Viktor Pivovarov
born: 14. 1. 1937 in Moscow Russia
graduate: Moskevská uměckoprůmyslová škola M. I. Kalinina
address: Jaromírova 34, 128 00 Prague 2
atelier: Úhlavská 14, 140 00 Prague 4
A memory of Mikulov
I knew, I suspected that there are place where time stopped. Or didn’t stop, to be precise, because nothing exists without motion, but where times moves so slowly it appears it did stop. Long, long time ago, in the last century, in my youth when I was beginning to live, I got a book in my hands with photos of Czech towns: squares, old monuments, fountains, churches... and I wished to be able to walk around this country at least a little, travel from one town to anther, from one chateau and monastery to the next. Back then I of course didn’t know that the fate would bring me to this country and that my dream would come true in a special way. No, I didn’t walk the country but when I moved to Bohemia, I visited many remarkable places. But these visits were always of a sufficiently superficial and tourist nature. I never experienced, however shortly, life in a small town. A month in Mikulov – that is certainly not long – but I still managed to touch down, to experience a different dimension of time. In this little town, it seems to me, I discovered a special spot where time barely moves. It is located in Husova Street, in the old Jewish ghetto between the Horned Crocodile and the crossroads with the sweets shop. When you are standing with your back towards the Crocodile, looking at the old house with its spire moved a little into the street and crooked houses going up the hill, this is the place that totally enchanted me. I could stand here for hours. I later discovered an old photograph, probably from the end of the 19th century, taken exactly from this spot. There are several Jews in he photo – not figures but rather shadows. The shadows are gone but time has stopped in this place and has become a memory.
Viktor Pivovarov
From Russian trabslated by Milena Slavická
Translator‘s note
I had just arrived from Prague I walked around the town a bit and descended, yes, just down the little lane with the spire, to the timeless spot. Then, suddenly, my husband Viktor was standing in the Bermuda Triangle, and he had clouds instead of his head, blue and white clouds on which our grandmother Sofia Borisovna and Ant Lisa were sitting. They came here from the little town of Vasilkov in Ukraine. I could see again them in a while, at the chateau in Viktor’s painting. They were arguing, as always, and between them sat Viktor Pivovarov himself, undisturbed, looking out of the window at the Holly Hill, at a church so picturesque, so heavenly, so Moravian-Tuscanian that there was no doubt that I had indeed come to Mikulov. But another spell was waiting for me. One floor up, Perchta of Rožnberk was coming out, flowing out of the door of Erika Bornová’s studio, as if she wanted to stroll through the rooms she is so familiar with. As if she wanted to float around the chateau, through the park and the town, dance in the whirlpool of time that spins around its axis – right here, around the Mikulov sweets shop, around the axis coming through the centre of the triangle marked by the chateau, the Holy Hill and the Goat Peak. Right next to Erika Bornová’s studio, another surprise took place.
A little girl set out on a journey: she runs through a meadow, catching her breath, she flies, ä little happy and a little scared by the sudden freedom, she runs towards a beautiful tall lady. But she is on in the painting but paints the picture, behold: Ivanka Lomová meets her childhood. Oh, Mikulov! I was there as well, ate and drank, and recounted what I sas.
P.S . These miracles, the works I am talking about, were created by the participants of the Mikulov Art Symposium 2002. They are: Portrait of a Young Artist by Viktor Pivovarov, Perchta – the White Lady by Erika Bornová, and Irenka III by Ivana Lomová, They were in fact exhibited at the chateau.
Figura u okna
olej a akryl na plátně, 120 x 95 cm, 2007
List of artists participating in MAS "dílna" in 1994–2010
