artnyni

CHIMERA

Posted on May 18, 2015 by Megan.Flottorp

09. 04. 2015- 24. 05. 2015

MeetFactory

Exhibiting artists: Marcel Berlanger (BE), Patrick Everaert (BE), Djos Janssens (BE), Eva L’Hoest (BE)

Curators: Anne-Françoise Lesuisse, Marc Wendelski

“Nature is only another Chimera.” – Julien Torma

(Djos Janssens, Foreign, 2015)

The term chimera has come to describe any mythical or fictional animal with parts taken from various animals, or to describe anything composed of very disparate parts, or perceived as wildly imaginative, implausible, or dazzling. The natural world (which features heavily in this show) being the greatest chimera of all, as Torma said. Appropriately, due to his elusive behaviour and the impossibility to check his life facts, it has been suggested that the Dadaist writer’s existence itself may have been entirely pataphysical, further extending our trains of unknowability.

The current show on display at MeetFactory seeks exactly to push these limits of what we, the viewer, are willing to accept. Continuing in their collaboration heavy program of the host location, CHIMERA presents the work of four artists from French-speaking Belgium, with two Belgian curators also coming together to execute the show. The choice to exhibit three established contemporary visual artists, alongside a talented young video artist (L’Hoest) speaks to the lasting enigma of the shows theme. All of these artists work on the borderline between two worlds, between the known and the unknown, blurring our benchmarks and making the spectator enter into the labyrinth of interpretation.

Jassens’ site-specific installation, Foreign, incorporates visual communication and formal concerns, playing with meaning to create an immersive and unexpected environment in the gallery space.

(Marcel Berlanger, Jalout, 2015)

Berlanger’s status as one of the most revered painters in Belgium is confirmed by his captivating large-scale works that have been executed on fiberglass. Thematically related, the presented works of both Everaret and L’Hoest creatively assemble and disassemble visual benchmarks, creating a disconcerting mood, which demands the suspension of immediate judgement.

L’Hoest’s work, in particular, displays a tremendous amount of patience. One of the view qualities that seems to endure as a distinct indicator of a true artist. The subtlety of the narration and affects she presents in her chosen visual material is enchanting, leaving the viewer helpless but to be brought in by their intrigue.

(Eva L’Hoest, Les Captives, 2013)

As a whole, these artists share an appreciation for the re-contextualization of the shared repository of images and words that we take for granted every day. Using these as a starting point, they distort and transform them, presenting something surprising, if not a bit unsettling. Acting as editors (in the cinematographic sense) of space and the visible and troublemakers in the field of perception and the sense deriving from it, they draw a veil over the evident and the abstruse, to better explore the limits of certitude, the poetry of discrepancy and the unknown hypothesis.

Returning to the notion of nature as chimera, it is proving to be an increasingly apt metaphor for our material existence. From terminology in applied mathematics to characterizing nonlinear phenomena, the chimera is with us everywhere, also reminding us of the limits of our perception. Exploring limits is exactly what all the artists presented in this show are doing. Explicitly through the visual and our limits of consciousness, which, after all, dictates the only possible reading of the unconscious realms we inhabit.

Absolute Pitch / Absolutní sluch

Posted on May 12, 2015 by Megan.Flottorp

07. 05. 2015- 28. 05. 2015

Školská 28 Gallery

Exhibiting artist: Guy Goldstein

Curator: Karina Kottová

This solo exhibiting, designed for Školská 28 Gallery, presents a collection of works by Isreali artist Guy Goldstein. Currently living and working between Tel-Aviv and New York, Goldstein is an artist as well as a musician. The two disciplines come together for this project, as he realizes a visual based project to which sound in central. His work explores the hidden tension that exists between physicality and formlessness, sound being the primary element through which he explores this relationship.

The works presented here are complex in that they highlight the juxtaposition between hearing and vision, while asking the viewer to engage with both simultaneously. In the accompany exhibition text, curator Karina Kottová quotes communications technologies expert and author Jonathan Sterne:

Hearing is spherical, vision is directed; hearing immerses its subject, vision offers a perspective; sound comes to us, but vision travels to its object; hearing is concerned with interiors, vision is concerned with surfaces; hearing involves physical contact with the outside world, vision requires distance from it…

This meditation reminds us of the constantly shifting boundaries that we must account for in processing the phenomena around us. Goldstein’s work demonstrates a heightened sensitivity to how these events are organized. The subtlety of his abstractions, a series of drawings titled Partitura for Blue Noise (2013), is compelling and invites more than a superficial viewing. It is clear that Goldstein’s interdisciplinary practice results in a more sophisticated product that opens itself up to further elaboration by means sound and a deeper interaction with the space in which it is presented.

