Miloš Šejn | Českých Bratří 312 | CZ-50601 Jičín | T +420 723 701 658 | milos [at-sign] sejn.cz
AllForWeb | © 2008 sejn
Ani labuť ani Lůna06.06.2025 - 28.09.2025
ZATVÁŘÍ / COUNTENANCE06.05.2025 - 22.06.2025
Creation – Myth – Art01.03.2025 - 17.05.2025
DIVERSITY CONTEMPORARY II10.12.2024 - 31.01.2025
PAF 2024 / DIARIES - Deposit of Memory: Video Works by Miloš Šejn from 1988-202205.12.2024 - 08.12.2024
LANDSCAPE FESTIVAL PRAGUE 202413.06.2024 - 30.09.2024
ANIMA MUNDI | VISIONS – ITSLIQUID INTERNATIONAL ART FAIR | VENICE 202407.06.2024 - 21.06.2024
MEMORY DEPOSIT06.03.2024 - 27.04.2024
KOR . KON . TOI . 0 0 1 – Miloš Šejn / Adriena Šimotová17.11.2023 - 28.04.2024
BECOMING GARDEN…17.09.2023 - 29.10.2023
Heraclitus principle / One hundred years of coal in Czech art16.06.2023 - 22.10.2023
SYMBIOSIS06.06.2023 - 23.06.2023
1 : 1 : 127.05.2023 - 25.08.2023
Wege in die Abstraktion im Dreiländereck II02.04.2023 - 28.05.2023
BIRTHDAY16.12.2022 - 19.02.2023
Face for SU–EN22.10.2022 - 22.10.2022
Valoch & Valoch / Archeology And Conceptual Art30.09.2022 - 27.08.2023
Wege in die Abstraktion im Dreiländereck02.07.2022 - 25.09.2022
AQVA15.04.2022 - 04.09.2022
KINETISMUS: 100 Years of Electricity in Art22.02.2022 - 29.08.2022
EMERGENCY EXIT03.12.2021 - 11.09.2022
MAN IN THE CAVE24.11.2021 - 06.02.2022
ÍHMNÍ30.09.2021 - 28.11.2021
SEMI-OPEN29.09.2021 - 28.11.2021
Zdzisław Jurkiewicz. Occurrences25.06.2021 - 21.10.2021
Art Safari 36: TOGETHER05.06.2021 - 11.06.2021
ART, MELANCHOLY AND LAUGH FACES IN THE FACE OF ABSURDITY22.05.2021 - 03.10.2021
KRAJINA + / LANDSCAPE +14.05.2021 - 25.07.2021
WATER18.12.2020 - 06.06.2021
ATLAS NEW CONSTELLATIONS05.12.2020 - 30.05.2021
FOR THE LAST FIFTY YEARS27.11.2020 - 01.10.2023
PILGRIMAGE TO THE MOUNTAINS27.10.2020 - 08.11.2020
Fotograph Festival #X UNEVEN GROUND07.10.2020 - 07.11.2020
Í T H M N29.09.2020 - 31.01.2021
Table and Territory / Table et Territoire26.09.2020 - 27.09.2020
Looking Into The Window19.09.2020 - 31.12.2020
A Pilgrim Who Returns
15.09.2020 - 31.10.2020
Gočár Phenomenon03.09.2020 - 31.10.2020
ART SAFARI 35 – HYDRANT27.06.2020 - 28.06.2020
24h PERFORMANCE14.06.2020 - 15.06.2020
Through the Landscape of K. H. Mácha04.06.2020 - 06.09.2020
NMHTÍ12.05.2020 - 24.06.2020
IDENTITY23.03.2020 - 31.12.2021
Homeplace & Kunka Phenomenon04.03.2020 - 31.07.2020
↗ ASCENT ↙ DESCENT / performance art event23.02.2020 - 23.02.2020
Parallel cinema / Stream, Tree and Stone03.02.2020 - 04.02.2020
Ji.hlava24.10.2019 - 29.10.2019
TRA DUE MONDI16.10.2019 - 16.10.2019
Pilgrims, Refugees, Hermits11.09.2019 - 28.10.2019
The Naked Forms Festival (FNAF)06.09.2019 - 08.09.2019
Sounds / Codes / Images - Audio Experimentation in the Visual Arts06.06.2019 - 10.10.2019
rivers, streams, puddles04.06.2019 - 24.06.2019
IL SORRISO DEL LEONE / VENICE TELEPATHIC BODIES01.06.2019 - 24.11.2019
Performance Crossings 201915.05.2019 - 18.05.2019
THEATRUM MUNDI III27.04.2019 - 27.04.2019
AQVA MUO26.04.2019 - 28.05.2019
Early Manifestations of Action Art in East Bohemia26.04.2019 - 16.06.2019
Yellow Rose Fragrance27.03.2019 - 16.06.2019
WÄRMFLASCHE14.12.2018 - 15.12.2018
ART SPACE ECOLOGY15.10.2018 - 31.12.2020
