BÁRA GEHRINGEROVÁ

Where Human Touches the Earth

Painting Studio 1

The motif of touching the landscape recurs frequently in your work. I am curious about the way you think about this idea. Is it a subtle way of establishing a connection, or does touching the landscape already entail a specific intervention or transformation? It seems to me that the landscape is not just an environment for you but also a partner in dialogue.
I consider a person coming in touch with the landscape as a moment of encounter between two worlds. It is a small gesture of engagement that generates closeness, curiosity, and the possibility of transformation and power. My paintings therefore work with the ambivalence of human presence in the landscape. Here, the human is understood neither as purely destructive nor purely protective, but rather as one side of a dialogue within a process of discovery and the search for mutual boundaries. The landscape is a space that accepts human presence, bears its traces, and at the same time preserves its own autonomy.

Where do you think the moment of transition from being an observer of the landscape to an “owner” of the space occurs? Can the very desire for a home in the landscape lead to its subtle transformation?
As part of the paintings, the moment of transition from being an observer to becoming a person who makes the space their own occurs when the figure is no longer merely passing through but decides to remain in the landscape. The longing for a home likely also carries with it the need to shape, protect, and define the space. Although the images explore the romantic theme of the search for a home and respect for the landscape, there are also gradual changes that are taking place, which irrevocably transform its character. This motif of transformation is also reflected in the pyrography technique I use throughout the series: the wood physically changes under the soldering iron, and the image is created through irreversible intervention in the material itself. For me, the slow process of creation thus represents a parallel to human activity in the landscape.

As a form of conclusion, you raise the question of how we will inhabit the landscape in the future – whether as a space we will dominate, or as a place with which we will form a close relationship. I cannot help but ask: do you think humans are still capable of perceiving the landscape beyond the context of ownership and exploitation?
As part of my work, I primarily focus on the individual’s personal relationship to the landscape. I believe that it is precisely on this level that it is possible to understand the landscape in a more natural way, rather than from a general, distant and global perspective. But I still do not have an answer to this question.

photo: Polina Davydenko