This fall, VUNU presented six concurrent projects that traced a shared curatorial horizon of Niki Bernáth, who is also the director of the gallery. At VUNU Vienna, Sound Is The Softest Armour examined the protective and performative function of sound, exploring how music and auditory experience mediated fragility and resilience in both human and non-human contexts. The works of Trin Alt Vajd, Thilo Jenssen, and Boris Sirka addressed everyday objects, reflective surfaces, and layered painterly compositions to probe the tensions between self-protection, vulnerability, and recovery.

Within the framework of Vienna Contemporary art fair, Natália Sýkorová presented a speculative installation that interwove technology, ecology, and embodiment. Through interconnected water tanks, vapors, and scent, her work staged a contaminated landscape of female embodiment, reflecting on interdependence, care, and the porous boundaries of identity and environment. This presentation was part of the curated section ZONE1, curated by Aleksei Borysionok, and it was awarded the Bildrecht SOLO Award 2025.

Tower Part II by Selmeci Kocka Jusko at VUNU Košice was part of a triad of exhibitions exploring measurement, labor, and temporality. Drawing on industrial shift systems and layered conceptual frameworks, the project considered work, rest, and vigilance as intertwined ecological and social processes. The exhibition translated these rhythms into sensory experience, highlighting how human activity structured space, time, and attention.

At VUNU’s Bratislava location, Phantom Matter, curated by Michal Stolárik, brought together Gideon Horváth and Adam Šakový to examine the body as both material and symbolic agent. Wax, metal, porcelain, and painting converged to explore absence, desire, and the interplay between myth and contemporary life. Their work blurred the boundaries of reality and fiction, past and present, crafting a space where materiality and narrative intersected.

At VUNU Košice, Alexander Takáč’s HEADACHE presented digital self-portraits that interrogated the instability of identity in the age of algorithmic imagination. AI-generated images operated as masks, wounds, and residues, reflecting on the fusion of personal, technological, and collective dimensions. The works navigated the space between intuition and computation, posing questions about selfhood and representation.

Finally, New Translation II, part of the DAAVS festival in institutional collaboration with East Slovak Gallery Košice, took place as an exhibition that considered geopoetics as a mode of thinking and experiencing the Earth. The exhibition included works by Volodymyr Serhachov, Natália Sýkorová, Dávid Koronczi, Tim Plamper, Radovan Čerevka, and Beata Hechtová.

Learn more at vunu.sk