Daniel Pešta, *1959
Ecce Homo, 2018-2019
Acrylic on canvas
Multimedia artist Daniel Pešta presented his large-scale panoramic work Ecce Homo to the public for the first time at the Venice Biennale in 2022. Each of the five canvases is three metres wide and two metres high. The monumental painting represents the artist’s silent contemplation of the future of man, who has departed from his origins in nature and has embarked on a path of systematic devastation. Into the melancholic scenery of dead trees, Pešta incorporated the image of a drowning man, reminding us of the inevitable interdependence of man with the environment, the destruction of which will inevitably lead to the end of the human species. For some of the motifs here, the artist used acrylic phosphorus, a chemical whose toxic variant is contained in products designed to fertilize the soil. Under certain light conditions, Ecce Homo emits its own glow. This light fulfils the aesthetically positive value of beauty, but at the same time reinforces the thematic tragedy of the painting cycle.
