Press Reports
		Josef Sudek and Družstevní práce film - still - life Václav Stratil - Pairs Michaela Thelenová - Landscapes Michal Kalhous - Kladky J P S - Jano Pavlík Snina Jaroslav Rössler – Reflections Antonín Kratochvíl – USSA Barbora Pøidalová – Mushroom-pickers Zoran Kovaèeviè – Exit Jindøich Pøibík – On God, Death and so on Josef Sudek – Tanec/ The Dance Peter Župník – Lights Jaroslav Rössler – Experiments of 50´– 70´ Alexandr Hackenschmied – Prague / Paris / New York Jan Raba – In a Different Time Zuzana Knìzeková, Soòa Sadloòová a Jana Znášiková – „SVETLOFÍLIA" Antonín Horák – Photographer of the town of Zlín Jaroslav Rössler – Early Abstractions Lukáš Jasanský a Martin Polák – „Ignace" Gérald Assouline – On the baltic borderlands Dragan Dragin – „Planet of Shepherd” Jindøich Vávra – Photograms
		Press information Prague, 22. 3. 2006 Josef Sudek and Družstevní práce 24.3. – 23. 4. 2006 The opening of the exhibition on Thursday, March 23 at 6 pm Introduction by Vojtěch Lahoda In 1978 the Institute of Art History at the Czech Academy of Sciences received a gift of more than 13,000 negatives reflecting the documentary and commercial work, including advertising work, of the famous Czech photographer Josef Sudek. The collection also included more than 300 negatives created for dp (Družstevní práci – Cooperative Work). In the 1920s and ’30s. This cooperative publishing house played an important role in introducing functionalist design into Czechoslovak homes through the Krásná jizba shops. The majority of the objects depicted in the photographs were designed by leading Czech designers such as Ladislav Sutnar and Bohumil Južnič. The images selected for the exhibit from the Institute of Art History’s collection of negatives made by Sudek for dp – new copies of which were produced by Vlado Bohdan – show the photographer’s inventive approach to photographing the requested functional objects, from fine cut glassware to metal ashtrays, cigarette display racks and chinaware. Several of Sudek’s originals corresponding to the negatives from the Institute of Art History can be found in the collection of the Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague. A collection of 60 new copies of Sudek’s photographs for Družstevní práce was exhibited from 1 August to 19 October 2003 at the Alvar Aalto Museum in Jyväskylä in Finland under the title Josef Sudek: Flash of Design. Commercial Photography for Družstevní práce on the occasion of the opening of the ninth international Alvar Aalto symposium. The same collection was exhibited at the Czech Centre in Berlin during the 2004 Designmai festival and at the Czech Centre in Munich in early 2005. In 1928 Josef Sudek acquired a wooden photographic studio from photographer Laube in Prague’s Lesser Town at Újezd 434/32, where he worked for the rest of his life. That same year he became a member of Družstevní práce, remaining the cooperative’s in-house photographer until 1936. In 1928 Družstevní práce published Sudek’s portfolio Svatý Vít, in which he reproduced 15 original photographs with texts by the poet and writer Jaroslav Durych. In 1932 Sudek orgnised an exhibition in Družstevní práce’s Krásná jizba. The following year, Družstevní práce published his Kalendář 1933, a collection of 27 photographs. dp also presented Sudek’s collection of 12 postcards Vánoce 1933 in its “Česká galerie” series. The Družstevní práce publishing house and book club was founded in Prague in 1922. Within a decade, the cooperative grew from a membership of 300 to 11,000 members. Its activities consisted of the publishing of books within series, with an emphasis on the quality of publications, including many translations, as well as a focus on a high level of modern typographic design. With time, Družstevní práce added the production and sale of home furnishings, carpets, textiles, glass, porcelain, brooms, bowls, ashtrays, ceramics and other home accessories. For this purpose, in 1927 Družstevní práce founded a network of outlets under the name Krásná jizba. Its purpose was, to quote an advertisement published in Panorama magazine in 1927, to “sell applied art, decorative art, graphic art, and home accessories”. In 1929 Ladislav Sutnar became the art director of Krásná jizba, engaging in a pronouncedly more modern programme rejecting any kind of decoration, focusing instead on constructivist stereometry and symmetry with an emphasis on the product’s functionality. Although it had no workshops of its own, Krásná jizba received exclusive rights for the production and sale of certain products. It commissioned the products from established companies that met the aesthetic standards of modern functional art and home design, which over time moved towards a more functionalistic aesthetic. The shops sold table glass by Ludmila Smrčková, Alois Metelák and Ladislav Sutnar, porcelain sets by Ladislav Sutnar, metal table accessories by Bohumil Južnič and Ladislav Sutnar, textiles by Antonín Kybal, and bookcases by Jan Vaňek and Jan E. Koula. In addition to commissions ordered from designers through a number of companies (Goldberg, Bor glassworks; Kavalier, Sázava; Rückl, Nižbor; the Lobmeyr porcelain factory in Kamenický Šenov, Epiag in Loket; Brno’s Spojené UP factory, for whom Adolf Loos worked for some time; Franta Anýž, lighting etc.), the shops sold quality industrial products reflecting Sutnar’s functionalistic vision: Inwald lamps, metal tube furniture by Thonet-Mundus, designs by Marcel Breuer, Bauhaus home accessories etc. The first Krásná jizba outlet was in Prague’s Myslíkova street; from 1929 at U Prašné brány 9. When Sudek ended his work for dp in the year 1936, Krásná jizba was located on Prague’s Národní třída. After surviving the economic crisis of the early 1930s, the company founded additional shops outside Prague – in Brno, Pardubice and Bratislava, among other cities. In order to promote its products, in 1927 dp began publishing the magazines Panorama, Kulturní zpravodaj and, from 1931, Žijeme, “the picture magazine of today”, to which Sudek contributed his photographs. He published not only photographs of functional art commissioned and sold by Družstevní práce, but also architecture, landscapes, portraits of writers and poets, and reportages from Sokol gatherings. Vojtěch Lahoda Literature: Anna Fárová, Josef Sudek. Torst, Praha 1995. Anna Fárová, Josef Sudek. Torst Praha 2002. Vojtěch Lahoda, Josef Sudek. The commercial photography for Družstevní práce, Alvar Aalto Museum, Jyväskylä 2003. Jan Mlčoch, Josef Sudek – reklama, Galerie Josefa Sudka, Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague 2004. Vojtěch Lahoda, Josef Sudek a reklama, Literární noviny XV, 2004, no. 30, 19. 7., p. 12. The exhibited photographs from original negatives by Josef Sudek from the Institute of Art History at the Czech Academy of Sciences were copied in 2003 and 2006 by Vlado Bohdan. Prepared in cooperation with the Institute of Art History at the Czech Academy of Sciences. Photo © Anna Fárová, Photo newprints © Vlado Bohdan Captions of photos: Sudek1: Josef Sudek, Advertising Photo for NOVA cucumbers, 1930´s, © Anna Fárová Sudek2: Josef Sudek, Advertising Photo for Footbal Dress, 1930´s, © Anna Fárová Sudek3: Josef Sudek, Set of Belts, 1930´s, © Anna Fárová Josef Sudek Studio, Újezd 30, Praha 1, www.sudek-atelie.cz, open daily except Mondays 12 am – 6 pm Organized and sponzored by PPF Press informations: Helena Blašková Tel: 224 052 168 E-mail: blaskova@ppf.cz film – still – life Hans Op De Beeck, Jan Rothuizen, Albert van Westing Curator <waanja> 16.2. – 19. 3. 2006, The Josef Sudek Studio, Újezd 30, Prague 1 The opening of the exhibition on Wednesday, February 15 at 6 pm film-still-life When the previous curator of the Atelier Sudek, David Korecký, invited me to be part of the group of curators whose task it was to celebrate the fifth anniversary of this exhibition space through non-photographic photography – i.e., a more or less conceptual approach to the medium – I knew right away that even this is a narrow definition. Rebellion within the spaces between what is “normal” requires that I choose an artist whose work in some way is related to photography. What we end up with is photography in motion, and it doesn’t really matter whether this was even the original intent. The name of the exhibit can be broken down as follows: film-still (film stills) still-life life The last item is the most important. The fact that we are dealing here primarily with video is not so heretical for photography gallery if we remember that in film credits, the cinematographer is usually referred to as the director of photography. The works’ still-life aspect is rather of a formal character, referring to the lack of movement in the shots, but also indicating how it influences the individual artists’ depiction of life. For me, the starting point were videos by Hans Op De Beeck that I first saw several years ago at Art Rotterdam. This Belgian artist, who is known primarily for his models of a dismal post-apocalyptic borderland which he uses as backdrops for his photographs or videos, but which also hold up on their own as independent installations (even life-size). Several of his videos from the beginning of the millennium, instead of showing optimism, defined the human condition in gloomy images: a well-to-do family fleeing with their children, motionless supermarket cashiers who have become part of the machinery and come to life only when you switch them on, or an un-stylized image of an older couple having coffee in a shopping mall who can only