The audiovisual component of the exhibition is the product of a transcription process involving software which allows for the creation of visual images of sound waves. The result is a project that attempts to transform and re-imagine the very material and conditions that we take for granted in terms of how we see and hear things. These topics open themselves to a vast range of intellectual discussions, which Goldstein and his work appear ready to address. From challenging the visual bias in theories of modernity to exploring the limitations of static descriptions of nature, in it’s exploration of the relationship between sound and image, this exhibition raises intriguing philosophical concerns that often pass by without notice.

TELEPATHY OR ESPERANTO?

Posted on May 7, 2015 by Megan.Flottorp

03. 04. 2015- 10. 05. 2015

FUTURA

Exhibiting artists: Aleš Čermák (CZ), Barbora Kleinhamplová (CZ), Deanna Havas (USA), Irina Lotarevich (USA), Martin Kohout (CZ/DE), Micah Hesse (USA), Peter Friel (USA), Puppies Puppies (USA), PWR Studio (Rasmus Svensson & Hanna Nilsson) (D/SWE), Richard Nikl (CZ), Sara Magenheimer (USA), Vojtěch Fröhlich (CZ)

Curator: Jan Brož

Text: Jan Zálešák

Described by artist turned curator Jan Brož as a collection of his “favourite things,” Telepathy or Esperanto, currently on at Futura, ultimately runs a lot deeper than its playful exterior. Welcoming visitors to the exhibition, Vojtěch Fröhlich’s piece Postmix is a deconstructed soda pop machine. This lively installation weaves its way through the entirety of the exhibition, the transparent tubes bouncing and jostling as they are infused with fizzy liquid (available to guests at intervals throughout the show). Instant gratification, throwaway culture, this piece speaks to a variety of societal issues that are picked up to greater degrees throughout the show.

The subtle, yet constant preoccupations of this exhibition are the implications of globalization, greed, and their facilitation by our computer controlled society. As Jan Zálešák outlines in his accompanying text, what caused the financial crisis of such magnitude in 2008 was not simply the greed of bankers and the speculative character of modern markets, in which portfolio managers behave as though they were playing poker. It was also the super-fast computers, on whose calculating capacity the financial world now stands and falls.

Computers controlled by programs, the first versions of which (programs controlling mechanical looms) appeared at the end of the 19th century, i.e. at the same time as Zamenhof was designing his universal language and Meyers was connecting telepathy with the deep unconscious. Programs and programming languages entering instructions on the Man–machine interface were invented at the same time as Esperanto and telepathy, and though at first sight their abstractness would seem to set them apart, in fact they have a lot in common.

Like Esperanto, programming languages seem free of any a priori ideological content. From the moment it was created Esperanto had to come to terms with the competition represented by existing languages, which in the 19th century formed the cement binding together the nation states being constructed and helping to maintain colonial order. Programming languages have no such competition. They can be filled with any content, adapted to suit any purpose. These became the “genuine Esperanto”, and bear the brunt of the responsibility for the fact that we live in a globalized world, even though for most of us the operations of these programming languages are as mysterious as paranormal phenomena.

With the development of the internet and the capacity of computer networks approaching the dystopian vision of popular science fiction, one wonders at what point people will sit up and start worrying. And yet- as Zálešák points out, everyone is calm. Connected to social networks and microblogs they work on their profiles, on their virtual personas, whose symbolic capital, with a little luck, they dispose of even in the real world.

Video by New York based artist Micha Hesse addresses this issue directly, whereas the paper installations by Peter Friel and the material based works by Irina Lotarevich explore the theme more subtlety. Ultimately, it seems to me that Telepathy or Esperanto is an exhibition that wishes to convey a message. Despite the playful element, it is in fact a lot more instructive than many contemporary art exhibitions. Is this a message viewers are eager/ willing to process? It is hard to say. Intrinsic to message or narratively structured shows is an element of poignancy that can be problematic. There is always a risk that the actual contents of the message will be unintelligible, or worse, banal. In this case, if the viewer is able to overcome the initial uncanniness they encounter, they will understand that it directly corresponds to what is concealed in the heart of this exhibition, namely excess. Excess and desire and a need for exterior validation. The exhibition ultimately asks the viewer to engage in a process of turning in, eventually asking themselves how this need for confirmation, in many ways, dictates their lives.

