Petr Košárek
(*1987) born in Teplice in Czech Republic. During his master‘s studies at Faculty of Art and Design, University of J. E. Purkyně, in Ústí nad Labem (in the Studio of Photography) completed a one year study internship abroad (2012 – 2013) at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Naples. After finishing his studies, he worked as an assistance to a professor Pavel Baňka in his studio and in 2015 he participated in an artist residency at a Benedictine monastery in Conversano, Italy. Since then, the interplay between photography and sculpture or object has occupied an essential place in his work, and can be characterized by terms such as anachronistic, nature vs. artificiality and originality vs. technicality. Since 2017 he has been working as a photographer at the Czech Institute of Egyptology, Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague. During annual expeditions he has been photographing on the archeological sites in Abusir and Saqqara in Egypt. For the Czech Institute of Egyptology he created several exhibitions about history of Czech Egyptology. In 2021, he published a book with his two colleagues about photographical archive called „Zmizelé horizonty“ (Lost Horizonts). Since working experience with archeologists in Egypt his artistic work became inspired by influences of archeology, ancient religions and philosophy in the matter of time and being, life and death.
Education
- 2011 – 2014 / Master‘s degree, Jan Evangelista Purkyně University in Ústí nad Labem, Faculty of Art and Design, Department of Photography of Pavel Baňka, Ústí nad Labem
- 2007 – 2011 / Bachelor‘s degree, Jan Evangelista Purkyně University in Ústí nad Labem, Faculty of Art and Design, Department of Photography of Pavel Baňka, Ústí nad Labem
- 2003 – 2007 / Josef Jungmann grammar school, Litoměřice
Stipends
- 2012 – 2013 / Academy of Fine Arts in Naples, Departments of sculptures and photography
Residency
- 2015 / Mari tra le mura / Monastery San Benedetto in Conversano / Real-ized in the frame work of a residency by SAC and the institution Fondazione Museo Pino Pascali, Polignano al Mare
Symposium
- 2011 / Na Hranici – Grenznah, Czech and German fine art symposium fo-cused on the phenomena of wilderness, National park of Šumava, Tum-melplatz, Germany
Solo Exhibitions
- 2023 / Egypt: Probing the Archive, DOX Centre for Contemporary Art, Archive of Fine Arts, Prague
- 2021 / I strained my eyes, and the gloom becomes dark, project created with Magdalena Dubnovova, Zlín, Photogether Gallery
- 2021 / The Path of Czech Egyptology, collaboration with Jiří Janák, Embassy of the Czech Republic, Paris and Cairo
- 2015 / Plankton, Move Gallery, Ústí nad Labem, CZ
- 2013 / Funerale dei Ricordi, The beach close to old industrial fabrics in Bagnoli, Naples
Group Exhibitions
- 2022 / Quiet waters, torn moss, Elnahda Jesuit culture centre, Cairo, Egypt
- 2020 / Dream Team, Virtual exhibition of graduates of the Faculty of Art and Design of the Jan Evangelista Purkyně University in Ústí nad Labem, CZ
- 2015 / Mari tra le mura, Conversano, Fondanzione Pino Pascali, Puglia
- 2015 / Grenznah, Školská 28 Gallery, Prague
- 2014 / Diploma, Galerie Emila Filly, Ústí nad Labem
- 2013 / Extrabilia, Biennale di Baselice, Benevento, Italy
- 2013 / Quando la materia diventa forma/pensiero, L´associazione Culturale Domus Mata, Benevento, Italy
- 2012 / Prague Micro Festival, Festival of poetry, Club K4 Gallery, Prague
- 2011 / Magic circle (annual exhibition of the department of photography of Pavel Baňka), Emil Filla Gallery, Ústí nad Labem, CZ
- 2011 / The Picture We Live In, Emil Filla Gallery, Ústí nad Labem, Central European house of photography, Bratislava, SK, GASK Gallery, Kutná Hora, CZ
Curated exhibitions
- 2019 / Between Prague and Cairo. 100 years of Czech Egyptology, Karo-linum, Charles Universtity in Prague, Museum Karlovy Vary, Museum in Pilsner, CZ
Publishing activities
- Zmizelé horizonty. Fotografie z archivu Českého egyptologického ústavu 1959-1989, Lucie Jirásková, Petr Košárek, Štěpán Macháček, Charles Univer-sity, Prague, 415 pages, ISBN 978-80-7671-054-2, 2021
- Fotograf # 28; CULTURA / NATURA, Fotograf 07 z.s., V TEXTU ISSN 1213-9602, Praha, 2016 s. 42 – 45
- Kateřina Dytrtová, Martin Raudenský; KO-TEXT, Tvar, zvuk a gesto, tvůrce, učitel a žák, UJEP, PedfUK, Ústí nad Labem, 2015 s. 151 – 160