dream of lively communication. Albert van Westing is essentially a photographer, having in fact received the prestigious Prix de Rome prize in relation with his long-term stay in that city. His focus is on man and his interaction with his surroundings and other people. He does not present any “truth”, however, nor any reproduction of actuality. His presence and role as instigator are apparent in his works. His series of static videos filmed using a handheld camera is similar to some of Warhol’s films, although they are not experimental. Van Westing records inactivity and free time, and viewing his works in the dimmed gallery is a calming experience, regardless of whether we are looking at monotonous waves behind the body of a naked man on the beach or monumental mountains rising as a backdrop against two picnicking tourists. These “ambient videos” are no more than simple records of reality that appear ambivalent thanks to the obvious presence of the observer and the thoughtful composition of the image. Jan Rothuizen is also known as an excellent magazine illustrator and writer who describes everyday situations from his many long-term travels through, for example, China, America, and Egypt. His works embody the main theme of this modest exhibit at the Atelier Sudek– the portrait, or in this case Rothuizen’s search for that image that gives us sufficient information about its subject. The best example of this is Rothuizen’s self-portrait composed of dozens of magazine photographs of people who in one way or another remind us of or appear similar to the artist. The (self-)portrait/slide projection of an old man in the artist’s clothes and current flat is an attempt to capture the future. On the other hand, the portrait of an old man dressed in an elegant suit from Playboy is about how things might be, about creating a fictional image that tells us nothing about the subject’s reality but still makes us want to believe that his life is like his own fantasy about a suave man of the world in a white suit. <waanja> Albert van Westing, 1960 solo exhibitions (selection) 2005 Toekenningen 025: Rome, Fonds BKVB, Amsterdam 2002 Handheld, Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam 2002 Featherlight, Yves Hoffmann Gallery, Paris 2001 Tickling, Shaving, Climbing and other Series, De Praktijk, Amsterdam At Ease, Museum Jan Cunen, Oss 2000 Beminnen (Endearing), De Praktijk, Amsterdam 1999 Draai (Turning), Galerie Loerakker, Amsterdam 1998 Aan tafel (At the Table), Galerie de Expeditie, Amsterdam Albert van Westing, Palacio de Abrantes, Salamanca 1997 Public #2, Veemvloer, Amsterdam Aan zee (At Sea), Vrieshuis Amerika, Amsterdam. 1996 Huwelijk als metafoor (Marriage as Metaphor), Pand Paulus, Schiedam. Galerie de Expeditie, Amsterdam 1995 Signalement, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam group exhibitions (selection) 2005-2006 Uitzicht met Zandkorrel, LUMC, Leiden 2005 Constructed Moment, KW14, Den Bosch 2004 Human Conditions, Intimate Portraits touring exhibition I.C.A., Dunaújváros 2004 Nederlands Foto Instituut, Rotterdam, 2000 Le Mois de la Photo à Montréal, 1999 Ne me touche pas, Villa Vauban, Luxembourg Secrets of the Nineties, Museum voor Moderne Kunst, Arnhem 2003 Link, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam In or Out, National Museum of Contemporary Arts, Seoul Scopofilia, Centrum Beeldende Kunst, Dordrecht 2002 Contemporary Art from the Netherlands, European Central Bank, Frankfurt Something that Costs so Much, is Worth Everything / Ten Dutch Private Collections, Museum de Beyerd, Breda 2001 Carte Blanche, Yves Hoffmann Gallery, Paris Pietà, Museum voor religieuze kunst, Uden 2000 Photo’s in ink, Grafisch atelier, Utrecht 1999 LATER!/UPDATED, Galerie Stadt München, Amsterdam 1998 Galerie Loerakker, Amsterdam Liste, Basel From the Corner of the Eye, Stedelijk Museum El día de cada día, Canal de Isabel II, Madrid 1997 Tussen de mazen, Zeitschnitt Niederlände, Kunstraum, Innsbruck Het scheidend vermogen, Artis, Den Bosch Yard, Het Hooghuis, Arnhem 1996 Sublime Forms with a View from 5m. Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam Hans Op de Beeck, 1969, Turnhout, Belgium Solo Exhibitions (selection) 1999 Dorothée De Pauw Gallery, Brussels 2000 Spazio Erasmus Brera, Milano Summer with friends/2nd space, Team Gallery, New York Dorothée De Pauw Gallery, Brussels 2001 Hales Gallery, London 2003 My brother's gardens, Xavier Hufkens, Brussels; Hales Gallery, London 'Landscape for Henri', Musée des Archives d'Architecture Moderne, Brussels 2004 Ondertussen…/Meanwhile…, GeM - Museum of Contemporary Art, The Hague Galerie Ron Mandos, Rotterdam Determination (Vottem Requiem), In Flanders’ Fields Museum, Ieper Location (5), Art Unlimited, Basel Loss, galerie Les Filles du Calvaire, Paris 2005 T-Mart, MuHKA, Museum of Contemporary Art, Antwerp; Hales Gallery, London In their minds…, Nicole Klagsbrun Gallery, Chelsea, New York Blender, Galleria Continua, San Gimignano 2006 Tables..., Gallery Krinzinger, Vienna Group Exhibitions (selection) 2005 Visionary Belgium, BOZAR- Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels Wasteland: 21st Century Landscape, Roebling Hall, New York En Attente, Casino Luxembourg –forum d’art contemporain, Luxembourg Senza Confine (15th Year), Galleria Continua, San Gimignano NIGHT SITES, Kunstverein Hannover, Hannover 2004 On Paper, Nicole Klagsbrun Gallery, New York Brooklyn Euphoria, Williamsburg, Brooklyn New York All that useless beauty, Whitechapel, Project Space, London Voodoo Shit, Hales Gallery, London 100 % Acid Free, White Columns, New York 2003 Critique is not enough, Shedhalle, Zürich City Mouse/Country Mouse, Space 101, Williamsburg, New York Breaking Away, PS1-MoMA, New York Gelijk het leven is, S.M.A.K. Museum of Contemporary Art, Ghent Some Panoramas, Pump House Gallery, London Leere X Vision. Körper und Gegenstände, MARTa, Herford Lautloses Irren - Ways of worldmaking to…, Postbahnhof Am Ostbahnhof, Berlin Once Upon a Time… - A view on art in Belgium in the 90's, MUHKA - Museum of Contemporary Art, Antwerp 2002 Other than film, International Film Festival of Rotterdam, TENT, Rotterdam BIG Torino 2002, International Biennial of Young Art, Torino Scale, Museum of Installation, London La Nuova Agorà, Cittadellarte/Fondazione Pistoletto, Biella Arsenal/Armoury, Wandelhalle, Köln 2001 C’est beau, c’est Belge, Barbara Farber Gallery, Trets Still/ life, hARTware projekte, Dortmund Nowaday, Spazio Erasmus Brera, Milano Aubette, Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens, Deurle 2000 Lovideo, The Vedanta Gallery, Chicago, Not I, The Ormeau Baths Gallery, Belfast Home Wrecker, Private Space Meloche, Chicago 1999 TroubleSpot. Painting, MUHKA & NICC, Antwerp Jan Rothuizen, Amsterdam 1968, lives and works in reasonable happiness. solo exhibitions: 2005 The Selfcollector’, Ellen de Bruijne Projects, Amsterdam 2002 ‘Yesterdays Tomorrows Today’, Ellen de Bruijne Projects Amsterdam 2001 ‘How To Generate Great Ideas’, Fries Museum /Buro Leeuwarden 2000 “3D foto’s”, Ellen de Bruijne Projects Amsterdam “Two is A Crowd”, Fanclub Amsterdam 1996 “Pumping the Cherry”, GalerieCokkie Snoei, Rotterdam 1993 Galerie Brinkman, Amsterdam group exhibitions (selected) 2005 ‘The last Tourist’ , Vitamin Space Guangzhou China 2004 Liste 04 Basel the youngart fair presentation Ellen de Bruijne Projects. ‘Any place any”, Macedonian Museum of contemporary Art, Thessaloniki Imigration Migrating Identitiy, ARTI Amsterdam ‘Depicting Love’ Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin 2003 ‘luck is for losers’, Ellen de Bruijne Projects Amsterdam ‘Thank God it's Friday, Saturday and Sunday’, Kunstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin Encounters of Bamako, Bamako Mali 2002 ‘Life in a Glass House’, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam Upstream, ‘VOC negotiations’, Amsterdam ‘Assisi’ , Fries Museum Leeuwardem 2001 ‘The Peoples Art’, Witte de With Rotterdam/ Porto. Portugal ‘You never walk alone’, Stroom HCBK Den Haag ‘Sweatshop’, W139 Amsterdam ’From here to Reality’, Index the Swedish Contemporary Art Foundation. Stockholm “Unlimited NL-4”, De Appel Amsterdam 2000 “Scripted Spaces”, Witte de With Rotterdam. “Durchreise”, Künstlerhaus Bethanien Studio 01, Berlin “Verse tekeningen”, Galerie Maurits van der Laar, Den Haag “Devotie”, W139 Amsterdam “Sweet Dreams are made of this”, Exedra, Hilversum. 1999 “De visite”, Arti Amicitiae, Amsterdam Printed Matter inc., New York “Green”, Exedra, Hilversum T.Z. Art gallery, New York 1996 “Incestuous”, Thread Waxing Space, New York 1995 “A painters opinion”, Bloom Gallery, New York Staples Gun Shop, Skowhegan, Maine, USA Captions of photos: AvWesting.jpg: Away, 2001, Courtesy of the artist HoBeeck01, 02,03.jpg: Situation I., 2000, Courtesy Ronmandos Gallery JanR2,4,5.jpg: A day by your fantasy, 2002, Courtesy Ellen de Bruijne Projects Josef Sudek Studio, Újezd 30, Praha 1, www.sudek-atelie.cz, open daily except Mondays 12 am – 6 pm Press informations: Helena Blašková Tel: 224 052 168 E-mail: blaskova@ppf.cz Václav Stratils´ exhibition - Pairs 6.1. – 11. 2. 