of water. The free-flowing curtain with printed-on-fabric photographs falls from the top, like the flow of water itself. It presents a trio of pictures: a lone water bottle; a man pressing the open water bottle spout to his eye; and culminating in a photo of a man with water drenching his face in a downpour. The simple fact of displaying bottled water is a commentary on how this natural source has been monetised. It is quite absurd to think of water confined into a plastic prison for simple consumption if you think about it, which this piece emphasises. The escalation of these photographs illustrates the natural cycle of water flow - the precipitation chart - down the mountain and into our streams, the way in which we used to harbour our source for hydration. Representing the commodification of water through such a series alludes to our lack of tenderness for mother nature. It successfully highlights human greed in the last shot of the man consumed in the water, just like our greed consumes us.

Next, we move onto an entire wall dedicated to the love and loss of Adam Holý. Also included in the original iteration of ‘Tender', Holý work stages the centrepiece of the exhibition, with photographs chosen specifically from his career to represent the curator's notion of "tenderness". This series arguably begins in the lower right corner, with biblical imagery of a wayward fruit tree. Spanning leftward presents a journey of one woman's specific instances of vulnerability. From reminders of human fragility and mortality through pictures of the subject presented as naked and injured, there is something quite primal about the way she is presented. The bruises on her body and the imperfect fruit tree also link back to the direct inspiration for this exhibition in Kurt Cobain's lyrics ‘bruises on the fruit’.

We also travel through scenes of intimacy and scenes of nostalgic heresy. That these photographs were taken on film injects the experience with a bitter sense of nostalgia, adding a dynamic layer to stripping back human vulnerabilities and behaviour. Alternatively, the film photographs set Holý's work apart from the rest of the artists with their social hyper-realistic lens that dramatises the effect of the explicit images on display. Moreover, the fact that the grainy quality of film photography makes the overall presentation feel raw and vulnerable is a perfect indicator that the exhibition's theme was wholly met by Holý's photographs and created a solid foundation for sourcing the rest of the artists.

The next stage presents a journey through motherhood and childbirth. Hana Knížová reveals the fragility and uncertainty of motherhood with her heartfelt recollection of the experience, starting from the moment of pregnancy all the way to when the children are grown. It is fitting that this section of the exhibition representing birth, life, and growth comes after Holý's take on human mortality. It accentuates how this exhibition has been presented and culminated in a circle, as though representing the circle of life but not in the classic, romanticised way we know it. Instead, it simply shows every facet - untapped and otherwise - of human existence.

On the far left is the defining piece of Knížová's section. A naked pregnant woman, Knížová own friend Julia, holds a black cloth and looks at the camera with an expression of befuddlement and surety. Quite the conflict of emotions agreed, but it perfectly encompasses one woman's reflection on the sentiment of expecting a child. This notion portrays further in the accompanying pieces the further you look into the journey. In a photograph titled ‘Radek and Stella’, which sees a baby belly down on the floor, unable to move, and the mother facing the camera whilst doing a handstand, we can see an example of the unexpectedness that comes with motherhood. Raising a child is a very delicate and tender process, and this image conjures feelings of uncertainty. The fact that the mother is literally placed upside down appropriately brings the phrase "world turned upside down" to mind. It also insinuates a moment of enlightenment for the mother. She realises that her baby will have to fend for themselves at some point in their life, thus teaching her that she cannot control everything.

Dušan Tománek contributes a single, simple yet effective piece called "The Forgotten Village", which captures the destroyed land site of a village eviscerated during the Second World War. Everything in the photograph appears desolate and hopeless. The seemingly dead and withered tree, which appears in the foreground, directly contrasts the skewed yet very much alive tree in Holý's series: thus completing the circle of life. This is an example of where human tenderness towards nature was lost and blazed in fire. Yet, in the background of the dull toned image are overgrown orchard trees encroached by the forests. Pertinently, the fact that, through man-made destruction, life has still found a way and that nature prevails adds a delicate balm to the otherwise harrowing context of this image. Though forgotten, there is still a tenderness that exists in a place that also holds such morose histories. And this is what Tománek attempts to convey through his single addition; that tenderness exists in the grim too.

The penultimate showcase is a collaboration between Václav Jirásek and The Peerless Cooperative of the Holy Nurture. The piece is of a young poet in a grotesque blue and appears to be a corpse. He is shrouded in synthetic, Communist-era floral fabrics. A lone flower with a long stalk is placed surreptitiously along his torso. Appearing dead, with evidence of destructive habits lingering at his side, it's easy to infer that, in combination with the last piece, this image represents an ending. Death. The flower placement also creates a physical trail and almost hints that the life of this man has been returned to his surroundings.

Last but not least, Tereza Zelenková closes the Tender experience with two prominent Neo-noir pieces derived from old Czech folk tales. Zelenková tends to examine old-world superstitions and myths to bring them into the now with her striking visuals. In one piece which hangs in the window, we see a representation of Czech folk-tale maiden Viktorka, dangling waist down, looking desaturated in her white gown. The tale of Viktorka is essentially another interpretation of The Woman in White. A woman scorned by a man and abandoned to grieve her ails in the lonely forest. She represents the stigma that transgressing societal norms place on women who fall prey to desires that lead them astray. The frailty of how the subject hangs her arms and the lifeless expression on her face, eyes closed, embodies the idea that women are easily broken. A fact we know as untrue, yet this is what society has diminished her to in the tale. The tender way she almost floats in the image is a reminder that society has stripped her bare and left her with no feelings of tenderness.

Contrastingly, a different kind of life flows that in the previous piece by Jirásek: whilst in Jirásek's it seems that the life of the poet flowed out of him upon his body dying, in Zelenková’s Viktorka iteration, it seems like the body is still there, but all that is left is an empty shell. Life has been drained from her. The decrepit plaster of the walls behind Viktorka gives a looming and impoverished effect to the image. It almost tarnishes the solemn sterility of her perfectly plaited hair and her pure white dress. She appears to be the epitome of purity and virtue, yet her surroundings diminish her.
This piece is a great homage to the cultural histories of the Czech. It instils a sombre yet tender appreciation for cultural heritage that has evolved and informed our living today, in this case, the art and the artists from an esteemed creative past of the Czech lineage.

This exhibition records and presents an essential representation of the development and practice of Czech born artists. Bringing this to London allows for a mesh of culture and for each syndicate of European countries to inspire and reflect on each other. The sheer example of meticulous and thought-provoking artistry highlighted in this display is cause to seek legend of the Czech creative world. The artists show an unabashed ingenuity to the brief set my Nanoru's original idea on tenderness and demonstrate a humbleness to their art that elevates the appreciation the spectator will experience. I certainly enjoyed being taken along the journey and sharing myself and the world around me through the lens of these incredibly introspective and talented artists. It was almost like being taken on a journey of the human mind, which I think can benefit anyone - if only to understand themselves and the world a little better.

“I have no doubt that this evoking photographic exhibition of Czech contemporary photography represented by twelve talented, disruptive as well as poetic photographers will be a fine addition to the newly awakening post-pandemic cultural London scene.” -Přemysl Pela, Czech Centre London Director.

This exhibition closes on 30th September. More info here.

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In Love with Contemporary Czech Photography’

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