In 1991–1994, Václav Stratil created a significant, extensive black-and-white photo-performative cycle, The Monastic Patient, where he first used the services of a public photo studio. Here, he stylizes himself into states of specific mental and psychological mood, from ascetic, ecstatic, or contemplative. He uses disguises and props that reveal performativity and playfully lighten the theme. He followed it up with a number of other photographic cycles in the format of passport photographs, pictures of couples in which he stylizes himself into the likeness of his friends or in pairs, which, on the contrary, point out differences associated with age, cultural, family, and social background. Václav Stratil studied in 1970–1975 at the Department of Art Theory and Education of the Faculty of Philosophy of Palacký University in Olomouc, where he moved in unofficial circles and performed under the name HU HABA. In 1983, he moved to Prague, where he worked in civilian jobs. From 1998 to 2015, he headed the Drawing Studio, later renamed the Intermedia Studio at the Faculty of Fine Arts, Brno University of Technology. In 2010, he received the Artist Has a Prize award, awarded by young artists for their contribution to older artists. He is the winner of the Michal Ranný Prize in 2014.
