1. 4. 2015- 31. 5. 2015
Colloredo-Mansfeld Palace
Exhibiting artists: Anežka Hošková, Jakub Hošek, Nik Timková
Curator: Monika Doležalová
Art is a chimeric and permanent intervention in the mystery of permanent creation. – Paul Păun
The third “intervention” to take place in Colloredo-Mansfeld Palace, presents works by three artists, the siblings Jakub Hošek and Anežka Hošková, and a young artist from Slovakia, Nik Timková. The notion of art intervention, an interaction with a previously existing artwork, audience, venue/space or situation, is the ideal after-life for the formerly occupied Colloredo-Mansfeld Palace. A stunning Baroque structure, brought further alive by Rococo embellishment, the building is itself a work of art. The classical architecture provides the perfect arena in which to play out emerging dynamics and trends in contemporary art. In relation to the pursuit of Paul Paun, Romanian and Israeli avant-garde poet and visual artist, the pieces presented in this exhibition, and the notion of art intervention in general, pursue the goal of making poetry and art a living experience.
Although intervention by its very nature carries an implication of subversion, it is now accepted as a legitimate form of art and is often carried out with the endorsement of those in positions of authority over the artwork, audience or venue/space to be intervened in. By definition it is a challenge, or at the very least a comment, related to the earlier work or the theme of that work, or to the expectations of a particular audience.
The three artists features in this exhibition often work together and have combined their art with the initiation of musical and artistic activities carried out under the heading A.M.180. Their output has a distinct graphic, and in the cases of Jakub and Anežka, indeed calligraphic character, oscillating between the media of painting, graphic design, and installation.
They have begun to project mechanisms and simple imagination known from the computer environment and the web, as can be seen in Intervention 3 of Superimpositions at the Colloredo-Mansfeld Palace where they have prepared a series of disparate objects presenting the current stage of artistic development of each of them. At the same time they have not lost anything from their playfulness and irony, which make them different from the ubiquitous contemplative, serious and sophisticated approach to art.
For Superimpositions Anežka has created two majestic objects with the structure of a double cross with massive gold-colored symbols, which feature in the exhibition on their own. One bears the emblem of Wicca, the goddess of the modern religion (successor to the pagan cults) – the ornament of a moon with crescents of the new moon and the old moon adjacent to both sides; the other is a combination of the horizontal eight (infinity) and a patriarchal cross.
Following a post-internet aesthetic, the work brings together powerful mythic images of distant yet profound significance and physically imposing sculptural elements. Being forced to confront these pieces in the re-contextualized environment of Colloredo-Mansfeld Palace, offers a potent reminder of our desire to contextualize art in order to make it less threatening.
Paul Păun was once referred to as “the most chaotic of the [Romanian surrealist] group [in the fight against] our daily logic” and it appears to me that these three are engaged in the same conflict.
artnyni 