NEPASIKA

MOTHERS AND FATHERS
LENKA KLODOVÁ, LUCIE NEPASICKÁ, MARTIN PÉČ, MAREK REJENT
The group was formed in 2001, shortly after we graduated from the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design, started families, and
had most of our children. From a unified voice, which was filled primarily with shared concerns about family, art, and livelihood, a
wealth of other topics gradually emerged. Some of them are about the benefits of joint artistic creation, the collective mind, and the survival of a multi-headed body, while others concern the breakdown of families, new attempts, and aging.
The advantage of Mothers and Fathers has always been that the ideas captured at the intersection of four relatively different opinions have always been resilient, tenacious, simple, even primitive. This facilitates communication and the installation of exhibitions for Mothers and Fathers.
We want to believe that if the very process of creating MaO has healing and energetically positive effects, it will not cause the opposite reaction in visitors to our exhibitions or websites.
MOTHERS AND FATHERS
IN ONE ROUND
(ALREADY 25 YEARS)
VELELSLAVÍN CASTLE PRAHA, 2025



For the group's anniversary, we were given the opportunity to exhibit at Veleslavín Castle, which is under threat, just like the minority of creative parents.
We are graduates of the atmosphere of the 1990s, from which we carry the feeling that art and culture are the most important things in society, but we also remember the stress of ill-conceived privatization measures, which greatly impoverished society culturally. That is why we enthusiastically accepted the challenge to contribute to the preservation of Veleslavín Castle for public cultural purposes.


From the unified voice of the group, which at the time of its inception 25 years ago was filled primarily with shared concerns about family, art, and livelihood, a wealth of other topics gradually emerged. The question of the contribution of joint artistic creation, collective thinking, and the survival of a multi-headed body remains relevant, while later topics concern the breakdown of families, new attempts, and aging.
The advantage of Mothers and Fathers has always been that the ideas captured at the intersection of four relatively different opinions have always been resilient, tenacious, simple, even primitive. This approach facilitates communication and the installation of exhibitions for Mothers and Fathers. For the annual exhibition at Veleslavín Castle, we chose simple, dirty language that guided the viewer through the banal events of parental lives.
It is here, in the premises of the former sanatorium, that the paths of our cars intersect, so that we can unload the material, already sorted and transformed into an artistic message. The impression of the doctor's offices is then captured in the way the text is installed, and our concern for the future of the castle is reflected in the family graffiti on offer.
We want to believe that if the very process of creating MO has healing and energetically positive effects, it will not cause the opposite reaction in viewers.
What we mean when we talk
about family

DŮM UMĚNÍ ÚSTÍ NAD LABEM AND EXTERIORS AROUND 2021
We founded the Mothers and Fathers group based on the classic family structure of mother, father, and children.
From a conceptual point of view, we see the family as an object of observation and a source of many topics for study. After many years of practical experience, we perceive the family as an endangered species, whose breakdown can come about insidiously. The exhibition therefore offers a solution in the form of legal supervision, which makes it possible to eliminate injustice at its inception, and a supervisory body can evaluate the individual behavior of individuals.
We draw on our childhood experiences under communism, which corresponds to the chosen form and offers a variable addition to the happy sculptures.



BRNO 2020
By participating in the competition to create a water feature, we drew attention to the significant shortage of drinking water in some parts of the world.
Brno, by pure coincidence, is not one of them.
Competition design of water features


COMPETITION DESIGN MASARYK
Model of a statue commemorating the 100th anniversary of the founding of Masaryk University
in Brno, 2019


PRICE OF EMPATHY
With its characteristic sensitivity, the YOUR FUTURE IS US project not only presents a commemorative coin for departing employees, but also addresses the situation after. 2019


As parents, members of the Mothers and Fathers group are full of empathy. It goes without saying that partnership and family life associated with raising children requires a solid dose of empathy. At this stage in their lives, MaO members also have the opportunity to look back on raising children and family life with the benefit of hindsight and evaluate their performance in this area. Today, we also know that empathy is an integral part of long-term relationships. The endings and new beginnings of relationships between people are another test of endurance. We know how to deal with irreversible changes and the end of relationships.
MaO members perceive empathy not only as the ability to understand the emotions and motives of another person's actions, but also as a starting point for finding ways to help those affected. We do not intend to, nor is it in our nature to, overwhelm these people with waves of sympathy without regard for the practical aspects of life. Compassion remains hidden within us; we put on a professional face of understanding toward the other person. We do not directly participate in the key problems of their lives.
As part of the "Your Future Is Us" project, MaO works with the ability to empathize with the feelings of people who have been laid off from Komerční banka and transforms this wave of empathy into a project that significantly helps these people in their orientation and further professional and life direction.
The "We Are Your Future" project is planned as a two-stage project.