Architecture and Senses12.10.2018 - 14.10.2018
THEATRUM MUNDI II22.09.2018 - 22.09.2018
OPERA CORCONTICA04.09.2018 - 09.10.2018
PRAGUE WILDERNESS – LANDSCAPE FESTIVAL PRAGUE 201821.06.2018 - 30.09.2018
Energy of the initial line – gesture, rhythm, movement in contemporary Czech art01.03.2018 - 28.05.2018
IMAGE / BODY / SOUND27.11.2017 - 27.11.2020
EVERY WANDERING ENDS IN THE BEGINNING13.11.2017 - 13.11.2017
(Post)Land Art and the Anthropocene06.11.2017 - 06.11.2017
CS CONCEPTUAL ART OF THE 70s11.10.2017 - 13.01.2018
SONIC SOLAR MOUNTAIN26.08.2017 - 26.08.2017
Bohemiae Rosa25.08.2017 - 31.08.2017
HOW TO EXPLAIN IMAGES TO AN INVISIBLE INTERSPACE02.08.2017 - 10.08.2017
LAPSody 2017 – The Bubble24.05.2017 - 27.05.2017
ALCHEMIC BODY | FIRE . AIR . WATER . EARTH21.04.2017 - 29.05.2017
LIQUID ROOMS / THE LABYRINTH10.02.2017 - 28.02.2017
LANDSCAPE20.12.2016 - 12.02.2017
The Landscape, Art and Photography | Contemporary Artworks in the Landscape01.11.2016 - 12.01.2017
Branches | Nature art – variations26.07.2016 - 16.10.2016
AGARA / Hommage à la Peinture04.04.2016 - 31.05.2016
SPEECH MELODIES19.11.2015 - 08.01.2016
SELÉNÉ / BECOMING A LUNAR FACE TELEPATHICALLY28.09.2015 - 28.09.2015
FACIALITY05.09.2015 - 05.09.2015
SOLAR MOUNTAIN20.09.2014 - 09.09.9999
MICHALEK / ŠEIN27.11.2013 - 12.01.2014
IL SORRISO DEL LEONE01.06.2013 - 24.11.2013
FACIALITY / Space of the Memory and an Immediate Space23.10.2012 - 24.10.2012
Faces / Face as the phenomenon in videoart20.06.2012 - 16.09.2012
ARCHIVES & CABINETS14.06.2012 - 02.09.2012
The Written Face for SU-EN28.01.2012 - 28.01.2012
Finally Together07.09.2011 - 14.10.2011
B/L – Dedicated to Carolus Linnaeus15.06.2010 - 29.08.2010
BEING LANDSCAPE25.03.2010 - 06.06.2010
Gardening10.03.2009 - 13.03.2009
Cartusiae Waldiczensis29.11.2008 - 01.03.2009
LANDSCAPE UNDER TOTALITARIAN16.09.2008 - 30.11.2008
Ani labuť ani Lůna
Severočeská galerie výtvarného umění v Litoměřicích
Curator: Alena Beránková
The conceptual artist Miloš Šejn {1947) explores the idea of place as a physical and simultaneously spiritual designation of a specific part of a landscape, and this is what he brings to his site-specific installation in a deconsecrated church in Litoměřice. He presents his fascination with living nature in paintings, objects and photographs that connect the landscapes of the Bohemian Paradise and the Central Bohemian Uplands. The church's interior is opened up by his installation A Piece of the Moon, consisting of Petri dishes filled with water and arranged to describe a large circle. Levitating above the ground the installation recalls an insecťs eye, with its specific perception of movement and the blurring of its surroundings. The presence of water containers in the church also evoke the sacred wells and springs dispersed over a landscape. This work is supplemented by three more circular objects/ paintings in coloured pigments. These large circles become outsized Petri dishes in which Šejn cultivates a living image of nature, just as biological cultures are cultivated in laboratory dishes. These objects/paintings can also be understood as the pupils that mediate our perception of the world.
