We can only guess which of the two - the figure riding a 2-stroke motorcycle and disguised as a giant tongue (artist?), or the scaled model of Venus of Willendorf placed on the tip of the tongues (artist’s work?) - will be propelled through the ring of fire, into the bucket full of cold water. The installation inspired Boris Greiner to quote Eugene Ionesco, who said: “Humour is our sole opportunity to cut free from our human tragicomic fate – and only after we have surpassed it - from our discomfort of existence. To be aware of horror and to laugh at it means to be the master of horror”. Following this, Greiner writes: “Hraste certainly is no stranger to Ionesco’s advice on how to manage the horror of existence, which he, almost literally, contextualizes into this work. But here’s the catch: Only after having placed himself inside the situation, he becomes aware of the horror. As its protagonist, he is no longer in the position to laugh at it. Therefore, he relinquishes laughter to the spectator, who can see the bigger picture. Instead of that, he diligently builds his sequence, in which he exposes the problem of his own complicity: He can not escape the position of the builder, albeit being aware that his work is in vain. He gives shape to eternity and thereby mocks his own feeling of helplessness. Yet, in what exactly does the rope that salvages him from the looming (surreal) pathos consist? The atmosphere is dark, and the spectator rightly wonders where is the authorial detachment? In sculptural treatment of single elements? - punch in the stomach and the adversary is still upright… In the almost comic book order of the work’s parts? - The adversary staggers… Or in the insufficiently gracious representation of the goddess of beauty? - Driven into corner! The crack in the plot is widening. It is still dark, but the story becomes funny; the absurdity produced by literalness encourages farce, but the aim of this farce is dead serious. What is dead serious here is the eternal taboo, and the taboo is broken by the very fact that it has not been observed.” Greiner, Boris