2006, The Josef Sudek Studio, Újezd 30, Prague 1 The opening of the exhibition on Thursday, January 5 at 6 pm February 1, at 7 p.m. - „The Evenings with Renda“ - supporting meeting with the author of current exhibition Václav Stratil and his guests. (On the programme - authors' reading, authors' video shot, chatting…) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In Pairs, Václav Stratil (*1950 in Olomouc) presents a collection of photographs on which he has been working, with some interludes, since 2002. In most of the images Stratil is photographed in the company of his sons, colleagues, collectors and partner, and in the imaginary presence of fellow artist Jiří David. Most of the photographs feature Stratil himself, posing with another person whom he has placed in the picture in such a way as to show his relationship to this person. His method of working with these persons is reminiscent of films by Ingmar Bergman, for example Scenes from a Marriage. This can be best seen in the double-portrait with the artist’s sons. Though not immediately apparent, the relationship is in fact the photographs’ most important element, forming a foundation that can be transferred to Stratil’s other photographic works. Stratil creates eye-catching photographs that invite communication and confrontation. A priori, they involve dialogue (as in the photograph of the artist with the t-shirt of Jiří David). In creating his works, Stratil always unconsciously has the viewer in mind. As a result, there is always another relationship pair present – that of the artist and his audience. Stratil’s goal is to alter his ingrained stereotypes, and this for one reason alone: to live his own reality, not the one he has been dealt. This does not mean, of course, that he aims to lock himself up within this reality, as proven by his visually unusual work, most strongly in Pairs. The loss of identity has been an ongoing theme in the past few years, with countless attempts at finding one’s identity or that of others. It is extremely difficult to define one’s identity without falling into simplification. Nevertheless, or perhaps precisely because of this, I shall try. The fall of the Iron Curtain led to the need for the societies in both Western Europe and the former Soviet satellites to redefine their positions. The opening of a new arena for globalisation increased the pressure on the welfare states established from the 1950s to the 1970s in both parts of the once-divided Europe. Although socialism, a modernistic political concept, has become utterly obsolete, it helped to liberate the individual from the structure of the traditional family. Now that socialism has become backwards and obsolete, the question arises as to what comes next. Supranational institutions and corporations are interested only in maintaining the system’s continuity. At the same time, however, there is room for groups and individuals to take action and to shape society according to their own imagination. My digression here may help us to understand Stratil’s position on today’s Czech art scene and to understand some of that scene’s response to his work. In the 1990s, political accountability became a topic of discussion – an accountability based on a dialogue with, among others, the works by Zygmunt Bauman. In his books, Bauman shares his fears that our public space will become cluttered by objects from the private realm. Pairs is a clear illustration of this state of being. Here, Stratil multiplies his identity to the point where it becomes multiplicity. However, what Bauman and his supporters consider a threat I consider a plus. Replication and personal inventiveness help to change public space and give it life and value. We cannot be always afraid of the private side of public space; we cannot cling to the modernist definition of public space. Accountability cannot be derived from theories that no longer correspond to current reality. Accountability must be derived from the current needs of public space. In other words, we need to adopt a vision of a multiple identity – an identity that is difficult to analyse, for it defies analysis. Jiří Skála – exhibit curator ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Captions of photos: Stratil1.jpg: from the series Pairs (Václav and Štefan Stratil) © Václav Stratil 2002-3 Stratil2.jpg: from the series Pairs (Václav Stratil and Jiří David) © Václav Stratil 2002-3 Stratil3.jpg: from the series Pairs (Václav Stratil and René) © Václav Stratil 2005 Josef Sudek Studio, Újezd 30, Praha 1, www.sudek-atelie.cz, open daily except Mondays 12 am – 6 pm Press informations: Helena Blašková Tel: 224 052 168 E-mail: blaskova@ppf.cz Michaela Thelenová – Landscapes 27.10. – 27.11.2005 Contemporary photography is undergoing a process of emancipation. Their forms are becoming more and more probes into the realm of definition and they investigate how photography can be a medium graspable in the contemporary world full of paradoxes and altered paradigms. Photography now no longer seizes its light as a game with the recorded an event, but aspires to a new forms outside that realm. As it becomes increasingly aware of the changes in the play with the “apparatus,” and its subject, it depends more on who stands behind it, and how its function serves the concept. Contemporary artists are more apt to contribute to the deconstruction of the image, and shifting the esthetic of the record towards the of free association field. Such a liberated associated play with the medium of photography is elaborated in the “Landscape” Series of Michaela Thelenová. The series tapping into the landscape is a subject of meta-naratives. The artist liberally shifts the subject among media and their meanings. Consequently the motif and the pattern of photography become real landscape for her, of course not a landscape documented directly, but one like a landscape image on a computer monitor or as one linked to a web page. In this way, they seem to be an irony of the classical photographic approach on the way towards information. What presses the artist to interconnect these apparent incongruities? Thelenová calls attention to representation of the art work — landscape (Derrida), that is tangible and a recognizable part of the virtual “windows” of a web page. These “windows” don’t serve as additional sources of information, but become an indispensable aspect of the landscape itself. This relationship of photographer landscape architect, offers also her distinctive delimitation. She doesn’t understand such captured landscapes as a spiritual message, but senses the individual typology of the landscapes. They are prototypes of the landscapes themselves – their archetypal attributes. The artist thus brings these processes to reality: 1. She photographs real landscapes with a digital camera. 2. She introduces the documentation to a computer, and occasionally modifies it. 3. She creates a web page with the landscape image. 4. She programs pages and brings photographs to the internet medium. 5. She photographs directly from the monitor of the page and brings that internet form back to the photograph. This nonsensical game with various technologies and applications serves the artist as a means of inverting the meanings and messages of these technologies. The computer loses its practical use and the artist employs it for an entirely different purpose than for which it was originally created. Michaela Thelenová deliberately ironically subjects this absurd path to acquire pressure by unsettling the function of a given system. In the end, it can be said that photographs aren’t entirely bound up in any particular poetics. Individual scenes reflect an aspiration towards interconnections (even if lightly ironically) of the classical country photograph with information technologies of the web and the Internet. František Kowolowski/ Exhibition Curator ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Michaela Thelenová | born: 6. 6. 1969, Chomutov, Czech Republic | studies: 1987 - 1993 Department of Art Education, Faculty of Education, J. E. Purkyně University Ústí nad Labem | professions: Since 1994 senior lecturer, Studio of Photography, Faculty of Art and Design, J. E. Purkyně University Ústí nad Labem | collections: Center for Contemporary Arts Prague, Futura Gallery Prague, Klatovy / Klenová, Gallery Klatovy, Moravian Gallery Brno, National Gallery Prague | Nominate: 2003 Finalist of Jindřich Chalupecký´s Prize | Projects: 2005 Billboart Gallery Europe. Ústí nad Labem | Solo exhibitions 2005 ProjektRoom. Futura Gallery Prague / Message. Špejchar Gallery Chomutov | 2003 Weekend. U bílého jednorožce Gallery Klatovy/ HOAX. Dům pánů z Kunštátu Gallery Brno | 2002 Jídelna Gallery Česká Lípa/ Emil Filla Gallery Ústí nad Labem/ G4 Gallery Cheb/ Chapel of st. Isidor Kováry | 2001 New Fashion. G 99 Gallery Brno/ Telecom Gallery Louny | 1999 People. Caffé Dessert Brno | 1998 Suterén Gallery Ústí nad Labem | 1996 Clothing. U dobrého pastýře Gallery, Brno/ Malá výstavní síň Liberec | 1994 Emil Filla Gallery Ústí nad Labem | 1993 Graduation Work, SKS Gallery Chomutov | 1992 Suterén Gallery Ústí nad Labem ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Press informations: Helena Blašková Tel: 224 052 168 E-mail: blaskova@ppf.cz Graphic design: Typokabinet Michal Kalhous - Kladky 15. 9. - 23.10. 2005 The opening of the exhibition on Wednesday, September 14 at 6 pm. Michal Kalhous is one of the most interesting Czech artists working with photography. His large-format black and white blow-ups, often used in a frame of conceptual installation, comment ironically on the oddity of the surrounding world and on the even more peculiar rule of the image over the world. In The Josef Sudek Studio will present a particular author´s installation from newest works. Accompanying programmes: October 13, 7pm – lecture of Pavel Vančát: “The Solitude of Exposure: Sudek, Tichý, Kalhous”. With a screening of the documentary “Miroslav Tichý: Tarzan in Pension” / October 20, 7pm – closing evening with author’s presentation For the exhibition will be published an author’s poster with reproductions and text from the curator Pavel Vančát. