"I am connecting here the two worlds that we must continue to leapfrog, namely the digital and the stone, real world. We must be able to cope with both of them, even if the digital one constantly attacks the real one."

Pavel Mrkus

---

Pavel Mrkus (born 1970 in Mělník) is an audiovisual artist who makes use of digital moving images and sound, often in relation to specific space. He studied the Faculty of Theology, Charles University, Prague (1998–2000) and the Polytechnic University, Stoke on Trent, England (1991), graduating from the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague (1989-1995).

For several years, he was a university teacher in Toyama City Institute of Glass Art in Japan, which lead to a unique mixture of cultural paradigms within his work. In his art works, Mrkus combines the use of sophisticated digital technologies employed to intermediate the spiritual traditions of Western Europe and Eastern spiritualism.

After exhibiting at the 50th Venice Biennial in 2003, he participated in many group and solo shows around world. He is the holder of numerous Honorable Mention awards (Vessels, Koganezaki, Japan, 2003), or the Silver Prize (Japan Contemporary Glass Art, Glass Museum, Notijma, Japan, 2002).  He was awarded Personality of the Year 2012 for his exhibition "Next Planet" in The Brno House of Arts. Together with Daniel Hanzlík, they established the Time-Based Media studio at the Faculty of Art and Design at J. E. Purkyně University in Ústí nad Labem and in 2015 he became the Dean.