ln the side chapels Miloš Šejn works with atypical interventions in the individua! and somewhat dilapidated altars. He has applied pigments taken from significant locations to the empty spaces left by ledger stones, drawing on the tradition of the physical presence of Christian martyrs. These physical traces of the landscape point to the sacredness of the Earth, and in this way they reinterpret the uniqueness of place, thought and faith. The natural materials Šejn uses are related to the wanderings of the most important Czech Romantic poet, Karel Hynek Mácha, who tragically died in Litoměřice in 1836. He was the first in the history of Czech literature to open the potential for a deeper understanding of nature's significance. These interventions in the side altars in two chapels opposite one another are complemented by two compositions made of clothing and textiles. Šejn created The Veit of Time from clothing that belonged to his mother, a costume from one of his paintings, and Japanese garments he has used in his performances. These textiles, representing his family's memory and his art, temporarily create in the chapel a place where memories are manifested.
The Japanese skirt reflects the artisťs interest in Japanese culture, especially the dance theatre known as buto, directed towards the intense experiencing of slow motion, by which means the dancer discovers previously unknown powers hidden within. The second object, The Veil of Place, works with the human figure and painting in three dimensions.
The chancel houses the installation Mountain I Like a Ruin in Pole Light. The layering of metal relics, in combination with a video installation, sound, wood and paint, represents a mountain in general, but also the mountain {and Trosky Castle that stands upon it) that is the destination of the lovelorn female protagonist in Mácha's Neither Swan nor Moon. Over the last two centuries mountains have become important representatives of landscape and its spiritual perception. By creating his own mountain Šejn does not just convey his subjective relation to a specific place, but simultaneously reinterprets it. Bathtubs, watering cans and buckets represent ponds, lakes and rivers in a ritual celebration of life. Video installations and audio recordings document the artisťs performances connected with his Máchaesque wanderings and immersion in the landscape. Above this installation is a levitating object called Cloud. A branch from a weeping willow covered with white sand from the places where Mácha wandered becomes an authentic part of this sacred space, and it is exposed to the play of the sun's rays coming through the church's side windows.
Miloš Šejn's profound attachment to nature is also manifested in how he adopts it and collects parts of it to create his "persona! archive of the Earth." The coloured pigments, sand, clay, plaster, feathers, bones, roots, rocks, semiprecious stones, sticks, flowers, grass and insects he has collected over many years feature in a variable object called COLORVM NATVRAE VARIETAS installed in the church's southern oratory. Here in Litoměřice he has used almost two thousand different natural materials stored in Petri dishes and arranged one beside another to create a rich field of colours. Viewers can see this installation as an abstract play of colours, but also as a representation of specific places. The various ways of seeing here indicate the ambiguity of our knowledge of the world in a broader sense.
Šejn's installation Records of Landscape on the wall of the church's organ loft makes the landscape of the Bohemian Paradise around Turnov physically present in the church. ln this way it restores the name originally given to the Central Bohemian Uplands, for until the mid-19th century the highly fertile district around Litoměřice was known as the Bohemian Paradise. However, in the years of the National Revival the districťs population was predominantly German, which prompted the transfer of the name to a region with a rich natural and cultural heritage one hundred kilometres to the east. Šejn's installation connects these two landscapes. lt presents seven paintings, natural pigments worked into non-woven fabrics. The artist applied these pigments to the paintings directly by imprinting the natural setting, using his fingers, and leaving traces of his own body immersed in the setting. ln this way he has not created images or imitations of nature but has made present a specific landscape and the moment of being in it, coexisting with it. Individua! locations, mysterious crevices in the rocks, dark woods and silent valleys represent the wealth of colours and forms in nature itself. Besides his interest in nature Šejn's work has long been shaped by his love for the poetry of Karel Hynek Mácha, above all the poeťs emotional experience of life and his respect for the landscape. As well as working with pigments from the places that Mácha visited, in the 1960s Šejn produced a series of photographs from his own wanderings with the title Travels with Mácha. These large-format and mostly black-and-white photographs trace his walks through the Giant Mountains and their foothills. The photographs on display are a selection from the cycle. Rather than merely documenting Šejn's wanderings, they are a persona! testimony inspired by his Romantic predecessor.
