Petrograms

Peter Roller has been dedicated to his participative and altruistic project Petrograms for more than twenty years now. At the beginning, there was a little stone, which the sculptor marked, painted by signs, and then gave to somebody. Around years 2010/2011, he started distributing the painted stones by spreading them around Bratislava and through his friends – “messengers” also around the world.

For the current purpose, he covered the found stones, mostly boulders and pebblestones, by original patterns designed specifically for SNG. They are peculiar, mysterious signs reminiscent of black-and-white keyboard or musical notes. Some of the stones, marked by red colour, are more precious; and there are less of them. For SNG, the author has used exclusively stones from the Danube, since – in the words of geologist Václav Cílek – the Danube is the greatest Bratislava artwork…

Part of these stones (the collection displayed in the interior) will join the gallery collection, some pieces are intended for visitors. Gradually throughout the duration of the exhibition, the author will place them outside of the gallery premises. Those, who will find their (lucky) stone, can take it home with them. Petrograms are stones with sedimented memory and thus, for each finder they can represent not only a special artwork, but can also become a talisman with a riddle, or a souvenir encompassing a reference to the place where they found it.

Donated by Tatra banka to SNG Collections

lab.SNG ● Roller and Lehocká for National Gallery, web SNG