A V U
In 2016, as one of our performative projects, we auditioned for the vacant position of head of the general sculpture studio at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague.
For the position of one teacher – as a multi-headed entity.
We were selected for the second round.
Mothers and Fathers as leaders of the Sculpture II studio
at the Academy of Fine Arts
Group Body
First, we would like to explain the path that logically led us to believe in our group's ability to take on the role of sculpture teachers at AVU.
The M&O group was formed in 2000 with a joint exhibition at the NoD Gallery entitled "Mothers and Fathers in Action." This exhibition showed that the individual members are capable of suppressing their own artistic ambitions within the framework of a jointly prepared event and embarking on the unpredictable path of group creation.

STAMP
After ten years of the group's
existence, we issued a stamp, mapping the development of the group and our multiple families.
At our own expense. 2011



BRNO 2009
The background, family history, and heritage that each member of the group brings with them is very diverse.
Our genealogies include professional painters, architects, artists, but also skilled folk woodcarvers, painting retirees, and creative engineers.
WHAT WE ARE, YOU WERE TOO

The exhibition project "What we are, you once were" is a partial exploration of a whole range of questions concerning the inheritance of artistic talent, the significance of talent for art in general, intergenerational relationships, the question of role models and protest, the conditioning of life's destiny by external circumstances, and, last but not least, the changing meaning of the term "art" itself.
We believe in conditioning and heredity. We consider ourselves to be the proud offspring of our bizarre family histories, and we consider the artistic group Matky a Otcové (Mothers and Fathers) to be the super-offspring of everything that has been passed down to its individual members through their families.
ON THE BARE
FOR FOTOGRAF MAGAZINE 2009
The need to infiltrate all areas of artistic expression led us to tattooing.


Instead of commercially multiplied ornamental calligraphic compositions, M&O prosaically decorated their bodies with original realistic motifs from the arsenal of evergreen "family happiness" themes. Their tragicomic ballpoint pen "tattoos," which, certainly not by chance, resemble the rather naive expression of prison art, nevertheless stubbornly strive to preserve the usual decorative parameters, meticulous execution, and, in most cases, a slightly eroticizing placement strategy. They even have their place within the logic of the "field." It is a thoroughly thought-out second part of all hearts pierced by arrows, ideally "stamped" with the name of the current love. At the same time, it is a subtle hint. The reason is clear. A person in love usually doesn't think too long before letting the tattoo artist's needle pierce their bare skin, so it's no wonder that they usually realize much later what a real pain it was.
Radek Wohlmut
SNACK
MIKULANDSKÁ ELEMENTARY SCHOOL PRAGUE 2008
Bread with something for a snack was one of the attributes of parenthood when we had school-age children. We were invited to an annual exhibition, and the object became a popular body that traveled after school, changing its color to gray.


WHAT WOULD WE BE WITHOUT CHILDREN
C2C GALLERY PRAGUE 2007
What is the visual difference between being a parent and not being a parent? We asked ourselves this question and explored it in plaster. How could this idea come close to reality?



fAMILY ART CRIMEs
CAPTAIN JAROŠ EMBANKMENT PRAGUE 2006
Graffiti with a family theme was created as part of the Divus project on the Prague embankment and was deliberately created using a technique involving crayons and other school supplies.


NOTICE BOARD
PROSEČ 2005
As the first (and also last) of the Notice Board projects, we chose the residence of one of the members. It was about the infiltration of mother-father art into everyday life in the community. The other members are still waiting for their notice boards.


HAPPY XMASS
OBRATNÍK Gallery 2004
When one parent exhibits, the other inevitably suffers. The exhibition aimed to thank partners with a touch of reality.

MOTHERS AND FATHERS OFFER
UMPRUM Gallery 2001
The exhibition had a clear goal—to give childless couples a sense of family life. Nevertheless, we spontaneously created a nonverbal language for parents.





















































