Material

Posted on May 6, 2015 by Megan.Flottorp

25. 04. 2015- 27. 06. 2015

Johann König Gallery (Dessauerstrasse space)

Exhibiting artists: David Adamo, Carl Andre, Olivia Berckemeyer, Vajiko Chachkhiani, Tony Cragg, Paul Czerlitzki, Michel Francois, Isa Genzken, Tue Greenfort, Jeppe Hein, Nathan Hylden, Sergej Jensen, Alicja Kwade, Bernd Lohaus, Kris Martin, Michaela Meise, Amalia Pica, George Rickey, Michael Sailstorfer, Tatiana Trouve, Oscar Tuazon, Daniel Turner, Jorinde Voigt, David Zink Yi

The current show at Johann König‘s Dessauerstrasse space is an impressive selection of works which are all material-driven. No material has been left behind for this one, and from Isa Genzken’s concrete windows to Alicja Kwade’s marble blocks, everything is included: steel, brass, gold, rubber, lead.

Currently commanding an exceptional amount of interest in the art world, polish artist Alicja Kwade‘s contribution to the show doesn’t disappoint. She presents a stunning marble installation which serves as the centrepiece for the main room. Bringing to mind images of melting icebergs that are breaking apart before our eyes, her work on the aesthetics of materiality once again succeeds in delivering a touch of the sublime.

That being said, the majority of the works in the show hold a potential for captivating the viewer. Michaela Meise’s wooden Liegende series, Oscar Tuazon’s safety glass, and Tatiana Trouve’s bronze sculpture, all oscillate between the the familiar and the unfamiliar. In general, the show puts the viewer in a situation where they are sensitive to themselves encountering the piece. It is very physical, making you aware of your own presence.

The Two-Headed Biographer and the Museum of Notions

Posted on April 30, 2015 by Megan.Flottorp

7. 04. 2015 – 27. 05. 2015

Prádelna Bohnice

Exhibiting artist: Eva Koťátková

The exhibition currently being presented at Prádelna Bohnice illustrates Czech artist, Eva Koťátková‘s sensitivity to the peculiarly poor fit between the world of ideas, theories, rules and codes, and the people who have to live with them.

Many of the installations here are Koťátková’s own realization of drawings, plans, or even diary entries from psychiatric patients, who were unable to access the resources to bring their ideas to life. Elaborate sketches of an umbrella facilitated flying machine, and notebooks full of theoretical attempts to overcome the laws of gravity (which the artist uncovered in the archival material of the psychiatric facility), are testaments to the desire for escape. A desire well known to those who are forced into marginalized positions by a society unable to come to terms with their differences.

The artist physically constructs these ideas, creating layers of images and objects, suggestive of cages, walls, blindness, and secrecy, she creates a dense psychological topography related to confinement and the ingenious ways these patients overcame it. Despite the, at time, absurd consequences of their pursuits, there is a sincerity about their commitment to break free that is deeply affecting.

One particularly stirring piece tells the story of a young man who had a compulsion for dismantling and re-arranging the pages, images, and texts of books and magazines. Although there seemed to be a method to his process, no one else was ever able to fully de-code or appreciate it, and because his rituals generally left the books, or other printed materials, unusable for others, he was was allowed the reward of scissors only as a reward for exceptionally good behaviour. And much to his disheartenment, often had to have them promptly taken away.

What all of these stories and installations show us- is the intense dedication to a deep and enduring belief in some truth or system that the individual was trying to articulate, share, and therefore be understood. There is a nobility inherent in the commitment to made some sort of sense, attempting to organize a ritual procedure for this peculiar circus or which we find ourselves apart of.

The artist’s compassionate envisioning of these stories and the people’s whose lives were defined by them, demonstrates an exceptional degree of empathy and a unique capacity for putting yourself in someone else’s shoes.