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Michal Kalhous | born: 1967 in Valašské Meziříčí | studies: 1985–1990 Faculty of Science, Palacky University, Olomouc | 1990–1995 Faculty of Philosophy, Palacky University, Olomouc | works as a manager of Gallery Šternberk | lives in Šternberk selected individual exhibitions: 1995 Divadlo hudby v Olomouci, Olomouc/ 1996 Galerie Fiducia, Ostrava / 1997 Galerie – kavárna Velryba, Praha / 1998 Roxy, festival Akční Praha, Praha / 1998 Výstava v tramvaji č. 5, Olomouc / 1999 Galerie MXM, Praha / 1999 Alliance Francaise d‘Ostrava, Ostrava / 2000 Dům U rudého vola, Brno / 2000 Galerie 761, Ostrava / 2002–2003 Galerie Václava Špály, Praha / 2003 Divadlo hudby Olomouc, Olomouc / 2004 Galerie Emila Filly, Ústí nad Labem / 2004 Dům umění, České Budějovice / 2004 Galerie Fiducia, Ostrava / 2005 Atrium Pražákova paláce, Moravská galerie, Brno captions: Photo Kalhous1 (cross).: © Michal Kalhous, Untitled, 2005 Photo Kalhous2 (wooden construction).: © Untitled, Bez názvu, 2005 Michal Kalhous / Kladky Only few authors in our country use photography with such originality as Michal Kalhous. He appears both strange and sensitive, with a style so peculiar and also (often unwillingly) provocative. What some may see as an offence to the very art of photography is a strong personal statement for others. Kalhous’ large-format black and white blow-ups, often used in a frame of conceptual installation, comment ironically on the oddity of the surrounding world and on the even more peculiar rule of the image over the world. An oversensitive person might become worried with Kalhous’ well-being. His works are consistently stranger, every time in a different way. He changes the genres frequently and oscillates between fairly-tale and horror. This time we are on a trip, to a village of a moving name. We see all possible things on the way. We could recollect Jasanský and Polák, as well as the time-bound conceptual works or Gerhard Richter’s contemplative paintings. But it appears as if Kalhous is trying to create again, with self-help, a whole new photographic genre, only for his own needs. And he does so with full consciousness of the pursuit’s vanity. Simultaneously he handles the origins of “touristic” photography of the 19th century, as well as the New Objectivity and surrealism, to express a sheer intoxication with photography, recording the most subtle fragments of reality. The rest is only a matter of faith and open attitude. At this point we ask ourselves an almost fantastic question: how would we perceive Kalhous’ works without „photographic tradition“, which each of us carries inside? Would the photographs be more easily understood? Or would we, on the contrary, not understand them at all? And just this questioning is another asset of Kalhous’ both immediate and tricky messages that balance between austerity and revolt. His photographs are thus today not only an unintended indicator of the Czech photographic community’s tolerance, but above all they represent an individual and inventive statement about the photography itself and its possibilities inside the art world. Pavel Vanèát, exhibition curator (part of the exhibition text) Ateliér Josefa Sudka, Újezd 30, Praha 1, www.sudek-atelier.cz, otevřeno denně kromě pondělí od 12.00 do 18.00 Helena Blašková tiskové informace Ateliéru JS Tel: 224 052 168 E-mail: blaskova@ppf.cz Grafický design.: Typokabinet J P S Jano Pavlík Snina Prague, Josef Sudek Studio and Èeská pojišovna Gallery., 23.6. - 11.9.2005 Pavlík already started taking photographs at elementary school, when he got his first camera of the Smena make. So that is how he, in the East Slovakian town of Snina, started the process of never ending clicking, specific perception of the world through the lens of a camera, creation of artistic pseudonyms and dreaming about an artistic career in the big wide world. His ideas became more realistic when he was studying at the Secondary Technical School of Arts in Košice. In September 1982 he was accepted to the Prague FAMU (Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts), which was to be a springboard for his dreams and plans. Here he met other Slovak photographers, who were later referred to as the Slovak New Wave (its most significant representatives are: Tono Stano, Rudo Prekop, Peter Župnik, Miro Švolik, Vasil Stanko, Kamil Varga Pavel Pecha...). In the creative atmosphere of co-operation and mutual inspiration, a whole range of innovative approaches to photography was born. It is characterised by a connection to the previous generation of Slovak artistic photography, which operates with the expressive means of fine arts, with staging, arranging and tampering with negatives and multiple exposure. However, simultaneously the representatives of the new wave shifted its borders and imparted it with other, sometimes entirely opposite meanings. Under the influence of the city environment, they drifted from existential and lyrical moments to playfulness, irony and absurdity. They found inspiration mainly in theatre, film, music and scenography; their inter-medium and inter-sectional overlaps gained larger dimensions. Also for these reasons the Slovak New Wave is considered to be the incoming generation of postmodernism. The specificity of this phenomenon is also its Czech-Slovak character, in which influences of both of these cultures mix and mingle. An important role was also played by the relatively liberal atmosphere at FAMU, as well as by the eighties in general as a period of certain political apathy and the "beginning of the end". For Pavlík's work, developing for the period of a mere six years (during the studies at FAMU in 1982 - 1987), this background is inseparable, in some cases his photographs markedly stand out and naturally are beyond any kind of classification. His explosiveness, unbound creativity, influenced by a discontinuous "manic-depressive" attitude towards creation, rebellion, desire to conquer the world, or to escape into different worlds were day by day confronted by banal reality and people around him, who even then started perceiving his exceptionality. He was reflected in the hard-to-define and simultaneously marginal position between genius and madness. Jano's suicide at the beginning of 1988 was also one of the reasons, why his work appeared more on the edge of interest and was mentioned only in the wider context of the Slovak New Wave. Ernest and Alice is the most significant and most numerous set of black-and-white photographs forming the actual core of Pavlík's work. It was created during his studies in Prague, (1982 -1987) and consists of 37 photographs. The main heroes Ernest and Alice are accompanying us through the meta-story without the beginning and the end. As if they symbolised variable archetypes of male and female principles, a certain photographer's own personification of Adam and Eve. States and situations, in which they appear, have several levels. On one side they try to overcome themselves, change themselves and get away from the world of every-day reality. However, their attempts are often characterised with emptiness and helplessness. On the other hand they are playful, inquisitive and trouble-free... As if this contradiction best depicted their essence. The set as a whole gains rhythmical features through different conceptions of the hero and heroine. Alice in most photographs is more or less an object of desire. In the titles she appears as sleeping, dreaming, waiting, yearning, young and inexperienced, in the photographs she is often mystical, covering parts of her body and face. As far as Ernest is concerned, the artist is much more concrete, knows him only too well, it is a projection of himself. At times a hyperactive optimist, on the other hand sometimes helpless and down-hearted, a personification of internal tension and unbound temperament. The artist mostly noted down motifs of photographs in the form of sketches, on which he often added names of the potential models. He took photographs in exteriors and interiors and used various kinds of illumination. In its final shape, the set gives an impression of a varied organic unit thanks to the uniform format and characteristic composition. Similarly, as in the photographs of other artists of the Slovak New Wave, the important role is played here by the relation between the text and the image. Titles written on photographs perform many functions and are their integral part. Individual photographs of the set bear the extraordinary hallmark of originals provided by the specific Pavlík's identification mark, a photo-gram of a diamond supplemented with a miniature drawing of a star and the moon. The photo-gram as well as some details on the photographs (often only some tiny technical imperfections) were gently coloured in by the artist with a felt-tip. With this technique he emphasised their uniqueness and stepped over the borders of the actual medium of photography, which at the same time he contradicted in a certain way. Photographs and Other Things... Another specific unit in the work of Jano Pavlík is a series of twenty-one photo-collages and assemblages. These absolutely remarkable works were created mainly in the first half of 1987 and were presented in the FAMU building on Apr. 1, 1987. His first photographic exhibition was closed after a few hours after its opening due to the disapproval of the