Naděžda's Chord in the Landscape

The upbringing of Kristek’s mother Naděžda left a deep musical imprint in his mind – an atonal formation consisting of nine tones that he named after her. Naděžda’s Chord sounded in his head so insistently that Kristek had to process it, otherwise it would have driven him mad. Firstly, it appeared in the painting Naděžda’s Chord in the Landscape. He used its musical form in the double-happening Love in circulo vitioso in finito secondi milenii in 1998. The concept of Naděžda’s chord is based on Kristek’s philosophy that perfect harmony is already in its final state, and therefore new ideas may originate only from disharmony.
Under the baton of a bandaged conductor, a plasmatic pulsating formation pushes its way from the piano. As a child, Kristek often secretly conducted his own imaginary orchestra in the loft of his parents’ house.
The bandages are also related to the artist’s childhood. When his allergy flared up, he had to suffer from his mother’s bandaging so that he would not scratch himself. During his summer allergies, he was ‘dying’ from the lack of oxygen every year, and then he was reborn again. It is apparently from here that his fascination with the principle of death and rebirth stems. The bandaged figure (in his happenings, sometimes even an animal) represents an illness but also the possible healing process that results in curing.

Photo: Lubo Kristek with the bandages and his mother Naděžda.