The second photographic series on display works with the Green Man, a mythical figure representing wild nature and the spirit of the forest. Unlike the traditional wild man with foliage growing from his mouth, the artist lowered himself into the new Trojický Pond in the Jičín District, letting himself be covered by freshwater green algae from the Zygnematophyceae class, specifically a variety only found in the cleanest water. The filamentous algae covered the artisťs body, creating a second skin and giving him the appearance of a statue. Šejn, exposing himself to physical discomfort, experienced cold and pain and, entirely covered with algae, sought ways of merging with the setting to become part of the incredible living organism that is the aquatic world.
Although each of Šejn's artworks on display is in itself an authentic testimony, together the individua! artefacts in his site-specific installation for Litoměřice create a perfect whole. The exhibition is imbued with the artisťs profound attachment to landscape, nature and the legacy of Karel Hynek Mácha, and equally with his deep respect for the world of the Baroque. Ali of these aspects are linked by the visually attractive and aesthetically appealing landscapes of the Bohemian Paradise and the Central Bohemian Uplands, including the symbolism embedded therein. When working with nature and merging with it the artist reflects the connection between his physical body and the setting, and in this way he draws our attention to the Earth as a living organism, with humanity a natural part of it. This resonates with current research on the mind and consciousness: the active and conscious experiencing of our own corporeality leads us to an understanding of the natural environment and human existence in it. By constantly exploring and marvelling at nature, Miloš Šejn reveals its secrets to us and guides us to the deepest essence of life.
Severočeská galerie výtvarného umění v Litoměřicích
06.06.2025 - 28.09.2025
Curator: Alena Beránková
The conceptual artist Miloš Šejn {1947) explores the idea of place as a physical and simultaneously spiritual designation of a specific part of a landscape, and this is what he brings to his site-specific installation in a deconsecrated church in Litoměřice. He presents his fascination with living nature in paintings, objects and photographs that connect the landscapes of the Bohemian Paradise and the Central Bohemian Uplands. The church's interior is opened up by his installation A Piece of the Moon, consisting of Petri dishes filled with water and arranged to describe a large circle. Levitating above the ground the installation recalls an insecťs eye, with its specific perception of movement and the blurring of its surroundings. The presence of water containers in the church also evoke the sacred wells and springs dispersed over a landscape. This work is supplemented by three more circular objects/ paintings in coloured pigments. These large circles become outsized Petri dishes in which Šejn cultivates a living image of nature, just as biological cultures are cultivated in laboratory dishes. These objects/paintings can also be understood as the pupils that mediate our perception of the world.
ln the side chapels Miloš Šejn works with atypical interventions in the individua! and somewhat dilapidated altars. He has applied pigments taken from significant locations to the empty spaces left by ledger stones, drawing on the tradition of the physical presence of Christian martyrs. These physical traces of the landscape point to the sacredness of the Earth, and in this way they reinterpret the uniqueness of place, thought and faith. The natural materials Šejn uses are related to the wanderings of the most important Czech Romantic poet, Karel Hynek Mácha, who tragically died in Litoměřice in 1836. He was the first in the history of Czech literature to open the potential for a deeper understanding of nature's significance. These interventions in the side altars in two chapels opposite one another are complemented by two compositions made of clothing and textiles. Šejn created The Veit of Time from clothing that belonged to his mother, a costume from one of his paintings, and Japanese garments he has used in his performances. These textiles, representing his family's memory and his art, temporarily create in the chapel a place where memories are manifested.
The Japanese skirt reflects the artisťs interest in Japanese culture, especially the dance theatre known as buto, directed towards the intense experiencing of slow motion, by which means the dancer discovers previously unknown powers hidden within. The second object, The Veil of Place, works with the human figure and painting in three dimensions.
