Fotograf Magazine

Petra Vargová does not rank among artists who overwhelm galleries with more and more of their new works. Even on her web-site (petravargova.org), which maps more than a decade’s worth of work, we do not find confused trails of projects. Rather the page hosts a relatively small, albeit heterogeneous collection. Petra Vargová’s artistic output has a dual character: two-dimensional prints or videos and spatial works, which most often fall into the category that we comfortably call multi-media installation. However, the artist herself emphasises that she does not consider herself to be an artist in the field of so-called new media. Even if almost everything that she has created in recent years came about thanks to help from a computer, her artistic production is definitely not an illustration of the possibilities afforded by newly-discovered technologies and methods. We get the feeling that specific technical solutions came to her only after she needed a means for a specific type of expression. Generally, she had already created and rationalised an entire concept beforehand. What Vargová creates is not inspired by her flipping through a user’s manual for some new software, but rather by situations she encounters in her own life. At the same time perception of her subjective corporality (sensuality) that she often tries to communicate through her works plays an important role.