2022Art - Ales Votava (1962–2001) - First Day Cover

Aleš Votava was one of the last and most distinctive students of Ladislav Vychodil, the founder of the Bratislava scenography movement. Apart from his training, Votava was mainly influenced by the action scenography pursued by the previous generation. These influences left their own specific traces in his work and helped to define his unique style. Votava graduated from the Academy of Performing Arts in the mid-1980s, at a time when the paradigm of classical scenography, which employed solid materials, was coming to an end. However, action scenography and deconstruction had also reached their limits on stage by that time. Black was the basis of Votava’s work. Like Vychodil, he considered the use of neutral colours to be the crucial aspect of a scene. Colours, that mainly came from the interplay of light and shadow, through reflection or transparent materials, was the principle behind the action in his scenography. He was considered to be a man of outstanding qualities, or even a Renaissance artist, whose versatility and abilities allowed him to create stage designs for various types of venues and he utilised the available material to the maximum.