Šimon Chovan
Artist-in-Residence March–April 2025, Slovak Republic /
© Šimon Chovan
Šimon Chovan, born 1994, Banská Štiavnica, Slovakia, is a visual artist currently living between Dekýš and Amsterdam. He studied at the Sandberg Instituut in Amsterdam, KASK School of arts Gent and the Academy of Fine Arts in Bratislava. His recent solo exhibitions include Dendrites & Tissues at the TIC Gallery in Brno (2024) or The New Wounded at the Holešovická Šachta in Prague (together with Laura Gozlan, 2023). He has also participated in a number of group exhibitions: Staffordshire St in London, Kunsthalle Wien, EXILE Vienna, Kunsthalle Bratislava, Kustverein Eisenstadt, Loods 6 Amsterdam, Greenfield Project Space London or Tranzit Bratislava. Recently, he has also exhibited frequently in the Czech Republic, for example in Meetfactory, Hraničár Gallery, the Lidice Art Collection, and the Regional Gallery in Zlín. Chovan´s work is characterized by its material sensitivity, in which organic and inorganic substances meet with a distinctive ochre pigment.
Statement
Last year I have been part of a research project concerned with the plans of lithium mining in Cínovec at the border of Czechia and Germany. As one of the results of my research I have collected mica minerals which contain lithium. I have also gained a residue from recycled electric car batteries from a research group at local UJEP university. The sources I have collected couldn't be more contrasting - on one hand the raw and yet untouched lithium containing a scary potential of attracting mining industry with bad impact on local environment, and on the other hand the leftover mixture of paper, zinc and copper from recycling batteries that were made with lithium probably coming from Chile, which seems like geographically far a way, but each of us carries a piece of it in our phones and daily devices. During the residency I would like to find ways of working with these materials – both conceptually and practically.
External Links
Instagram: @simon_chovan