The Bratislava City Gallery (Galéria mesta Bratislavy) will hold a panel discussion, ‘Forma nasleduje starostlivosť’ (Form Follows Care), on 4 November 2026 at 18:00, approaching the work of the sculptor Maria Bartuszová (1936–1996) through an ecofeminist lens. The free event takes place at Café Emil in the gallery’s Mirbach Palace on Františkánske námestie.
The panel accompanies the monographic exhibition ‘Maria Bartuszová – Being Nature’ (Byť prírodou), on view in Mirbach Palace from 18 June 2026 to 24 January 2027. The discussion will consider how Bartuszová’s biomorphic sculptures, reliefs and public works combine a sensitivity to natural processes with reflections on the female body, motherhood and vulnerability. The speakers will trace parallels between the organic forms and principles of her work and ecofeminist ideas, present ecofeminism from several perspectives, and look at her innovative tactile techniques and her written notes. According to the gallery, those notes challenge patriarchal and anthropocentric ways of understanding art and human relationships, putting care, intuition and symbiosis in place of dominance.
The discussants are Gabriela Garlatyová, who curated the exhibition, Zuzana Jakalová and Ľubica Lacinová, with Katarína Karafová moderating.
The exhibition itself takes a holistic view of humanity’s relationship with nature, examining Bartuszová’s abstract, geometric and biomorphic forms in the light of ecology and feminism. From the start of her career, the gallery notes, she was drawn to natural phenomena and cycles such as rain, wind and, later, melting snow, capturing their transient movement, rhythm and force in solid forms that recall raindrops, grains and eggs. The show centres on her tactile puzzles in plaster, aluminium and bronze, designed to be touched and assembled; such haptic puzzles were used in workshops for visually impaired children at a school in Levoča in 1976 and 1983. The exhibition also refers to her public works in eastern Slovakia, in places including Košice, Rožňava, Revúca, Tatranská Lomnica and Vyšné Ružbachy; the gallery illustrates the show with her bronze ‘Grain Seed’ (1965–1967).
Loans come from the Bartuszová Estate and Archive in Košice, the East Slovak Gallery, Alison Jacques in London, Kontakt/Erste Group and the ERSTE Foundation in Vienna, and private collections. A hands-on Haptic Studio within the exhibition invites visitors to make their own work.
