Some thresholds you cross without even noticing. First, you step on unfamiliar ground. Then you enter a church. Then a room of someone you don't know yet. And only in the end do you realize that you have stepped a little inside yourself.

We came to Spišský Štvrtok to photograph. We thought we would look for images, details of life, light on the walls, shadows in the hallways, hands folded in prayer. Looks. Gestures. History that has stood here for centuries. We found it all. But we also found something that is much harder to photograph. Proximity. The kind that doesn't happen behind the lens. But between people. When you stop being afraid, when someone stops being afraid of you. When a visit becomes a meeting and a meeting becomes something you take home with you. The Minorite Monastery is a place of silence. The Social Services Center is a place of everyday life. There is not as much distance between them as it might seem. Both places are connected by a human being. With their faith, doubts, joy, fatigue, humor, and the need to be accepted.

Project ACRONYM - visual-social probe (Spišský Štvrtok) visually maps the extensive complex of the Baroque monastery and Early Gothic church in Spišský Štvrtok (Gothic chapel) as sacred, social, and urban memory.

The project reflects the communication and cognitive components of the medium of photography, representing contemporary positions of connecting visual documentation with religious-social and environmental signs through artistic interpretation. Documenting the entire urban complex of the monastery and church presumes a creative discussion about connecting historical opposites and binaries referring to the ethical and intimate boundaries of human faith - on one hand mentally disabled clients, and on the other, spiritual guardians of historical sites - Minorite friars. It is a space defining a relationship through photography whose goal is to activate a third world by recording two different worlds.

Curators: Jozef Sedlák, Magdaléna Tomalová

Exhibiting students: Ivana Galat, Ľubomír Hajdučík, Peter Lančarič, Jozef Sedlák, Kristína Svítok Mayerová, Magdaléna Tomalová, Michal Čajka, Liliana Ivanovičová, Radka Kariková, Patrícia Lehká, Zuzana Ordzovenská, Viktória Konečná, Adriána Radosová, Emma Šafránková, Lea Tomášková, Katarína Zvolenská.

The exhibition runs until November 29, 2026.