Barbora Šlapetová, Lukáš Rittstein: Do Not Come Any Closer (CZ)

Between 1997 and 2008, Painter and photographer Barbora Šlapetová and sculptor Lukáš Rittstein undertook seven expeditions to Papua New Guinea. Their long search for the last natural peoples who have so far not been contacted by anyone from the outside world led them to the clans of the cannibalistic Korowai Batu. This book is not only an authentic testimony of these nomads at the moment of their “last” first contact, but also an extensive narration about the mountain-dwelling Yali Mek, to whose territory both artists returned more than once. Their expeditions are captured in Barbora Šlapetová's vivid photographs.

Introductory texts: Phyllis Lambert, Václav Havel, Leroy Chiao.
The book was published by Galerie Zdeněk Sklenář in collaboration with Euromedia Group Publishers on the occasion of Barbora Šlapetová's and Lukáš Rittstein’s joint show – Manop, The Final First – which was held at the DOX Centre for Contemporary Art in Prague from 6 March to 17 May 2009. The book was formally launched at Galerie Zdeněk Sklenář in Prague on 3 March 2009. It was preceded by the book Why the Night is Black (Kant 2004), which received the Magnesia Litera Award in the category of New Author of the Year in 2005.
Lukáš Rittstein’s monograph, Awareness of the Eternally Tender “Myself”, was also published in conjunction with the exhibition.