In 2009 Pavel Forman, a visual artist from the Czech Republic, had an exposition in the Caesar Artgallery in Olomouc, where he presented the project "No Return", introducing his grandfather Karel Forman, who as an outsider artist completely decorated the interior of his apartment with all kinds of collages.

What follows is the introduction Pavel Forman wrote for the folder made in context of the exposition

I have a grandfather called Karel. Over the past twenty years he has been decorating and "artistically" converting his and my grandma’s apartment with the help of stickers and tapes, family photos, leaflets, markers and decorative foils. A jewel of outsider art has come into being, which has become a jewel of its kind in Central- European context with all its sincerety and elaboration.

Karel Forman was born on November 17, 1929. He is the father of two children. He worked as a truck driver most of his life. He really wasn’t an example of an impeccable husband and father. His liking for a game of cards and alcohol didn’t add up to the family happiness. As a young man he used to do box, which perfectly suited his cruel nature and was many times reflected in tackling his personal troubles.

Shortly after his 40th birthday, he went to the garage to see his companions with a bottle and a deck of cards for the last time. Since then, he has immured himself in the world of the Rodokaps paperback books, (he has all issues that have been published in his mother tongue) and gardening. And what is most important for me: He got down to decorating the whole apartment... Over the past twenty years, he has been working on a unique and unrepeatable masterpiece.

I, his grandson, have been able to watch him work from the very beginning. It began with one postcard in the bathroom, with a family photograph somehow worked into it. After that it started to grow, inch by inch, year by year, all over the flat. My granddad didn’t let his wife discourage him by extensive sabotage activities and has persisted in his work for two long decades. From newspaper cut- outs, chocolate and candy wrappers, beer mats and family pictures, a monumental ornate temple has evolved and it is soon to be finished. The granddad has started to decorate his grave ...

One visual reality becomes another, a new one...I, next family member in a line, perceive the walls and details of that apartment in a completely different context... in the one I grew up in. And I still look for new contexts. For myself, for the viewers..both in ‚my‘ environment and in a geopolitically different one.

I convert the fragments of my grandfather’s flat through digital print and painting, through the methods that are close to me. The reality captured by cameras in other people’s hands was turned into a new one seen on the walls of my grandfather’s flat and I will consequently work it into a new level... What comes into being is the "visual family saga" which could be seen in Latin-American soap operas or One Hundred Years of Solitude by Márquez.

added to OEE texts april 2014