Photographs by Míla Preslová (1966) need no comment. They rank among the images with clear and clearly comprehensible effect. During the 1990s, we used to admire the artist’s pure concept as well as her courage to come out with her private fears. What was discussed was the tyranny of intimacy as the necessary and purgative, self-reflective approach forged in the period following the era of hypocrisy and lies. Míla Preslová was very stern and severe with herself and the strength of her morphology made viewers openly sad. The 21st century witnesses an unprecedented situation as the sensible concept of human life is concerned. Today, we view Míla Preslová’s oeuvre from a slightly different angle: her intimacy and her family subjects are in no way a tyranny but instead, a small certainty in a negative space of the boundless world of information. We do analyze the concept anymore, we are not in need of sophisticated interpretations; we face the humanity. We are not interested in the eternally open window with the dangerously approaching horizon of the future, but in the personal glance into the windows on the ground floor of Preslová – and in her spontaneous, imperative gaze oriented to the dangerously close horizon. Míla Preslová, Behind the Horizon Karlin Studios, Prague 19 February – 8 March 2009
