Tomáš Kovařík

Nadiia Pliamko’s 3D art captivates the eye with its complexity, which at the same time sings a harmonious, life-affirming song of awe and color. The Ukrainian artist combines classic approaches with contemporary tools to explore fairy tales, fashion, but also everyday life in her signature surreal symbolism. Explore her works accompanied by a dazzling interview that emanates her intellect and artistic maturity.

Today, Island Mint are releasing their new EP All Studium No Punctum and with it comes a shift in the band's sound. Today, Matyáš Adámek, the band's frontman, writer and producer talks to us about the release, his song-writing process, and upcoming trip to Australia.

Following up on our last year’s Family Business editorial from Hotel Krystal, SWARM MAG today releases its accompanying video, IV. Along with our three previous clips it presents our visual identity, this time in the form of a peek at the usual workday of a secret occultist troupe of office workers at their 9-to-5, figuring out how to make a profit off a non-profit magazine.

Mio’s dedication to zero-waste fashion shows in every stitch she makes. Her garments in turn carry an air of innocence and fantasy, completely in line with Miochi’s aspiration to create a safe space, one where childhood nostalgia and sustainability combine into a greater whole.

Marie Deboissy’s self-professed love for caravans and the outdoors shows in her gentle, subtle paintings. The artist uses trailer park settings to explore themes of childhood and adolescence, a period when experience is intensified and imprinted into innocent souls, defining them irreversibly for all time. Join us today on this trip with Marie to learn about her creative approach and influences.

Nina Bachmann’s vivid paintings explore the veneers and facades of all we deem pleasant. The ecstatic expressions of her androgynous figures seem to carry an uncanny other side palpable only experientially, balancing momentary joy and looming withdrawal. Join us today for an interview with the artist and in asking whether intoxication is really as pleasurable and positive as it seems or just a disguise of human abysses.

Hungarian artist Liliána Pálfai explores a femininity she sees as innate to every woman through her illustrations. By employing vibrant colors and fairy-like aesthetics, this aspect is transposed on digital paper to invoke spiritual and ethereal atmospheres. Read today’s interview to learn about her creative approach, technique, and the border between art and therapy.

Zsófi Edőcs’s illustrations and animations explore a care-free, joyous realm of vivid colors and playful shapes, accompanied by her analog synthesizer. When exploring the medium of film however, the Hungarian artist’s works delve into the anxieties of adulting, yet retain her signature humorous touch.

Creepy Teepee is a unique Czech musical event disregarding genre boundaries, focusing instead on community, contemporary themes, and cutting-edge creative approaches by artists from all over the world. SWARM MAG sat down with one of its chief organizers Jakub Hošek to bring you a closer look at the event’s values, background, and 2023 lineup. There are still some last tickets available, so don’t miss it!

Vincent Snijder’s approaches to design range from 3D scans & prints to animations created with audio software, and inspirations spanning movie and gaming culture all the way to anthropology and history. One guiding line in his works however is an investigation of human rituals and cultures, both physical and intangible. Today you get a chance to explore even some of his upcoming artworks, accompanied by curatorial texts and Vincent’s personal insights.

With definitions of her work spanning “a structure or form that combines multiple living organisms or biological elements” or “a hybrid organism created through synthetic techniques”, Xinyi Tao’s fashion design imagines a biomorphic future where the line between wear and wearer is completely blurred. Explore this material interbecoming in today’s feature, accompanied by an insightful interview with the cutting-edge artist.

In her thesis installation Erebo, Anna Jožová turns to the ongoing mass extinction and ecological disaster. By exploring the interplay of various materials in geological time, the Prague-based artist warns of the looming approach of the eponymous Greek god of darkness, who, according to myth, was at the beginning and end of the universe, and whose return has never been closer.

Linda Morell’s recent exhibition dives into the jellified oceans of a future Earth, a place so alienated from mankind that it itself is uncertain which life forms it will favor. Inspired by Paradise Lost, mythologies and collapse of civilization, her unique installations explore a non-linear temporality through materials and interplay.

In exploring movement and transformation, choreographer Paweł Sakowicz delves into the Romantic landscape. In his upcoming Fatamorgana project he exploits the tropes of seeing and gestures in evoking an ambiguous nostalgia. Read today’s interview for an insightful peek into his approach to choreography and contemporary dance, and don’t miss the fast-approaching Prague premiere!

“We always wanted a place to hide. To inhabit islands with their own rules, where we can die and be reborn.” Today’s feature by Bára Čápová explores the parallels between Deleuze’s utopia of desert islands and contemporary liminal space aesthetics. Her meditation is accompanied by illustrations by Andrea Sklepek Šafaříková, underscoring the mysterious atmosphere of once-crowded, now-empty environments.

Léa Porré’s fascination with transcending the same old ways of interpreting history finds expression in her 3D works and installations. Today, the London-based Belgian artist presents two of her recent projects, Arcana Arcorum and The Beginning of All Moist Things which, in her style, “experiment with 3D world-building as a tool to heal from our past, and future-forecast.”

Mnemosyne Unit-01 is a hyper-creature that contains the DNA of all known eukaryotic species as they navigate a deserted Earth. The premise of Dimitris Gkikas’ walking simulator, an emerging gaming genre, takes the player to an eclectic universe which, despite its grim post-apocalypticism, maintains a light spirit and insightful view of technology.

Visions of escaping civilization and technology for a simple life of manual labor have crept into many an artists’ dreams since the industrial revolution, but Alexandr Martsynyuk’s recent work explores the inevitable inescapability of automation even in a rustical, barebones existence. Join him today on a routine trip to the tomato allotments in his speculative spin on the post-apocalypse.

The long-running creative collaboration between Ula Lucińska and Michał Knychaus has recently led the Polish duo to explore the non-linearity of time, speculative approaches and the notion of catastrophe through their multimedia works. In their own words, “even if the environments we render are dark and repulsive they always contain elements of restoration and new life”, hanging in a balance between the surgical and organic. Today, you get to join them in their realms accompanied by an insightful interview.

As part of her Friendship series, the creatures and beings in Denisa Müllerová’s works float in an ethereal space beyond desires and pain. Despite their alien optics, they all seek very familiar things: “They lightly touch each other. They contemplate. They convey the most necessary and important message – I'm here with you.” Join their presence in today’s feature accompanied by an explication of their universe and its creator.