In Stano Filko’s symbolic system, the White Space of the 1970s stands as a continuation of an interest in spatial concepts that began in the artist’s earlier works. They demonstrate a tendency to experiment with formal boundaries. From an art-historical point of view, this White Space is astonishing, even disconcerting, on account of the way it reverses established (Western) art values by giving old metaphysical notions a place within the context of a subversive art praxis. The White Space concept covers a multi-phase, multi-part complex of ideas and works, some of which were made in cooperation with Milos Laky
and Ján Zavarsky. One of the accompanying manifestos, Emotion. White Space in a White Space (1977), postulates an infinite space of “non-physical, pure art and emotion,” whose non-color white represents an absolute. This space stands “above” future, present, and past, and it is “super-cosmic.” In a certain sense, it surpasses all existing spaces and symbolizes a state before the act of artistic creation where everything is open, possible, and not determined.

Stanislav Filko

* 1937 in Velká Hradná, Slovakia

lives and works in Bratislava

Exhibitions (selection)


2005 UP 300000 KM/S tranzit workshops, Bratislava. SK

2005 La Biennale di Venezia, 51. Esposizione Internazionale d´Arte, Venezia, I

2003 FIYLKONTEMPLACIAKCIEQ, SONDA 1950 –1969, SONDA 1971 – 1984, Štátna galéria, [State Gallery], Banská Bystrica, SK

2001 Umenie akcie 1965 – 1980, Slovenská národná galéria, [Slovak National Gallery], Bratislava, SK

2000 Samizdat. Alternatice Kultur in Zentral- und Osteuropa. Die 60er bis 80er Jahre, Akademie der Künste, Berlin, D

1999 Aspekte / Positionen. 50 Jahre Kunst aus Mitteleuropa 1949 – 1999, MMKSLW. Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien, Palais Liechtenstein, 20er Haus, A

1999 Global Conceptualism – Points of Origin, 1950s-1980s, QMA - Queens Museum of Art, New York, USA

1986 FYLKO. Special Exhibit of Recent Work 1983 – 1985, P.S. 1- The Institute for Art and Urban Resources, Long Island City, New York, USA

1982 Documenta 7, Kassel, D

1969 Biennale de Paris 1969, Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris, F

selected bibliography:

Grzonka, Patricia: Stano Filko. Arbor vitae, 2005

Hoptman, Laura – Pospiszyl Tomáš (ed.): Primary Documents. A Sourcebook for Eastern and Central European Art since the 1950s, The Museum of Modern Art, New York 2002

Badovinac, Zdenka – Weibel, Peter: Arteast 2000+. The Art of Eastern Europe. A Selection of Works for the International and National Collections of Moderna galerija Ljubljana, Folio Verlag, Bolzano – Vienna 2000

Havránek, Vít (ed.): Akce Slovo Pohyb Prostor. Experimenty v umění šedesátýcj let/ Action Word Movement Space. Experimental Art of the Sixties, Praha 1999

Filko, Stano: Stano Filko II. 1965/69, vlastním nákladem/self-published, Bratislava 1971