Exhibition Nikola Ivanov – The World Spins and Water Falls

The House of Art Ústí nad Labem presents the exhibition "The World Spins and Water Falls" by Nikola Ivanov, one of the first projects of its kind in the institution's history. The exhibition is open from 30 April to 29 July 2026 in Gallery 1. The opening ceremony will take place on Wednesday, 29 April 2026 at 18:00. The centrepiece of the exhibition is a monumental seven-channel video installation nearly 50 metres wide, which transforms the gallery space into an immersive environment where the image becomes not only a visual experience but also a physical one. The nearly twelve-minute film composition unfolds as a meditative stream, weaving together memories, the present, and the uncertain contours of the future. The central metaphor of the work is rivers, paths, and currents; the symbolic journey of the main character between landscape and city reflects personal experience of loss while opening questions about humanity's relationship with nature and a world transformed by technological development and climate change. The closing images engage with the motif of flood – not merely as catastrophe, but as a possible beginning and moment of transformation. Ivanov's work draws on the speculative visions of scientist Hermann Oberth, the literary imagination of Italo Calvino, and the visual memory of landscape captured in the photographs of Josef Sudek. Nikola Ivanov is an intermedia artist working with photography, video, and text; since October 2024, he has been co-director of the Studio of Applied Photography at the Faculty of Art and Design at UJEP in Ústí nad Labem.