The location of the exhibition, in a psychiatric hospital, enhances the potential for the viewer to identify with the works. The artist has crafted a very specific atmospheric mood in this show and it facilitates a more sincere interaction. As always, a remarkable characteristic of her work is its staging of the relationship between human beings, ideas and objects, often in quite elaborate psycho-physical dramas.

B. H. G.

Posted on April 27, 2015 by Megan.Flottorp

24. 4. 2015- 30. 5. 2015

Galerie UM

Exhibiting artists: David Krňanský, Martin Lukáč, Martin Nytra, Julius Reichel, Štěpán Marko

“I’m sure I’m going to look in the mirror and see nothing. People are always calling me a mirror and if a mirror looks into a mirror, what is there to see?”

– Andy Warhol

The Black Hole Generation (B. H. G.) group exhibition, on until May 30th at Galerie UM, features the work of five young Czech and Slovak artists. Covering the walls with a mosaic of reprints of their recent works, the space was anchored around a large wooden plank table overflowing with shelled peanuts. Reflecting the post-internet aesthetic expressed through much of their work, the exhibit (curated by the artists themselves) has an accompanying catalogue containing fragments from their discussions surrounding the planning of the exhibition, and an assortment of quotations (above cited) by the likes of Andy Warhol, among others.

Tackling themes of originality and authenticity, the show raises questions regarding the presence of creativity and innovation in contemporary culture. Harkening back to Warhol, who was constantly reproducing his own images (with slight variations), as well as those of others, this exhibition leaves the decision as to the validity of this method to the viewer. In relation to the notion of holding up a mirror to the world, the works presented here ask the audience to consider whether that is enough. There is an element of obsession at play. What are the limitations of the idea of image and truth in life? As Warhol said time and time again, maybe appearances and surfaces are the only reality.

ART BRUT LIVE

Posted on April 19, 2015 by Megan.Flottorp

27. 3. – 17. 8. 2015

DOX Centre for Contemporary Art

From the abcd collection of Bruno Decharme

Curators: Ivana Brádková, Leoš Válka, Terezie Zemánková

“I don’t have a disorder. I created order.” – Zdeněk Košek

The current exhibition in the main gallery at DOX, ART BRUT LIVE, includes more than 300 predominantly contemporary works of art brut from the abcd collection that French collector Bruno Decharme. It is a collection he has been putting together for more than 30 years and its scope and diversity is impressive.

Art brut, a term coined by French artist Jean Dubuffet, generally refers to art created outside the boundaries of the established cultural scene. In particular, the label also refers to creations by psychiatric hospital patients and children, who have had little or no contact with the mainstream art world or art institutions. It is a form of artistic expression that is inextricably tied to the life of its creators, for whom art is a way of grappling with their existence. Often, Art Brut explores unconventional ideas, bring to life extreme mental states or intricate fantasy worlds. As demonstrated by the opening quotation from Art Brut creator Zdeněk Košek, a man who believed that nothing was unworthy subject of artistic contemplation and that he played a defining role in how the world is run, everything has meaning. In creating an order from the chaos, which was an inescapable condition of their lives, many creators felt they were able to discover the virtue beneath it.

Hans-Jörg Georgi explains that, through his paper plane sculptures, “[he] wanted to show the world a little but of goodness.” “I’ll take you with me,” he promises. Implicit in many of these art works is the notion of entrapment and the desire to escape. Some creators of art brut try to symbolically conquer space, inhabiting it with utopian designs and even converting their own living spaces. Through these transformations, they are able to endow a previously insignificant thing or place with new meaning. In many cases, it is an attempt to come to traumatic experiences or, conversely, to eternalize moments of pleasure. They create objects with magical or healing properties, action paintings and even projects that resemble scientific experiments, all inviting the viewing into their private mental space.

These artists fearlessly expose their inner turmoil, allowing access to intimate letters, diaries, and records, through which they communicate with themselves and their surroundings, but also with things beyond this world. In this sense, Art Brut is never art for art’s sake – it is a path towards fulfilling a higher calling.

The accompanying exhibition to ART BRUT LIVE presents documentary images and portraits by Swiss photographer Mario Del Curto, who photographs Art Brut artists in their homes and working spaces. Del Curto, no doubt had a wonderful sensibility for appreciating the distinct qualities of Art Brut. He explains that, “for many Art Brut creators, the gates of the subconscious are wider open, so they call into doubt our convictions, our comfortable certainties.”

