Jiří Bareš

JIŘÍ BAREŠ (1963). I was born in Hradec Králové. I trained as an artistic carver in the workshops of Břetislav Kafka in Červený Kostelec. Since 1987 I have been working as a carver and workshop manager in the puppet theatre DRAK. I am a member of the Union of Visual Artists in Hradec Králové. I have exhibited individually and in joint exhibitions. Cooperation in the Czech Republic and abroad. Japan, Denmark, USA, Poland, Iceland, and Australia. My life is a journey, which leaves traces of my works behind me. Those who follow in my footsteps may meet puppet-like figures with soulful faces looking at wooden reliefs on which various animals rest and beautiful women enjoying their beauty. To entice the pilgrim to follow my path, I lean paintings full of colour and glimpses into other worlds against the trees. Every pilgrim gets tired on the way and starts looking for a place to rest. He sees what looks like a large figure in the distance and tries to make out its shape with his eyes. When he gets closer, he sees the figure of a woman dancing her dance of life, for millennia. He sits down beside her and gently touches her wooden body. At that touch, his mother, his first love, the two femmes fatales, appear in his imagination and evoke the feeling he has missed so much on his long pilgrimage. And so, immersed in his memories, he embraces the wooden figure, symbol of love and giver of life. He fixes his gaze on the road ahead, which ends nowhere, and follows the other tracks laid out along its edge. Into each of my wooden footprints I place a large part of my inner world, pieced together from joy, melancholy, animality, playfulness and the freedom of my thoughts. I invite you on the journey of my footprints and offer you an encounter with the world of my works. If you manage to catch up with me on the way, we will stop, you will tell me about your inner world and I will try to carve a trace for your journey.