The premiere of the exhibition Stations: a dialogue of paintings and photography exploring the phenomena of transience and aesthetic quality. For the first time, Jarotta’s paintings reflecting on the modern-day nomads who roam waiting rooms and departure lounges are exhibited in combination with Korček’s photographs, a visual testimony to the disappearing world of outdated railway stations. Part of the Couples cycle of exhibitions.

The idea of Stations as fascinating nodal points with hidden visual qualities has been an enduring source of inspiration in the work of the artist Marek Jarotta and the photographer Peter Korček. The creative dialogue between the two artists builds indirectly on their focus on recording the fleeting moment and the singularity of fabricated environments.

Artistic depictions of railway stations date back to the Victorian period of the 19th century, with artists drawing inspiration from platforms and waiting rooms – those remarkable examples of incessant movement, the perfect union of architecture and art. Large-format art played a crucial role in the railway stations of the postwar era, and these monumental works remains inextricably linked with the architecture and ideology of the period. Taking various forms, including reliefs, sgraffito, stained glass and mosaics, the artworks transformed these “railway cathedrals” into open-plan art galleries which bore witness to the rhythms of the age, combining utility with contemporary aesthetics. In the worlds of Slovak fine art and photography, Jarotta and Korček are essentially peerless; their highly idiosyncratic styles and ongoing interest in their chosen theme enables seemingly endless variations of the motif of the station, each with its own unique content and formal statement.