Lev Zlokazov
A Bit of Hope – Actually, Quite a Bit

24. 7. – 25. 8. 2024
opening: 23. 7. 2024 from 6 pm

curator: Silvie Milková

„The absurdity of human existence is a source of inspiration, as well as a liberating joy for me. The actual creative process, the interaction between my body and reality in the form of personal rituals and actions confirm this joy I feel from my own existence. The contrast between the fragility and audacity of the world leads me to reflect on the larger, comic framework of our lives. My work is an appreciation for the absurd everyday moments in which I find beauty and which help make sense of life in the present. The exhibition is also a celebration of the futile effort to grasp metaphysical happiness as the highest point of absurdity."

Lev Zlokazov

Where is hope?

The current situation of the world and society. Joyous visions, all kinds of ideologies, disillusionment, searching for ways out – it always repeats. Freedom, responsibility, anxiety, guilt, and historicity are fundamental concepts for existentialists, as they are for the contemporary man. The seriousness of the situation cannot be belittled. The absurdity of the system, the rules of which we accept would certainly fascinate Kafka, Beckett or Sartre.  We can only speculate on what they would have thought of Lev Zlokazov's exhibition.....

Lev Zlokazov's exhibition A Bit of Hope – Actually, Quite a Bit presents a selection of actions that were created continuously from 2022 to the present. At first glance, the simple actions as a whole reflect the artist's relationship to the world. He approaches existential themes with ease, sensitivity and exaggeration. He plays a subtle game with the viewer. It requires the willingness to leave established frameworks, the ability to liberate oneself and change perspective. To turn absurdity into reality?

Lev Zlokazov (1998) is sometimes a photographer, sometimes a skateboarder, sometimes a poet, sometimes a tattoo artist, sometimes a dancer and God knows what else. Above all, he is a performer in body and soul. He comes from Almaty, Kazakhstan. He studied in the studio of Lukáš Jasanský at the Faculty of Art and Design in Ústí nad Labem.

Lev Zlokazov's work is not fixed in one expression or medium. Lev Zlokazov is radical in his subtlety, and always ideologically beholden only to himself. Sometimes things that are not contemporary are actually extremely current.

The program of the Jeleni Gallery is possible through kind support of Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic, Prague City Council, State Fund of Culture of the Czech Republic, City District Prague 7, 
GESTOR – The Union for the Protection of Authorship
Media partners: ArtMap, artalk.cz, jlbjlt.net and ArtRevue