Erik Ždiľa (1996) was born in Bardejov. After graduating from the School of Applied Arts in Košice, he continued his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava, earning a bachelor’s degree in Intermedia from the Ateliér VVV under Martin Piaček and Dávid Koronczi. He then spent two years studying music theory at the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava before returning to the Academy of Fine Arts and Design to complete his master’s degree in Intermedia. After his first year of the master’s program, he moved to Prague, where he is currently studying at the Academy of Fine Arts in the Intermedia 2 Studio under Dušan Záhoranský and Paula Sceranková. In addition to visual art, Ždiľa is also active in music – he plays drums in the projects Krstní otcovia, Alten Kompoten, Krtko Bain, and Digästorcie, with which he performs and releases new music.

Hymn for Six Beer Bottles and a Compressor is the artist’s personal reflection and critique of social and cultural phenomena, traditions, and stereotypes in Slovakia. It fuses the sublime with the profane, the manual labour of the worker with the detachment of automation. The work contemplates what unites and divides society, seeking the boundaries between the useful and the destructive. It reflects a polarized and mutually frustrated society, oscillating between pride in its identity and the confrontation with its darker sides.

For Ždiľa, the anthem symbolizes pride, unity, and national identity. Through the way he engages with it, he points to broader social contexts: the motif of beer crates represents layers of everyday life – leisure and relaxation, but also alcoholism and self-destructive behaviour as symptoms of deep discontent expressed in unfortunate ways. At the same time, the work critiques tendencies that confuse national pride with a sense of superiority. The anthem, as a symbol, becomes subject to appropriation and misuse instead of remaining a shared cultural possession. In this way, it turns into a tool that contributes to the erosion of democratic values and tolerance.

The work neither parodies nor mocks; rather, it calls for awareness of the risks and consequences associated with the use of national symbols. It operates through ambivalence, contrast, and tension. With utopian optimism, it manifests the possibility of cohesion and mutuality – despite ongoing dissonance.

The anthem thus becomes both object and sound – and at the same time a hyperobject: cultural, political, and above all, ambiguous. It stands as a symbol of unity enshrined in law, shaping identity, influencing public discourse, and underscoring the deep social wounds, injustices, and divisions that persist.

All I’m Missing Is Love
video installation, 1 min, 2018

In All I’m Missing Is Love, Ždiľa playfully intertwines sound and its cultural references with a touch of humour. The short work is accompanied by a single sentence – a biblical quote: “If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.” Ždiľa’s work, over the past several years, has been defined by a unique artistic language that navigates – with rare and confident balance – the space between visual art and sound.