Silver Thoughts

Milan Knížák pioneered action art and happenings in the former Czechoslovakia in the 1960s and was associated with the Fluxus movement. In 1962, together with Jan Mach, Vít Mach, Sonia Švecová, Jan Trtílek and Robert Wittmann, he founded the group Aktual, which carried out actions, including happenings and street performances. The works produced by the artist during this period were aimed at drawing the public’s attention to the social crisis in Eastern Europe. Since the 1970s, Knížák’s practice has merged with utopian and contemporary ideas of architecture and design, while dealing with asymmetry, colour, and motion.

"Silver Thoughts" also relates to the artist's interest in utopian design and his desire to investigate the boundaries between aesthetics and practical function. In this work, Knížák attempts to create an image by physically associating words, meaning and materials, namely by bringing together the leaky appearance of the engraved words and the reflective material that provides them with a surface. In this regard, Silver Thoughts can be seen as a study on the relations between materiality and conceptuality. It rejects duality and interrupts conventional perception by giving birth to multiple interpretations.