Stano Filko. 12 Chakras of Becoming

Stano Filko  was one of the most visionary and most radical protagonists of the Central European neo-avantgarde. The Generali Foundation Collection—Permanent Loan to the Museum der Moderne Salzburg dedicates a comprehensive retrospective to the artist. The exhibition showcases works from all periods of his life and oeuvre—from early paintings and conceptual experiments to immersive environments and on to assemblages combining a wealth of materials and large-format sculptures.

Who was Stano Filko? 

Stano Filko was born in 1937 in Veľká Hradná, a village in what was then Czechoslovakia. Beginning in the 1960s, when he was living in Bratislava, Filko devised a progressive creative practice that garnered international recognition early on. In 1982, he escaped the repression under the communist regime and subsequently lived in New York for several years. After the peaceful revolution of 1989, he returned to Slovakia. The artist passed away in Bratislava in 2015.

The “System SF”

From the 1990s onward, he created the “System SF” (Stano Filko)— an organizing schema interweaving colors, chakras, and existential and spiritual categories that became the guiding principle of his entire oeuvre.

A special œuvre

Rooted in experimental object art, conceptual graphic art, and the happening, his radically open oeuvre blends utopian vision, science, and spiritual experience. Based on these approaches, he developed a radically open œuvre that combined utopia, science, and spiritual experience. His art followed a multi-layered view of the world and attempted to bring it into aesthetic and existential harmony: art as order, theory, ritual, and sensual experience all at once.

All works on view in the exhibition are loans from the Estate of Stano Filko. Coordinated in collaboration with Layr, Vienna. The copyrights in the works are held by the Estate of Stano Filko.

With the kind support of the Slovak Institute in Vienna.