I have the habit of paying attention to him and until today it has worked out well for me. I started diving in networks to get to know the Filko; one of those artists, like so many others, who is not positioned in the minds of the general public as the genius he was, surely because he was not born in the United States, France, Italy or northern Europe where the emergence of artists is usually more simple and early. The comparison is easy with footballers; More than once we have seen ourselves asserting that the value and fame of a specific player is different if his last name ends in “inho” and he comes from Brazil. Unfortunately, I think the same thing happens with artists.

Filko was an artist who shone especially during the second half of the sixties in Central Europe. A native of Bratislava and a graduate in fine arts, one of those degrees that is studied by vocation. We could say that Filko goes through two clearly defined stages in terms of his line of thought and production.

The first and under the influence of the current of new realism and the renowned art critic of the time Pierre Restany, our artist contributes a new current of conceptual art with evident roots of the Situationist International, a current of revolutionary artists who sought to abolish the system of social classes because they consider it oppressive. And also under the existentialist current that masterfully culminates and defines the work of Jean Paul Sartre. In this new current Filko advocates the basic criticism of Leninist theses, we could say that he shares an objective but not a path.

 

The beautiful thing about art is that we value not only the background but as much or more how what we want to express is expressed. At this stage our artist basically stands out for two contributions; He signs and is an important part along with his colleague Alex Mlynárčik “Happsoc”, nothing more and nothing less than an invitation to turn an entire city, Bratislava, into a work of art. For this purpose, from May 2 to 8, 1965, an anonymous invitation was made to produce art in any discipline through everything that can be found in a city. This initiative was accompanied by a 12-point manifesto explaining the intention, definition and importance of anonymity, participation and co-creation by the viewer in the production of art to create communities and socialize in search of happiness and status. quo. The initiative was a complete success.

In this first period he also stood out for his painting style, clearly inspired by the post-Cubist style and Neodadaism, especially by using methods such as collage or Assemblange.

We reach the second part of Filko’s journey through the art world in which we find a more mature and much more transcendental artist from the late 60s, a time where cosmology, philosophy and cybernetic vision take on a very important relevance. . And, of course, and that is why the great Quim writes to me to take a look, we see how Filko dares for the first time with architecture. His best-known work in this mix of disciplines is: “Cosmos” in which the author conceives a cosmic space as a projection of the desire for freedom and independence. And he does it through visual concepts, drawings and what we could call utopian architecture.

And guess what type of spaces he uses to represent his work? Indeed the inflatable architecture, spherical receptacles for ephemeral use that allow them to be used and collected without leaving a mark on the environment. This is when everything falls into place, when you realize that geniuses are often geniuses because they have been able to be ahead of their time. What better architecture is there to embody freedom, independence and respect for the environment? Filko designed and produced several works of utopian architecture of this type, always spherical and ephemeral in concept.

Without a doubt we are in front of one of the founders of inflatable architecture, one of the first minds that imagined and conceived utopian spaces that have subsequently inspired nothing more and nothing less than Skybubbles. Like Walter-Müller, who has already been written about before, our Filko deserves the role of founding father of inflatable architecture and Quim knew it!