Filip Ovádek, fka Yasomfilip is a contemporary artist and designer from Trenčín, Slovakia. His multidisciplinary work includes painting murals, textile design, and multimedia projects, exploring street culture, social commentary,and the artificiality of modern life. He is also the founder and organizer of FEST ART, an annual street art festival in Trenčín, which brings together local and international artists to transform public spaces into vibrant urban artworks.

Everything is Temporary
Hi, my name is Filip, and I have been living here in Trenčín for the last five years, or six. I was born here actually, but then I moved to Germany for some time. As I mentioned, as I said, I am a street artist. I started with a graffiti writer, and when I studied the graphic design, so now I am merging between these styles. And the last couple of years I am working as the art director of the festival festival, which is happening every year here in Trenčín. There were two years in other cities in Slovakia. Yes, I think I am an artist and designer.

Every year we have a theme of the Fest Art festival. It's usually not just a freestyle, we are thinking about the concept also about my paintings and also about the festival paintings. One year we made this painting with my colleague Peter in the park on a garage project, which is a project for the festival in Trenčín 2026. And we painted the garage and we mentioned there, not on the first time, but we mentioned the problem with climate change and with all the stuff around how fragile the world is. Well, it’s our planet, and we have to take care of it.
 

It’s funny, because the garage then disappears and shows up again before the festival every year. So when you go there, maybe it will still be there — maybe not. But that’s the point: it’s temporary, like everything around us.
 

And yes, there is also a big problem with spray paints and the aerosol inside them, which is not really environmentally friendly. There’s also the issue of trash — what to do with empty cans, and how to dispose of them properly.
 

We try to find alternatives. There are options like acrylic spray paints, and also acrylic paint that you can apply with a brush or a roller. So we try to combine different materials, and not rely only on spray paint, because as I said, it creates a lot of waste: you can use one can for only five minutes, and then you have to deal with how to get rid of it.

So we try to make the process as environmentally friendly as possible.
 

The main idea of the festival is to take places that look bad and make them look good — to change the vibe of the area. It’s never only about one wall; it’s always about the wider environment around it.

Every year we invite different artists. We build a team and develop the overall concept for the festival, and then we see how each artist interprets it in their own way. It’s the same general idea, but every artist responds differently — and that’s what makes it interesting.
 

We try to make it colorful, but each year we also set a specific color palette. We want to avoid making it look like a circus — overly chaotic and crazy colorful — but we also don’t want it to feel boring. So finding that balance is the main idea behind the festival.
 

This year will be the 8th or 9th edition of the festival. Over this time, we have invited around 60 or 70 artists from the Czech Republic, Switzerland, Hungary, and Slovakia. This year we’re going to make it bigger, of course, because of the European Capital of Culture. We will have artists from Japan and Australia, which is really exciting.
 

And the street gallery is actually the first street gallery in Slovakia. But it’s interesting: by the time you hear about it, it may already be repainted — or maybe it’s still there. That’s a reminder that everything is temporary. In my opinion, street art globally is like a living organism: the gallery itself is temporary too.
 

It can always be repainted for another artwork — which might not even be street art anymore. So maybe it’s still here, maybe not. You will see.