A documentary exploring the life and work of conceptual artist Ján Mančuška, who made a remarkable impact on both the Czech and international art scenes, but passed away before his 40th birthday. Presented by Mančuška's long-time friend and fellow exhibiting artist Františka Gilman and the curator of the exhibition, Christian Rattemeyer.
Saturday, May 17, 5:30 PM | guided tour of (Dis)Connective Time with Františka Gilman and Christian Rattemeyer + screening of You Will Never See It All | REGISTRATION
dir. Štěpán Pech / 2023 / documentary / Czechia, Slovakia / Czech with English subtitles / 82 minutes
As part of the accompanying program for our new exhibition (Dis)Connective Time, presenting the work of Ján Mančuška and Františka Gilman, we invite you to a screening of the documentary film You Will Never See It All, which traces the life story of conceptual artist Ján Mančuška.
Ján Mančuška (1972–2011) was a recipient of the Jindřich Chalupecký Award, represented the Czech Republic at the Venice Biennale, and his works are part of the collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Centre Pompidou in Paris. Although he studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, he soon began experimenting with other forms. Replacing the brush with toothpicks, cotton swabs, nails, strings, or even an air rifle, Mančuška developed a distinctive visual language. Some of his text-based and audiovisual installations evoke the spirit of French New Wave cinema or the nouveau roman, while his theatrical performance Reverse Play explores storytelling through reversed causality.
This same approach is mirrored in You Will Never See It All, a documentary by Štěpán Pech—Mančuška’s longtime assistant. Pech adopts the structure of Reverse Play, unfolding time backwards to offer viewers a new perspective on an artist who, despite his declining health, poured himself entirely into his work and died young. Through the memories of Mančuška’s children, parents, curators, and colleagues—who appear within reinstalled versions of his most significant works—the film tells a moving and unconventional story of loss, longing, and the fine line between absence and a fatal mistake.
