Curated tour of the exhibition “Flowers of Other Worlds”

Hosted by: Sonia Wilk

The Department of Non-Professional Art of the Silesian Museum has been cooperating with numerous foreign institutions dealing with the phenomenon of art brut for many years. These contacts give the opportunity to present their own collection, but also to show the Polish public the collections of partner institutions. In 2025, it was the exhibition “You are not alone. Outsiders in art”, we now have the opportunity to introduce you to one of the most interesting European art brut collections, located in the Art Museum in Olomouc. The exhibition presents, first of all, a little-known phenomenon of spiritualistic art in Poland, the manifestation of which is mediumistic drawings.

Exhibition “Flowers of other worlds. Anna Zemánková, Cecilie Marková, Marie Kodovská and Czech Spiritualists” is a selection of works centred around the flower motif, which is very strongly present in the Olomouc art brut collection. Flowers, which for centuries have belonged to the most powerful archetypes of art, are not a reflection of real nature, but above all a projection of inner nature, a kind of “botany of the soul”. They are deeply intimate; they become metaphors, signs and symbols. They act as messengers of “other worlds” and images of different dimensions of cognition. The visual metamorphoses of these worlds take on non-obvious, often dreamlike and peculiar forms, characterized by a unique power of expression.