The Traditional Family presents a series of new art objects made specifically for GASK’s Whitebox exhibition space by the sculptor, conceptual artist and designer Jakub Berdych Karpelis (1971). In his glass-panel objects, the artist constructs collages from sheet glass and glass vases decorated using the high-enamel technique – a medium whose perception has shifted over time, much like the evolving role of the family itself. In this installation, the artist reflects on the interiors of Eastern European households in the second half of the twentieth century, addressing family stereotypes and the kitsch embedded in the socially prescribed normative model of the period. The installation looks at the traditional model of the family as a changing, fragile unit, and opens up discussion regarding today’s wide range of family models.

The composition made from glass panel objects comments on the traditional concept of the family as an institution with clearly defined roles and symbols: man, woman, child, home. Berdych Karpelis’s artistic interpretation of this theme using glass panels and traditional glass vases decorated using the high-enamel technique presents a new look ‘through’ established dogma and opens up discussion regarding the wide range of family models today, with their emphasis on individuality and on a more flexible understanding of people’s roles. The ‘traditional family’ was understood as a fixed model, while the ‘contemporary family’ is a more open, flexible concept, adapted to the needs and abilities of its individual members. Pierced as they are by glass vases, the glass-panel objects are a metaphor for patchwork families, open relationships and other colourful family models.

Conceptually, the Whitebox exhibition relates to Audience (2017), a sculpture by the same artist installed in the gallery’s gardens as part of the Open-air GASK project. The sculpture, made in honour of what would have been the ninetieth birthday of former president Václav Havel (1936–2011), invites viewers to engage in a dialogue on the values of democratic society, responsibility and open communication. Its installation in the GASK gardens can also be seen as a reference to Havel’s play The Garden Party (1963). Although Audience and The Traditional Family are not thematically related, both works share an emphasis on relationships, dialogue and the social dimension of human co-existence and thus perfectly frame GASK’s presentation of this artist.

The presentation of Berdych Karpelis’s works at three different GASK venues – the public space of the gardens as part of the Open-air GASK project, the Whitebox exhibition space and the Design Shop sales outlet, where he is represented by a pop-up presentation of designer products of his Qubus studio and label – creates a multilayered picture of his work that emphasises his combination of art, design and architecture. This broad format also symbolically accentuates the character of his practice, which has long involved the incorporation of fine art into his design work on the domestic as well as international level.