Jan Matýsek: Phallomancers

Jan Matýsek's photographic series works with the motif of collective touch and shared care for the invisible. At the centre of the images are hands performing gestures reminiscent of mudras – forms of materialised spiritual energy. With focused attention, they touch something that cannot be seen.

Through its phallic shape, the invisible object opens a space for erotic imagination, yet it cannot be understood merely as the embodiment of sexual desire. In the artist's conception, the invisible totem takes on cosmological qualities. It reflects an erotic relationship to the world: the principle of connection, penetration and mutuality. The hand gestures evoke care, healing and integration, a process of the loving search for balance, both individual and cosmic. Love here appears as a cognitive force. As that which dissolves the boundary between the visible and the invisible, between the knower and the known.

Jan Matýsek is a visual artist and stage designer who builds his own stories and myths from external and internal impressions. Through their associations and causalities, he interprets phenomena between heaven and earth. He works mainly with video, emphasising the evocation of unconscious processes. He combines themes of transhumanism, ecology and corporeality with psychotherapeutic tools. He draws inspiration from practices of initiation and the bringing of the hidden into consciousness. Matýsek graduated in stage design from JAMU in Brno and completed an exchange at UdK Berlin in the experimental film studio. He finished his studies at the New Media 2 studio at AVU in Prague, where he currently works as an assistant professor.

The exhibition takes place in the public space of Artwall Gallery on the embankments of Kpt. Jaroše and Edvard Beneš.

The opening takes place on 3 August, 6:00–9:00 pm at Acid Coffee café inside the Centre for Contemporary Art, Dukelských hrdinů 500 / 25a, Prague 7.

Admission – free

Accessibility – suitable for teens, dog-friendly, wheelchair accessible

Vibe check – intimate event (up to around 30 people), indoor space

Organised by – Artwall Gallery Artwall Gallery is located in the public space along the Edvard Beneš and Kpt. Jaroše embankments. Its curatorial concept stems from this location and is aimed at an audience that is not the usual gallery-going public. The gallery's programme maps socially critical art reflecting the problems of contemporary society, follows current political events in both local and global contexts, and responds to themes that shape the public imagination.

Dates: 3 Aug – 9 Aug 2026, daily 08:00–22:00