Pedagogical Board of the school. However, a couple of months later, Jano managed to enlarge it with more photographs and repeat the exhibition in the premises of the Delta Cultural Centre. This time also, the exhibition was conceived originally, in the style similar to happening. The artist accompanied photo-collages and assemblages with his own 45-minute sound recording called RORORORO. Rhythmical reciting of texts is accompanied by varied noises and basic melodic lines of synthesizers. Pavlík's play on words and glosses are rapped in several languages, the combining of which was his fad. This is also reflected in many variations of his own pseudonyms: Giano, Yanck, JPS-Jano Pavlík Snina, Janko Oknaj. Another feature used for livening up and interaction was the placement of automatic key finders responding to whistling in the premises of the exposition. Their function was a symbolic attack on a visitor in the case of his negative reaction (that is to say booing and hissing) and his subsequent direct confrontation with the artist. In a significant part of the photo-collages and photo-assemblages the artist predominantly works with the motif of the self-portrait, leaves the metaphoric expressions and becomes a hero of the process of his own soul-searching. The remaining works then recycle the set of Ernest and Alice supplemented with older photographs, stickers, fragments of colourful sticky papers, wrappers of stockings, cigarettes, sweets and small items. He used to finish them off with a felt-tip and accompany them with his own texts. The created units stuck on paper sheets and held with self-adhesive transparent foils represented in their time absolutely unique artefacts, surpassing his previous work as well as work of his friends from the Slovak New Wave generation. His in all brutal anti-aesthetics and deconstructive attitude seemingly evoked some strategies of Bad Painting. Pavlík's great inspiration was pop art, particularly Andy Warhol, whose personality and work he was obsessed with. Recycling, citation, atomising and deconstruction of an image anticipate some post- modernistic features. In the overall evaluation of influences affecting creation of this set one must not forget the artist's own moods and feelings. Deepening depression, growing feelings of helplessness and isolation, which reflected themselves in the final conception characterised with a certain tension, moments of destruction, chaos and ruination. The arrangement and epic features of the Ernest and Alice meta-story were replaced with crudeness and urgency of a message. Specific irony and humour continued to remain the lightening aspect more intensely confronted with existential moods. Ján Pavlík * Oct. 28, 1963 Snina + Jan. 10, 1988 Prague 1978-1982 Secondary Technical School of Arts in Košice 1982-1988 FAMU Prague One Man Shows: 1987 Jano Pavlík Snina. FAMU, Prague (one day exhibition, Apr. 1, 1987) 1987 Exhibition of Jano Pavlík's Photographs. Delta Cultural Centre, Prague 1990 Jano Pavlík. District Educational Centre (Centre of Culture of Nations), Humenné Collective Exhibition: 1983 Exhibition of Photographs of the Second Year FAMU Students. Institute of Macro-molecular Chemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague 1984 FAMU-PRAGUE. Salon of Photographs - Bok, Boleslawiec 1989 New Slovak Photography. Trnávka Cultural House, Bratislava 1991 Slovak Staged Photography. Museum of Art, Stockholm 1993 Slovak New Wave - Generation of the 60s. Tatran Gallery, Horný Smokovec 2002 Czech and Slovak Photography of the 1980s and 1990s. Museum of Art, Olomouc Exhibition curator and introduction: Vjera Borozan Graphic design: Typokabinet Jaroslav Rössler - Reflections 19. 5. - 19. 6. 2005 Exhibition curator: Josef Moucha The Josef Sudek Studio is completing a series of three Jaroslav Rössler (1902 – 1990) exhibitions, complementing the notion of a classical avant-garde legacy. An introduction the year before last dealt with enlargements of non-representational shots under the title of ‘Early Abstraction‘. Last year’s compact cross-section ‘Experiments of the 1950s – 1970s‘, together with this year‘s ‘Reflections’, evaluate fully these fruits of the artist’s imagination, which monographs to date (published by Torst, 2001 and Kant, 2003) for the most part have not made public. Not only the designations of the individual parts of the triptych, but also the choice of shots themselves proceed from the spirit of the work and show what was intrinsic to the artist, what he was preoccupied with over the years, and what in considerable part has remained unknown. Jaroslav Rössler, a native of Smilov, is one of the most important figures of the world‘s visual culture. Karel Teige appreciated the true value of Rössler’s first creative phase when, in the early spring of 1923, he exclaimed: "It’s better than Man Ray!" At that time Rössler was also invited to become a member of the Devìtsil Artists‘ Union. Later he was consistently published in magazines and specialist and exhibition reviews of the avant-garde. Rössler’s early work represented his aesthetics in a remarkable way. For more than fifteen years he mingled with the top internationals. As well as photography he also applied himself to drawing, collage, picture-poems and typographic montages. In the 1920s “surimprese” became Jaroslav Rössler‘s specific response to the new materiality. His own discovery of a glass prismatic supplementary lens instrument, making possible multiple motifs, he exploited for the remainder of his life. By this method he extended the range of the most varied technologies, which he controlled masterfully. Rössler’s post-war innovations were a parallel of the trend which was named Subjective Photography on the other side of the iron curtain. Technological processes which occurred at that time included, in Rössler’s case, Sabatier‘s Effect, carbon and reversing a negative in the transparency. In addition to that, at the turn of the 50s and 60s, he projected further shots on the various arrangements of still life. From there it is but a short step to our present collection ‚Reflections‘. The sketched, but with compositional conviction, observations of a Prague passer-by are immediately rewarding. Jaroslav Rössler brilliantly mastered an astonishing method of stylisation, blending reflections of suburb and quayside, in a prismatic supplementary lens of the object lens, which photogenically cultivated multiple illusory reflections of reality. As was a good habit with Rössler, the form does not end at mere self-sufficiency, but carries more in terms of content. A transformation, by which the subject is raised to the realms of art, does not conceal the subject. On the contrary, it evokes reflections of the original inspiration. And if the photographer did not create his own special world – a world itself for itself – then it was clearly important to him to call up values of the earthly world. But Rössler does not begin to be descriptive even here. He photogenically cultivates, in limpid prisms, chinks of reality with its illusory reflections. The busy artist, even into old age, mastered his whole-life visual experience in the harmonisation of projections of divergent scenery with a delicate brilliance, which again confirmed his poetic temperament. In place of descriptions of the fruits of rambles around the fringes of Prague and the banks of the Vltava they offer attempts at interpersonal understanding: the catalyst of our participation should be the artist’s mental investment and not a Prague genius loci itself. Exhibition curator and introduction: Josef Moucha Graphic design: Typokabinet Opening hours: daily 12-6pm, except Mondays More info:: Soòa Èižíková, +420 224 052 166, cizikova@ppf.cz Ateliér Josefa Sudka, Újezd 30, Praha 1, www.sudek-atelier.cz Popisky k fotkám.: Photo n.1.: Jaroslav Rössler, Exit, 1962-63 Photo n.2.: Jaroslav Rössler, Untitled, The Sixties Antonín Kratochvíl – USSA 8 April – 15 May 2005 A special meeting with the artist will take place on Sunday 24 April at 6 pm; a meeting with journalists will be held from 5 pm. Exhibit curator: David Korecký Translation: Olga Kropíková The exhibit entitled “USSA” is a selection of photographs from Kratochvíl’s series “Homeland In/Security,” created in 2004 in New York City and Washington, D.C. The theme of the photographs is the changed atmosphere in the streets of American cities after the 9/11 terrorist attack. Ubiquitous security cameras, police controls at the entrances to public and private buildings and the presence of public and private security services in the streets remind Kratochvíl of the atmosphere in the “Soviet bloc,” from which he emigrated via Western Europe. “…Because America, despite its problems, has always been good, because it was a land of freedom. That’s why people went there, to be free of religious or political persecution. In America, nobody looked down on you because of who you were. When I arrived there, I didn’t have to whisper, the way Czech émigrés do in Switzerland so the Swiss can’t tell that they are foreigners and won’t give them dirty looks. That’s why I enjoyed living in the States, that’s why I left Europe, where the nations can’t stand each other. Europe was and still is a fucked-up continent; America was different…”. The eleven black-and-white photographs which have their premiere at the Josef Sudek Studio reflect the way in which they were taken. On the move, in poor lighting conditions, in the turmoil of crowds. The photographs’ lively “street” look is reminiscent of the casual, shoot-from-the-hip