HIDDEN Podcast – Episode 52: Ján Bátorek on Childhood Territories, Subcultures, and the Painting.

In this episode, we meet Slovak painter Ján Bátorek, whose work grows out of childhood territories, subcultures, and the overlooked architecture of everyday life. We talk about growing up in Čadca, the hidden spaces children claimed around panelák housing estates, and how these early experiences formed the emotional vocabulary of his painting.Bátorek shares how anime, emo aesthetics and early subcultures shaped his sense of identity, and how ordinary objects – railings, dumpsters, stairwells, concrete passages – became symbolic anchors in his visual language.This conversation dives into memory, transformation, escapism, and the raw realism that defines his work.Topics discussed:• Childhood landscapes and panelák environments• Early subcultures and identity formation• Escapism and emotional memory• Developing a raw visual language of painting• Working with everyday objects as symbols• The evolution of his style and artistic motivationAbout the artist:Ján Bátorek (born 1989, Čadca, Slovakia) is a painter based in Prague. His work blends raw realism, nostalgia, and personal mythology, built from the ordinary yet emotionally loaded environments of his childhood.This episode is in Czech.