"Each drawing of this cycle started with the initial chaos in which, gradually, division, points and axes emerged."
Igor Hlavinka
"'… in this body, in the upper sixth step, in careful perception and reflections, is a world, the beginning of a world and a path leading to the elimination of suffering,' says the Buddha (Anguttaranikajo). Each sacred building repeats the act of the Creation of the World. Each the same symbolic structure and, like an Axis of the World, each is connected to the spheres of Heaven, Earth and the Underworld. Santini’s cloister in Plasy is a building constructed on a swamp, resting upon oak pillars above a labyrinth of water (traditionally, underground water symbolizes the water of chaos). A foundation stone above the entrance into the underground system bears the inscription: AEDIFICUM SINE AQUA RUET - 'without water the edifice will be in ruin.'
Such buildings represent a cosmos – an order emerging from Chaos, and water is necessary for it to remain standing! The Cistercians sought to revive the original godly order in nature through work and prayer. They explored these relations and created a place for meditation, introspection, the discovery of the Center. The aim of the project is to explore these issues and create a space for reflection, for a return to the self and for the rediscovery of the axis of being."
The ideal of the Cistercians was to revive the original Divine Order in nature through labor and prayer. We would like to explore these implied contexts and create space for meditation, returning to one another, finding the Center..."
Igor Hlavinka, August 8th, 1997

Igor Hlavinka (born 1959 in Prague) is a painter who, from 1979 to 1982, studied stage design at the Prague Academy of Performing Arts. In 1986, he graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague in Landscape and Figural Painting, the studio of František Jiroudek. Eventually, he made landscape painting, drawings, as well as figural and abstract painting (Cycle Characters, Chaos and Order, Stunning Symmetry, Around the Center).
In the 1990s, he participated in the symposium of the Hermit Foundation at the Plasy monastery. In 1997, he initiated and co-organized the international art symposium "Near the Beginning." For several years, he has been working on restoration of wall paintings, and designing and realizing gardens. He has participated in many collective and independent exhibitions, and his work is represented in many private and public collections. Between 1989 and 1992, he was a member of the Tunnel Art Group and, since 1996, has been a member of S. V. U. Mánes. He lives and works in Prague.

Black drawings, Igor Hlavinka