Bela and Peter

Hello Bela, may I call you by your first name?

You are the first Běla, photographer, artist I know.

I like your name, I like your work, minor inaccuracies, that reveal the process of creation. It must have been a long, thoughtful moment. Finding a position between rigor and playfulness, composing, developing, hesitating when to fix the image.
It is an honour to meet here.

Peter

...

Peter meets Bela Kolářová and at first glance she seems to be strutting, showing off, provoking, taking up space and what's more, daring to break away from the walls and enter the space. However, Běla Kolářová, as a personality in the history of Czech art, is no match for such manifestations. She stands firm in her ideas, behind her works. Today, she does not disappear into the shadow of another artist; instead, upon closer inspection, we can notice small details and hints in her partner's attitude. Peter Fabo, for all the pomp and the means chosen, acts with respect, tenderly paying homage and acknowledging Bela's proper place. After all, he is old enough to do so and knows what is proper. He is obviously glad to be here at her side.

The visit of these two authors to Josef Sudek seems to have been a success. It is a suitable place for meetings of outstanding personalities of photography. However, our actors, perhaps future friends, are somewhat out of place. They stand on the verge of photography despite the fact that they both use its most basic principles. Both are more than a little bit comfortable with this position and the media delineation is there to create context rather than context. The artists share an identical experience of the process of creation. No doubt both have encountered the same snags and both, though it doesn't seem like it, work with the same humility that the darkroom demands. In the exhibition, a subtle tension arises between the two; Fab's painting with ellipses suspended in space reacts freely to Kolářová's fragile works, levitating in transparent sheets of frameless matter. An exchange of views takes place across the entire space.

Elsa Rauer