As the image of German artist Harald Bender demonstrates, in creating and surrounding himself with countless charts and diagrams, he was trying to create systems and order. He explained that he wanted to find a formula that would be used to destroy the material world and thus finally achieve happiness. His life was unfortunately taken by cancer, which he refused treatment for, believing he could overcome the disease with will power.

Regardless of how we individually relate to the creations of Art Brut artists, it forces us to confront important, albeit uncomfortable questions about our relations to the world around us. Art Brut forces us to accept uncertainty, boldly proclaiming that there is no authorized truth, no definiteness, only attempts at escaping nothing.

SUPERIMPOSITIONS: Intervence 3

Posted on April 17, 2015 by Megan.Flottorp

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.

Stanislav Kolíbal: Drawing by Drawing

Posted on April 15, 2015 by Megan.Flottorp

20.02.2015- 03.05.2015

The National Gallery- Trade Fair Palace

Curators: Adam Budak and Martin Dostál

Born in 1925, Stanislav Kolíbal has been one of the most prominent figures of Czech and European art. The artist’s extensive exhibition called Drawing by Drawing, currently on show at the National Gallery’s Veletržní Palace , features Kolíbal’s drawing cycles that he has been creating from 1968 to the present. Kolíbal regards drawing as capable of both generating and demonstrating a shift in concept or a major turning point in the artist’s creative output, presenting – in concentrated form – his approach to a particular theme and its development.

This current exhibition is essentially an investigation in to the process based nature of creative work. Through looking at a series of drawing cycles, the viewer is able to interact in a more direct fashion with the evolutionary development of an artists work. Although, as stand alone pieces without context, the works might not mean much, being able to present them all in a narrative fashion highlights one of the most fundamental advantages of an expansive gallery space. These more traditional institutions can be used to tell a story and provide insight into the artists work/creative process in general that would not be possible in a more limited space.

The particular exhibition also examines the possibility of rendering drawings in the third dimension. The progression of the cycles over the course of this narrative show also opens a theoretical discussion on the nature of Kolíbal’s art in the context of the international art movement, and to seek both concordances and differences with regard to the established art-historical context. This endeavour will no doubt be further enhanced by the collection of the artist’s small-sized sketches, preliminary studies, drawing concepts and initial ideas (published for the first time) that almost intimately elucidate Kolíbal’s creative process.

Non-Spaces / SPACESOULS

Posted on April 5, 2015 by Megan.Flottorp

02. 04. 2015 – 14. 05. 2015

Artěl concept store

Exhibiting artist: Himanshu Choudhary

Public space is the city. – Oriol Bohigas

The current exhibition at Artěl concept store includes a selection of photographs from Choudhary’s thesis entitled “Non-Spaces.” In the series, Choudary, who graduated with a master’s degree in visual arts from the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague, explores connections between architecture and photography. The images capture seemingly mundane public spaces- train stations and waiting rooms around the Czech Republic.

Yet, as the quote from Spanish architect Oriol Bohigas reminds us, these spaces cannot be dismissed as merely banal areas undeserving of attention. Public space, or areas and places that are open and accessible to all citizens, regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, age or socioeconomic level, do essentially constitute the essence of a city or community. They are a place where anyone can come, and further, because there is no criteria for entrance (no fee, no dress code, no script), most events are spontaneous rather than pre-planned. There are no clear distinctions between observers and observed; all present are simultaneously on stage and a part of the audience.

Choudhary explains that, “For the images in SPACESOULS, I was interested in identifying and expressing the unique character of shared public spaces, in contrast to that of the individuals who occupy them every day. In particular, I want to portray the physical presence of these ‘non-places’ and comment visually on the varied – and important – roles they play in our daily life.” This commentary reminds us that these public spaces, and the humans which occupy them, inevitably interact and affect one another.

By emphasizing the interactive dynamic of these places, the photographs speak to the way in which public spaces and public architecture influence our daily lives. You can put down a book, or avoid listening to a certain type of music, but you cannot avoid seeing the apartment block opposite your house. On the other hand, they also draw attention to the often neglected complexity of design and the fact that to see art and engineering as unrelated, is necessarily to miss out on seeing the world in its full capacity.