lomographic style – don’t stop to think or you’ll lose the moment. It is precisely this instant moment that is vital to lomo photography, a moment “uncontaminated” by the author’s conscious speculation about the final look of the shot. But here you must not stop, because afterwards you may not be allowed to take any more pictures. Kratochvíl’s experience, his sharp eye, and his knowledge of the environment enable him to record that which is fundamental, which you may feel “you have no reason to photograph”. And that is the point here. The double “S” in the exhibit’s title should not be understood as a cheap play on words with a political connotation. American society, that symbol of individual freedom, has been infected by a machinery that, bit by bit, is eating away at its freedoms. Kratochvíl is a force of nature and he works with the camera instinctively; the purpose of his work, however, is not to provoke or to transgress rules. He consciously avoids breaking the rules, instead focusing on situations where respect for the “rules” (regulations, the Constitution, treaties of peace and war, etc.) brings individuals unhappiness, injustice and lack of freedom – a lack of freedom from which Kratochvíl himself long struggled to free himself. David Korecký, exhibit curator Antonín Kratochvíl was born in 1947 in Lovosice, Czechoslovakia. He left the country in 1967, living in Austria, Sweden, France and elsewhere. He made his way to the Netherlands illegally, where he studied photography at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie. In 1971 he moved to the United States, where he worked as a reporter for the Los Angeles Times and as a studio photographer in Hollywood; he has been working freelance since 1975. He has photographed in communist Europe, documented the impact of military conflicts on civilians and the destruction of cities and nature. Antonín Kratochvíl has had dozens of independent exhibitions all over the world, has published several monographs of his work, and has won numerous awards. In 1998, American Photo magazine rated him among the one hundred most important photographers in the world. In 2000 he became one of the founding members of the VII photo agency. He lives in New York. Sources: Antonín Kratochvíl (Torst, Prague 2003), interview with A. K. published in Respekt magazine, issue 34/2004. The “Homeland In/Security” project has been supported by a grant from the Aperture publishing house. For further information visit www.viiphoto.com Josef Sudek Studio, Újezd 30, Praha 1, Czech Republic, www.sudek-atelier.cz Open daily except Monday, 12-6 pm. For further information on the exhibit, contact Soòa Èižíková, +420 224 052 166, cizikova@ppf.cz Photo n. 2: July 4 - The Independent Day, Washington D.C., 2004, © Antonín Kratochvíl, VII. Photo n. 1: Republican Party Convention, New York City, 2004 © Antonín Kratochvíl, VII. Michael Persson Homeland In/Security The reflection in the windshield offered a less conventional image from the one often shown by the media. The glass twisted and distorted the buildings, smeared the flags that flickered over the misshapen seat of government and disfigured those assigned to its protection. The windshield turned reality into a puzzle, or was it now the other way round? Difficult to say since so much had changed so quickly. To Antonin Kratochvil, let’s call him K. To K’s mind he wasn’t doing much as he photographed the telling effect. Not much that was, until the men moved in. To a photographer film is more than 36 exposures, color or black and white. Film is a way of looking, a point of view. It expresses the ideas and intent of its controller from photographer to commissioning editor to government official. Film is public record, there to be weighed and measured. There, as the check against imbalance. Remember, film has helped immortalize recent history. Consider it memory…society’s memory…remember that. Having fled his motherland in Communist Czechoslovakia, K understood the corner he now was in. He had escaped in 1967, a year before the Red Army hammered home Moscow’s new doctrine, turning Prague’s spring into another long winter. Eight years later, he’d become a citizen of the United States, a place he said was free because you could photograph train stations, policemen, airports and have society pose for the lens confidently. In the Soviet bloc K’s film stood for lies and his point of view the bastardizing of an ideology, a decided threat. Behind the Iron Curtain, photographers who ignored party directives were provocateurs…they were spies and quickly removed. Slipping back through the “curtain” he’d left long ago. Working, taking pictures of a place so alien to his new American existence, K taught himself to hide his film as he wove his way through the many eyes detailing his every move. He had found methods of safeguarding his point of view, but that was to be expected, after all, East wasn’t West. It’s taken as read that the State has the right to protect itself. Taken as read, but does that make any easier to stomach: the sanctioned liquidation of people on behalf of the people? And when the state perceives the threat to come from its citizenry it suddenly unleashes its terrifying quasi-self. It is a nasty business fighting a covert war against the people. Information replaces guns and the everyday supplies the quasi state with the means to apply the muzzle, the chokehold, the knock at the door. And when you’ve been suspected? Bank accounts, tax returns, travel documents, voting histories, telephone records and one’s own privacy becomes the evidence to the immutable fact that you are guilty. Justice during state sponsored terror is the razor blade the citizen must crawl along until it slices him in two. K knows all this. He knows of the purges, the show trials and all the disappearances. He escaped this to somewhere free from the humiliation fear creates and the way family, friends, neighbors and even you, yourself mutate like the reality reflected in a car windshield. He escaped this. He is a citizen of the “Free World.” K remembers the men emerging from a crowd of tourists flashing their badges. Two chiseled tourists with crew cuts wearing standard grey Ts, khaki shorts and Nikes. They had seen him at the hotel, in the taxi, no doubt filmed him urinating too? The picture he’d taken of the stars and stripes and the Capitol appeared as murky and furtive as what loomed before him straight-faced. K handed over his identification whilst inside a black SUV behind black tinted windows wearing sunglasses others watched, During the Ceausescu era, K remembers documenting a village in Romania. Taking pictures of daily life was prohibited back then, but recording the town’s revolutionary statue wasn’t. Communism, he remembers, was brazen with its icons. They were symbols of victory not delicate facades honoring a concept. As he walked away, the feeling he’d known from other such encounters descended. He turned asking the tourist if in the future he’d be stopped, “Not by us,” said the man. “Maybe the next shift.” To K’s mind he hadn’t done much; merely take a picture. It was his right, right? Although, that depends on how you look at it. And these days, people do. “So then I’m free,” said K. doubtfully. “Yes,” said the painter, “but only ostensibly free, or more exactly, provisionally free. For the judges of the lowest grade, to whom my acquaintances belong, haven’t the power to grant a final acquittal, that power is reserved for the highest Court of all, which is quite inaccessible to you, to me, and to all of us.” —The Trial. Franz Kafka. An essay by Michael Persson through conversations with Antonin Kratochvil conserning the exhibited photographic collection, was treated for the Aperture agency. Barbora Pøidalová – Mushroom-pickers February 25 – April 3, 2005 Last summer we went to the woods to look for mushrooms No mushrooms were growing In the winter we made mushrooms out of snow and put them in an ice box. In the Spring we took the snow mushrooms to the forest Today, I had a dream about your exhibition in Prague I brought the snow mushrooms there instead of photographs. They held up in the auto, but they began to melt at the J.S.S. Korecky got really angry repeatedly said, „Pictures not Mushrooms!!!“ With that in mind J.W. Dunne‘s book, „An Experiment with Time“ is interesting. Dunne, whose theories are founded on the multi-dimensionality of time, asserts that 75 percent of our dreams involve the reworking of passed experiences, but the remaining 25 percent contains, in addition to our fantasies, even moments that are happening for the first time. As such our minds are able to anticipate and, capture in dream images approaching experiences with powerful emotional reach. If that‘s the case, then you may as well blow off any writing. It is sufficient to dig up some kind of pamphlet about deep freezing. Everything will be in that. B. In Barbora Pøidalová’s latest photographic black & white photographs entitled “The Mushroom Pickers,“ the young Brno artist reveals a conceptuality that encompasses overstatement and irony as two incompatible worlds. On one hand, entirely banal activities are stopped in time loops; on the other, intimate or even metaphysical aspects of loci (the forest) are penetrated with light, infinity and secrecy. Catching the subject‘s contrasting degrees of light and shadow, she explores the closeness of individuals dear to her. The figures blend in with natural places and grow entirely with bio-morph forms of trees. The artist here is clearly against any formal aspects of black and white photography. It is as if her vision was entirely oriented on color and the contents of color‘s expression. The conceptual irony employed—returning crafted snow mushroom subsequently relocating that temporal material in the natural environment of the forest—carries the distinct markings of an artistic effort. That temporally structured irony has become a document of the object, an artistic artifact. Her audience is only those closest to her they alone are the witnesses of fading and dying story. What remains is the photographic record as a form that can align emotional relationships or allow its decisive expression to be grasped. It is also a story of the persona on the way to the depths of the essential self. The model is that of initiation as described by C.G. Jung in his depth psychology. Archetypes of a path through the woods appear in dreams, thus adjusting the individually enjoyed model of self-recognition. František Kowolowski, curator of the exhibition Brno, 2. 