Mural

Jakub Matuška aka Masker Commission work for the Czech Pavilion at EXPO 2025The central work running along the architecture’s perimeter is the more-than-250 m-long drawing and painting narrative of Jakub Matuška aka Masker. The visual story unfolds in a metaphorical spiral as a commentary on the human striving from mundane everydayness and subjective perception to archetypal and historical connotations. Through naturally familiar life situations, the viewer intuitively gains knowledge and experience, moving on to a higher sphere of self-awareness. To the artist, the question “how should a human be?” becomes a basis for testing the tense relationship between image and language as well as between painting and drawing, and for exploring various capacities of these media to form our perception of reality and our grasp of our surroundings. By capturing the reflections on his own life, Matuška manages to articulate the urgent and universal topics in contemporary society including its crisis.

The collage-like structuring of the individual situations and moments is inspired by the existing works of the artist as well as by the Czech society and its historical events. The motif of a shining light source intertwines with the story in various alterations, associated with the attributes of humanism, love, wisdom and higher knowledge. It can be interpreted as a mystical experience which can be touched through, but also despite daily activities. From a certain perspective, it is a historical accumulation of the knowledge of an entire nation and its culture, which is immanently present in the given space. Any individual with heightened sensitivity or attention is able to connect with the source. All of us carry its consciousness, although we have to set out on a life-long journey full of hardship seeking new experience – from simple activities, family and partner situations through socially significant milestones and globally critical events to metaphysical and spiritual experiences – leading to higher knowledge of ourselves in the form of fragments that can be recollected.

Among dozens of motifs, one could mention glimpses of typical suburbs crammed with cars in hectic traffic, with one or more individuals in society being able to literally go against the current while perceiving the stories of people submerged in their thoughts as they are passing by. Another scene refers to people who seem to have everything figured out materially and seek the meaning of life in other dimensions. This is logically linked to the desire to leave something behind. The figure holding a stone above its head about to throw it into water can be interpreted as a reflection on evanescence, similar to the ripples on the water that becomes still again soon.

On their journey, the individual often falls into despair or anger. Just like the father who takes his daughter to the park where swans do not thrive because they are fed improper stale bread in good faith, while this local problem stealthily sparks a global fire in the background of the event. This highlights the contemporary environmental problems as well as complex political events that one can hardly influence, while opening the topic of fear of the future.

Other scenes refer to humans in their innermost state of mind, when they have to accept who they are, recognize their shadow, and learn to live with it. Later this recognition spontaneously transforms into the ability to dance with one’s own shadow.

The family scenes primarily depict the effort to pass on gained experience to the offspring and literally “take them all the way to the top”. This is also apparent in the motif of the unicorn where the parent tries to guide the children and “shine on their way through life”. Though we may think that we prepared them for everything, we can but pray in the middle of the forest of knowledge and give ourselves away.

The monumental mural is rendered as a collage of Matuška’s approaches to drawing, whose various forms serve as a foundation for future paintings. Fragments of paintings based on Matuška’s originals were printed onto these enlarged sketches directly on the pavilion’s wall. The digitally processed reproduction fragments were printed with the high-tech Wall-ink digital print technology.