Limbo Hardware is a disturbing reflection of an atomised world consisting of a plethora of parallel truths and alternative realities. It relativises not only the limited spectrum of our rational thought, but also our perception of space and physical distance.

Precise craftsmanship with an emphasis on detail. Emphasis on direct, sensory experience and even physical impact on the viewer. A unique and constantly evolving manuscript, inspired by personal fascination rather than interest in current trends in contemporary art. A spectacularly shared questioning of the distinct boundaries between reality and illusion, between the machine algorithms of the virtual environment and the fluid reality that surrounds us beyond the reach of our monitors and the screens of our smart devices.

These are the core attributes of the work of David Možný (*1963), an artist who has established himself primarily as an author of digitally animated videos and video installations. In recent years, however, the focus of his work has moved closer to the classical concept of the artwork, although the means Možný now uses are often more in the realm of scenography. The characteristic and almost omnipresent film narrative gradually becomes a mere clue or fragment that calls for the viewer’s active participation. It is as if the viewer becomes the main protagonist of the work under scrutiny and the only one who can unravel all its metaphysically mysterious plots, interwoven with a sense of distress, emptiness and purposelessness. Through his thoughtful and carefully crafted interventions into perceived reality or its modified visualisations, Možný takes the viewer out of illusory certainties and equilibria, revealing the unsettling fragility of our fixed notions of a world that defies permanence. The scenery, however, does not merely serve as a backdrop for the action, but becomes the main carrier of information, the content oscillating between an intimate representation of mental and emotional states and a visionary statement about the state of our civilisation.

These tendencies culminate in the installation Limbo Hardware, whose title refers to the pre-inferno or, in a broader sense, to a state of separation from conventional structures, and which is a disturbing reflection of an atomised world consisting of a plethora of parallel truths and realities. The space before our eyes thus unfolds into several alternative worlds, and somewhere in the gaps between them the question arises as to the coherence of the sets in which our lives take place.

Pavel Švec