The chancel houses the installation Mountain I Like a Ruin in Pole Light. The layering of metal relics, in combination with a video installation, sound, wood and paint, represents a mountain in general, but also the mountain {and Trosky Castle that stands upon it) that is the destination of the lovelorn female protagonist in Mácha's Neither Swan nor Moon. Over the last two centuries mountains have become important representatives of landscape and its spiritual perception. By creating his own mountain Šejn does not just convey his subjective relation to a specific place, but simultaneously reinterprets it. Bathtubs, watering cans and buckets represent ponds, lakes and rivers in a ritual celebration of life. Video installations and audio recordings document the artisťs performances connected with his Máchaesque wanderings and immersion in the landscape. Above this installation is a levitating object called Cloud. A branch from a weeping willow covered with white sand from the places where Mácha wandered becomes an authentic part of this sacred space, and it is exposed to the play of the sun's rays coming through the church's side windows.
Miloš Šejn's profound attachment to nature is also manifested in how he adopts it and collects parts of it to create his "persona! archive of the Earth." The coloured pigments, sand, clay, plaster, feathers, bones, roots, rocks, semiprecious stones, sticks, flowers, grass and insects he has collected over many years feature in a variable object called COLORVM NATVRAE VARIETAS installed in the church's southern oratory. Here in Litoměřice he has used almost two thousand different natural materials stored in Petri dishes and arranged one beside another to create a rich field of colours. Viewers can see this installation as an abstract play of colours, but also as a representation of specific places. The various ways of seeing here indicate the ambiguity of our knowledge of the world in a broader sense.
Šejn's installation Records of Landscape on the wall of the church's organ loft makes the landscape of the Bohemian Paradise around Turnov physically present in the church. ln this way it restores the name originally given to the Central Bohemian Uplands, for until the mid-19th century the highly fertile district around Litoměřice was known as the Bohemian Paradise. However, in the years of the National Revival the districťs population was predominantly German, which prompted the transfer of the name to a region with a rich natural and cultural heritage one hundred kilometres to the east. Šejn's installation connects these two landscapes. lt presents seven paintings, natural pigments worked into non-woven fabrics. The artist applied these pigments to the paintings directly by imprinting the natural setting, using his fingers, and leaving traces of his own body immersed in the setting. ln this way he has not created images or imitations of nature but has made present a specific landscape and the moment of being in it, coexisting with it. Individua! locations, mysterious crevices in the rocks, dark woods and silent valleys represent the wealth of colours and forms in nature itself. Besides his interest in nature Šejn's work has long been shaped by his love for the poetry of Karel Hynek Mácha, above all the poeťs emotional experience of life and his respect for the landscape. As well as working with pigments from the places that Mácha visited, in the 1960s Šejn produced a series of photographs from his own wanderings with the title Travels with Mácha. These large-format and mostly black-and-white photographs trace his walks through the Giant Mountains and their foothills. The photographs on display are a selection from the cycle. Rather than merely documenting Šejn's wanderings, they are a persona! testimony inspired by his Romantic predecessor.
The second photographic series on display works with the Green Man, a mythical figure representing wild nature and the spirit of the forest. Unlike the traditional wild man with foliage growing from his mouth, the artist lowered himself into the new Trojický Pond in the Jičín District, letting himself be covered by freshwater green algae from the Zygnematophyceae class, specifically a variety only found in the cleanest water. The filamentous algae covered the artisťs body, creating a second skin and giving him the appearance of a statue. Šejn, exposing himself to physical discomfort, experienced cold and pain and, entirely covered with algae, sought ways of merging with the setting to become part of the incredible living organism that is the aquatic world.
Although each of Šejn's artworks on display is in itself an authentic testimony, together the individua! artefacts in his site-specific installation for Litoměřice create a perfect whole. The exhibition is imbued with the artisťs profound attachment to landscape, nature and the legacy of Karel Hynek Mácha, and equally with his deep respect for the world of the Baroque. Ali of these aspects are linked by the visually attractive and aesthetically appealing landscapes of the Bohemian Paradise and the Central Bohemian Uplands, including the symbolism embedded therein. When working with nature and merging with it the artist reflects the connection between his physical body and the setting, and in this way he draws our attention to the Earth as a living organism, with humanity a natural part of it. This resonates with current research on the mind and consciousness: the active and conscious experiencing of our own corporeality leads us to an understanding of the natural environment and human existence in it. By constantly exploring and marvelling at nature, Miloš Šejn reveals its secrets to us and guides us to the deepest essence of life.