A workshop by the Performance studios of the Faculty of Fine Arts at VUT in Brno and the Photography Department of the Faculty of Arts at OU in Ostrava, following on from the Boris Camaca exhibition (https://plato-ostrava.cz/en/Vystavy/2025/Boris-Camaca). Closed event.

The workshop led by the artist Boris Camaca will focus on exploring the identity formation of fictional characters through photography in Ostrava's urban environment. Participants will experiment with site-specific photography of the fictional characters they will put in motion through performance. The aim is to explore visual storytelling in a specific environment. Students of FaVU and FU will work in groups to stage performative situations for the fictional characters.

In addition to exploring the creative process itself, the workshop focuses on the possibility of connecting students from two different schools and studios. It seeks to establish cooperation between young emerging artists and create opportunities not only to acquire basic knowledge, but also to experience deeper artistic collaboration and try out roles in a wider production project. The students will have the opportunity to collaborate in roles that allow them to focus in more detail on a specific type of work, while also exploring the collaboration that arises directly in this process. The workshop will be supported through pedagogical and technical assistance provided by Lenka Glisníková, Karolína Matušková, Julie Béna, Dominika Goralská, and Tamara Spalajković.

Boris Camaca is a French artist who explores identity formation by reflecting on self-presentation, gender fluidity, and the economy of images. His photography is marked by vivid colours, intentionally exaggerated stylization, and an emphasis on narrative, thanks to which he creates images that enchant the eye as much as provoke thought. In these scenes he stages performative situations in which the physical entanglements and unexpected difficulties of the protagonists turn into allegories of identity processes. By connecting mysterious figures and unlikely environments, Camaca creates a particularly oppressive atmosphere through which he critically reflects on current social and political issues. Camaca is the co-founder of Télévision magazine, and his work has been exhibited at the NıCOLETTı gallery of contemporary art in London; Voiture14 and Art-o-rama in Marseille; Stanley & Audrey Burton Gallery in Leeds; MuseumsQuartier in Vienna; and the NADA Miami art fair. He co-authored the art book Jeeper Creepers, published by Goswell Road in Paris. Boris Camaca is represented by NıCOLETTı Gallery in London.

Lenka Glisníková and Karolína Matušková are forming SHOTBY.US, an award-winning photography duo renowned for engaging visual storytelling. Their expressive image composites radiate playfulness and enthusiasm through bold colours, imaginative compositions and unconventional concepts. With a deep grounding in Fine Art, they explore photography as a creative playground, focusing our process on research and developing compelling narratives. Their signature style utilises humour and visual mystification to captivate audiences. Each image is a window into enchanting realms that underscore the transformative power of photography to amuse, fascinate and inspire.

Julie Béna was born in Paris, France, and currently lives and works between Prague and Paris. Heir to a childhood spent in a traveling theater and an adolescence as an actress, Julie Béna’s reflections are nourished and inspired by theater and literature as well as popular culture. Through a work that mixes performance, sculpture, cinema and installation, Julie Béna summons imagery and everyday concerns that she makes her own through stagings, transforming them into subjects of fictions that are sometimes poetic, romantic or epic. Béna’s selected solo exhibitions include for example PARODIE, Magasin CNAC, Grenoble, FR (2025–26); Fantasy, PLATO, Ostrava, CZ (2024); Béna’s work has been shown in international museums and galleries, including Centre Pompidou, Paris, FR, Biennale de Rennes, FR; National Gallery, Prague, CZ; MOCO, Montpellier, FR; Biennale de Coimbra, Coimbra, PT; and Chapter NY, New York, US. Béna has staged numerous performances, including at the Centre Pompidou, Paris, FR; ICA, London, UK; M Leuven, BE; Palais de Tokyo, Paris, FR; and Performa NY, US.

Dominika Goralska is a graduate of the Concept-object-installation studio at FU OSU, where she currently works as an external tutor in the Photography studio. Together with Barbora Mikudová, Hana Vorlová, and Hynek Chmelař, she co-curates the Provoz gallery in Ostrava, and since 2023 she has been involved in the LUFT audiovisual festival as a curator. In her artistic practice, she focuses on themes of identity, memory, and perception, which she explores in various media (sound, video, drawing, painting, object).

Tamara Spalajković is an artist and a researcher. She is currently studying for a PhD at the Faculty of Fine Arts, Brno University of Technology, where she is engaged in artistic research, creating docu-fictional videos that explore the impact of urbanization on multispecies coexistence. Together with Daniel Rajmon, she has the band Keiko Sei, and independently creates experimental electronic music as hiding season. Since autumn 2025, she works as an assistant at the Kabinet of audiovisual technologies at FaVU VUT.