In the series "In the Between", which is reserved for younger artists from the Innerschwelz region, Eliska Bartek shows a new series of oil paintings created especially for the exhibition.

Eliska Bartek lives in Neuenkirch near Lucerne and has been in Switzerland for about twenty years, where she finally came after fleeing the former Czechoslovakia. The works collected here were created in an intensive working process. Their very differently processed surfaces, some of which Bartek paints with his hands, lienas scrapes out of deeper, often brightly colored layers of paint, and the like, emphasize the physicality of the works. Some of them were aggressively maltreated, as it were, maltreated. The emphasized physicality creates closeness, makes us aware of the presence of the color, and also results in heaviness. The stripes and lines, applied at regular intervals, span the entire surface, which they emphasize in such a way, and partially close it off as if in grids, blocking the view into the depths. Grey and black support this impression of hardness, closure and heaviness. On the other hand, the layering of the paint creates a hidden depth; the coarse colour matter turns out to be rhythmic, sometimes even wave-like, when viewed for a longer period of time. Bright spots flash like light reflections, nuanced colour values build up a quiet overall sound. Directness and closeness turn into distantness, Shrill sounds become quiet, nervous tension finds peace. Within the confines of the canvas, an unapproachable expanse emerges. A longing is directed towards it, which is palpable in the paintings, it is - as the artist says - paradoxically a longing for life as well as for death. It seems to me that these works have a lot in common, especially with the lonely magical landscapes of the soul of Walter J. Moeslin, which are built up in layers in a similarly free, process-like brushwork, which result in an infinite distance. Of these wastelands, it is not known whether they are at the end or at the beginning of all times.