Marek Šilpoch (*1992) Light art in the context of history and contemporary visual culture is the topic visual artist Marek Šilpoch's postgraduate studies after working on light installations since 2015. Although he may not yet be known to the broader art public, he is well known in the Prague electronic music scene as the co-author of inventive light installations created under the banner of the three-member group XYZ (together with Oliver Torr and Dominik Jančík). The visually, socially, and creatively rich environment of the electronic music scene is the cradle of his interest in light art and installations. Thanks to XYZ, he has already had the opportunity to realise countless interactive and non-interactive light installations in various site-specific locations. Although XYZ appeared outwardly interchangable, the main division of roles was clear: Torr - music, Jančík - technology, Šilpoch - light. This is also suggested by the area of interest of each of these artists after the group broke up. In 2019 and 2020, Marek Šilpoch further developed his interest in light installations as curator of the Signal festival of digital and light art. His current post-graduate studies at the Time-Based Media Studio of the Faculty of Art and Design at Jan Evangelista Purkyně University in Ústí nad Labem is thus only the logical outcome of this journey; a journey that, as the author himself says, "started at a party". 

Marek Šilpoch's existing expressive register has recently been significantly expanded by his master's studies in Rony Plesl's glass studio at Prague's Academy of Art, Architecture, and Design. However, his handwriting and work with details are also influenced by his previous bachelor studies in graphic design and visual communication at the same school in Rostislav Vaněk's studio. The combination and interaction of light and glass has always fascinated Šilpoch. However, it was only thanks to his intimate experience with glass techniques that he was able to incorporate glass into his works. Until then, he had mainly used the principle of recycling various light elements in a humorous way, especially lamps, lightboxes, fluorescent lamps, and neon lights. Of course, he still uses the principle of recycling industrial elements, but the possibility of autonomous glass input into recycled industrial objects gives his work a new dimension. The resulting works, which are reminiscent of an extraterrestrial or unearthly beings, do not deny inspiration from the pioneers of light art. Most of all, Mark Šilpoch's style, both visually and materially, is close to that of the American Dan Flavin. At the same time, one can see in his work a fascination with the work of light art pioneer Thomas Wilfred or the installations of the biggest contemporary star in the field of light art, Olafur Eliasson. Visually, the influence of Bauhaus, especially László Moholy-Nagy or the German artist Heinz Mack from the ZERO group, is clear in his work. Among Czech artists, one of the greatest inspirations is the pioneer in the field of light and light kinetic sculptures Zdeněk Pešánek, who as early as the 1930s created admirable light installations. There are not many authors who are dedicated to this form of art, even after almost a hundred years.

The basic building blocks of Marek Šilpoch's contemporary expression are recycled industrial elements combined with various forms of glass and colour interventions. Glass, industrial elements and light create the Bladerunnerian aesthetic of his works. The sensitive combination of the individual elements allows Mark Šilpoch to work freely with the fragility of the context of the original objects, and through his interventions he places them in new contexts, influenced both by the original function of the object and by the intervention of the artist, which is sometimes closer to controlled chance and elsewhere the result of a clear and considered decision.