2. 2005 Zoran Kovaèeviè – Exit January 14 – February 20, 2005 This collection of photographs by Zoran Kovaèeviè presented by the Josef Sudek Studio as Exit, shows intimate Pictures—portraits of quiet secluded places. The Picture with subdued hues come across as both meditative and monumental, drawing the observer in, as if they were included in the space of the image, to determine what has happened or what might happen. To discuss the visual work, it is appropriate to say something about the technical side of the preparation. Zoran Kovaèeviè worked not analogical tools, but digital—and did so in style. Technology and social development lead to new things, but there is always a certain time lag before we can accept such. Many artists continue to seek out the most perfect technical equipment, the highest resolution camera and the most faithful image. If the results are jarring or are inconsistent with the artistic vision, they alter or manipulate the picture. And because in the present everything seems complicated, sometimes they resort to crazy solutions in order to convey their reflections through their pictures. Kovaèeviè has worked with his photographs as it happened with analog photographs at the turn of the 19th century and throughout the 20th century—modernists, already unconcerned with what was most faithful or most interesting image of reality, used the medium of photography with clarity as an artistic technique to identify feeling in images. Then the photograph ceased to be a document of reality and became part of the realm of free art. Kovaèeviè used a devise with primitive optical software—mobil telephone camera –that captures moments for entertainment that aren't to endure. Enlarging these pictures with low resolution resulted in the expansion of the pixels. This effect can disturb the observer, and when they see its technical image, creating some distance, or at least they trust the reality of the motif less. But primitive software is such that even individual pixel/squares are imperfect—they have color and irregularities on their perimeter. It is that imperfection that one unconsciously associates with the liveliness of manual work. Paradoxically, we don't recognize photographic images of Kovaèeviè as the cold serial product of a machine, just as we don't recognize as products of enlargers old photographs with unretouched flaws and scratches from bad chemical development. "... we regard the photograph, the picture on our wall, as the object itself (the man, landscape, and so on) depicted there. This need not have been so. We could easily imagine people who did not have this relation to such pictures. Who, for example, would be repelled by photographs, because a face without color and even perhaps a face in reduced proportions struck them as inhuman." /Ludwig Wittgenstein: Philosophical Investigations/ David Korecký, curator of the exhibition, January 5, 2005 From the beginning of its development, there has been an effort to bring the quality digitally rendered technology on par with that of traditional photography. This process has now gone so far that it is no longer possible to distinguish a digital picture from an analogical one. Zoran's series doesn't show so much creative possibility of digital photography as much as the interesting ways that analogical and digital images are different. The fundamentals difference is that traditional photography consists of uncountable tiny elements that are bound to a silver layer of photographic material, and are of analogical origins. The digital image on the other hand consists of pixels arranged in a matrix. Pixels are of a digitally-numerical origin, the number of which can be easily determined; each one can be independently adjusted in tone and hue. The numerical aspect of the digital image is is non material and invisible; it is also able to take any kind of visual image, and as such to be on a monitor or in print form. It is the numbers that enables the transmission of the digital image across wires, or signals, or telephones. For that compression of the image is necessary. Compression is in essence a reduction of amount of information, an algorithmic process of reducing elements that are less important for the visual image. Compressing is one of the essential differences between the digital and the analogical image. Pixels and artifacts of compressed digital images are invisible. Zoran in his pictures very carefully and clearly demonstrates the very digital structure. The results of that are such that imperfect and greatly compressed digital telephone pictures in the format of 640 x 480 pixels was enlarged to 11811 x 14528 pixels with the assistance of algorithmic processes. As such the pixels became a visible structure of the picture, and even though they are clearly made of squares, the begin to form an understandable image. Zoran's pictures demonstrate that the digital picture isn't like traditional photography a cross-section or a copy of reality, but that reality is recorded numerically and after working with the numbers this reality is helped back with the assistance of pixels. Pixels are in this aspect very similar to letters that don't by themselves carry any significance, but when gathered together, are able to relay a certain meaning. An aura emits from Zoran's pictures that we have finally been able to clean from the first Daguerrotypes or Talbotypes. Mgr.Èedomir Butina Biography Born December 9, 1971 in Novi Sad, Serbia and Monte Negro. 2000 Prof. of History at University of Novi Sad; from 2001 studies photography at FAMU, Prague. Solo exhibitions: “The Bridge”, 2000, Novi Sad, SCG; “City of Night” 2001, Novi Sad, SCG. Group exhibitions: “City of Night” 2001, Prague; “FAMU Digital” 2001, 2002, 2003, Prague; 2002, Split, HR; “Land Scape” 2003, Prague, Beroun; “Park”, 2003 Prague; INOUT 2003, Prague; “Options”, 2003, Prague, Bratislava. Film: “23 April”, 2001, Beograd, SCG; Motovunj, HR; Sofia, BG. Curator of the exhibition: David Korecký Project is supported by: Èedomir Butina – Studio vX, Igor Kovaèeviè a Yvette Vašourková Graphic design: Jakub Uhlík Translation: William Hollister Jindøich Pøibík – On God, Death and so on November 12, 2004 – January 9, 2005 On God, Death and so on A particularly original personality, philosopher and photographer, Jindøich Pøibík has recently turned sixty and, after a quarter century in exile, returned home to settle down. He continued with his photographic work, organized his archive and began to exhibit. At first he organized a retrospective in Prague, then returned to his home town, Plzeò, after which he presented four distinctive aspects of his work at Cheb. This year he is exhibiting some photographs for the first time—they had seemed encrypted and complex too him, and as such unacceptable for presentation. He is unveiling what had been kept within the closed confines of his private life. The Sudek studio, situated in a courtyard, makes for a strong and magical place to present such challenging explorations. The search for the secrets of existence, the boundaries of reality, mysteries, apocalyptic visions, and metamorphoses—such are the collection of photographs selected from his entire work with emphasis on the alchemy of the image and the enigma of conveying. The conceptual godfathers of his works include André Breton, the Bible, Franz Kafka, James Joyce, G. W. F. Hegel, and Marcel Proust; and among photographers, Eugéne Atget, Jaromír Funke, Jindøich Štyrský, and Josef Sudek. The evocative atmosphere of the Plzeò museum depository, where Jindøich Pøibík worked, photographed and read, was enhanced by the regional library’s rich collection. The inquiries and solutions of a philosopher developed in his mind, and the material of a photographer came to him. As such, the photograph Christ Transformed by Afocalization into a Devil came to him, and it was evident the author’s complex thoughts and visions needed to be translated through complex chemical and physical processes that transpire before a positive develops from a negative. But sometimes only an extended exposure in unlit space, with no subsequent laboratory manipulation, revealed the otherwise unseen: God, Time, Memento mori. The author employed malleable processes such as solarization, afocalization, decomposition, and superposition of the negatives. From perishability, anxiety, desintegration and dispersion in premonitions and visions The Factory is a Ruin, the Ruin is the Factory emerged in the sixties, and Premonition of Collapsed Towers (WTC New York) emerged in 1984. Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel—GWF Hegel—clearly inspired him to use his original name from his wartime baptismal certificat, Heinrich Karl Maxmillian Pøibík—HKMP. In the same way, the Lord and Vassal section of Hegel’s Phenomenology of the Spirit was the stimulus for the creation of the unique photographic anthology Imprisoned and Jailer in the mid sixties. He applied complex laboratory techniques to old damaged glass plates to illustrate such a philosophical text. As with Jindøich Pøibík’s publication from the Plzen Museum depository, Museum, inspired by Jindrich Štyrsky and Jindrich Heisler‘s book, On the Needles of Those Days and by this produced an effective parallel to the creation of those other two Jindøichs... Memento Mori is a subject to which Pøibík returns continuously in his work; he has long been interested in the ephemerality of being, the demise and the inevitability of disintegration that he so fears—and he expresses his anxiety. Thanatos is just as alluring as Eros in his persistent but Janus-like double presence. This unsettling work on being and non-being has put forth serious existential questions for forty years; that is uncomon in Czech Photography. He considers such questions and creates photographs on the boundaries of reality, on the secret of metamorphosis, on searching the absolute and other un-photographicable and intangible things, phenomena and premonitions. Anna Fárová, November 17, 2004 Biography 1944 Born in Plzeò 1964-69 studied camera at FAMU, Prague 1965-72 studied philosophy at Charles University, Prague 1973 emigrated to Belgium 1997 returned to Czech Republic Exhibitions after Returning 2001 „Recapitulation 1998-2001,“ Czech Center for Photography, Prague 2003 „Plzeò and Surroundings“, West Czech Gallery Plzeò 2004 „Four Gravitational Fields,“ G4, Cheb Exhibition curator and introduction: Anna Fárová Cooperation: David Korecký Translation: William Hollister Graphic design: Typokabinet Opening hours: daily 12-6pm, except Mondays More info: Soòa Èižíková, 261383403, cizikova@ppf.cz Ateliér Josefa Sudka, Újezd 30, Praha 1, www.sudek-atelier.cz Josef Sudek – Tanec/The Dance 17. 9. – 7. 11. 2004 You are cordially invited to the exhibition Josef Sudek – The Dance in the occasion of fourth anniversary of the Josef Sudek Studio and in memory of Josef Sudek (17. 3. 1896 – 15. 9. 1976). The exhibition and the opening will be accompained by sound record „Souvenir“ by Helena Šantavá. Sudek and Dance Even though Josef Sudek was very sociable and friendly, he did not become more closely acquainted with unremarkable people and his selection rather tended towards personalities with whom he might co-operate on new projects. These were, for example, Ladislav Sutnar, a designer of the enterprise of Družstevní práce, where Sudek realised his first independent exhibition, Emil Filla, Cubist painter, intellectual, collector and prominent member of Mánes, with whom he co-operated on photographic exhibitions and reproduced pictures for the revue entitled Volné smìry. There was also Jaroslav Seifert, poet and Nobel prize laureate, who wrote poems and introductions for Sudek's books, architect Otto Rothmayer, for whom he documented the reconstruction of Prague Castle and who made Sudek's photographs unique with special adjustments, and many others. Today we present a less well-known chapter of the co-operation of Josef Sudek with another important personality of Czech cultural life – the choreographer, director and founder of a modern dance group, Jarmila Kröschlová. Kröschlová introduced the new dance methods of Jacques Dalcroz to this country and in 1932, the year of Sudek's first exhibition, she won international recognition in Paris for the choreography and production of a full-length ballet, The Early Evening of the Fervid Day (One of the important roles – the Bird of Dreams – went to Nataša Hodaèová-Gollová). The daughter of Jarmila Kröschlová lent photographs from the family archives for the exhibition and, last but not least, there were also loans from the collector Ferdinand Žídek, a friend of Ms. Jašková, a splendid dancer in the mould of Isadora Duncan, Rudolph von Laban and pupil Milèa Mayerová. The dancer Taána Pexová turned in 1931, after the end of her scholarship in Paris, to the new expressive means of dance, which reached their peak at an independent dance evening in the Prague Arts Guild in 1935 with costumes by the draughtsman, painter and sculptor, Jiøí Jaška. Sudek also took photographs of her in dance poses in her studio in Újezd and apart from this he also caught her in stretched leaps in the period style of the thirties, characteristically on the Barrandov Hill in 1935. Anna Fárová The Josef Sudek Studio is now celebrating the 4th anniversary of its re-establishment – since 15 September 2000 there have been 27 photographic exhibitions held here. For the third time now we are recalling the work of Sudek, this time that part of his work done to order with which the Prague public has not yet been acquainted. We feel certain that Josef Sudek would not be annoyed with us for presenting his work done to order, i.e. not his free-style exhibition work. It is very important to show, however, that Josef Sudek was a man with a tremendously wide cultural outlook, that he was in contact with personalities who determined the direction of future development in various fields of culture. We want to open up a new horizon for our visitors in their view of Sudek's work – the horizon of Barrandov Hill, which Sudek did not hesitate to run up in order to take what were almost action shots of the gymnastic performances of young ballet dancers, naturally captured in a precise composition. In other words – Sudek was not the introvert eccentric it might appear and Sudek's studio was not a dark and overgrown workshop – it was a meeting-place for unusual people, especially musicians and artists. The exhibition entitled "Josef Sudek – Dance" is accompanied by a sound recording of Helena Šantavá from a place, the genius loci of which creates a similar meeting-place. The joint courtyard of the Dance Academy and the Academy of Applied Arts is filled with the sounds of the musical instruments accompanying dancing classes, fragments of conversation from the art studios and the monotonous thumping of the machines in the printers' workshop. The courtyard by Palachovo námìstí and this little courtyard of the Lesser Town at Újezd 30 have something in common – although they look like quiet corners of the city where time has stood still, these are places full of creative energy, stored up here for decades. If we really listen, perhaps we shall be able to say with Josef Sudek: "…and music is playing". David Korecký Conception of the Exhibition: Anna Fárová a David Korecký Graphic Design: Typokabi.net – Michal Smejkal Translation: Fotograf v zahradì, Jacqueline Nsiah Accompained sound record by Helena Šantavá was recorded from April – May 2001 in the yard of the buildings of the Dance Academy and Academy of Applied Arts The Josef Sudek Studio 2000-2004 The Josef Sudek Studio was opened four years ago, September 15, 2000. From that time we had exhibitions of the following authors: Josef Sudek, František Drtikol, Emila Medková, Gabina Fárová, Vasil Stanko, Josef Sudek, Drahomír Josef Rùžièka, Jan Polverini, Milan David, Ivan Pinkava, Jens Knigge, Miro Švolík, Jindøich Vávra, Dragan Dragin, Gérald Assouline, Lukáš Jasanský a Martin Polák, Jaroslav Rössler, Bohdan Holomíèek, Antonín Horák, Zuzka Knìzeková, Soòa Sadloòová, Jana Znášiková, Jan Raba, Alexandr Hackenschmied, Jaroslav Rössler, Ludmila Holíková a Peter Župník. In the Josef Sudek Studio we organised several music and motion perfomances and several professional meetings. We are very pleased with the large number of visitors who came to the Josef Sudek Studio which represents connection of the tradition with contemporary culture. More info: Sona Brezinova, 261 383 403, brezinova@ppf.cz Ateliér Josefa Sudka, Újezd 30, Praha 1, www.sudek-atelier.cz, the founder and the provider of the Josef Sudek Studio is PPF majetkova, member of the PPF group Petr Župník – Lights 25. 6. – 12. 9. 2004 „Peter Župník clearly gives priority to an internal model before an external one as there is question of a process of poetization and the creation of a different reality, searching of the mystery of space and time in a natural world and in one artificially created. He is a paradoxical photographer, for he is neither a director of his visions, nor their documentarian, neither a naive, nor a sophisticated intellectual. He is a very specific photographer, a visual poet of uncommon inventiveness, whose visual speech has an unrepeatable style.“ Anna Fárová, from the monography of Peter Župník, 1993 Peter Župník (1961) has been a photographer since childhood. He was first captivated by phenomena of his immediate surroundings: flowers, fruit, rocks, wildlife... Even though in the intermittent time he worked in various studios along the path linking Slovakia, Prague and France, he has remained faithful to himself. His inner manner is that of a poet whose vision of reality is echoed in the titles of his works. While still at the School of industrial arts at Kosice (1976-1980), he was already capturing attention. Before he finished his studies there, Professor Ján Smok invited him to take the entrance exam for the Photographic department of FAMU in Prague. As a novice monk he excelled at the art academy: in the middle of the 80s, during mid-term exams, he produced an album of local color rock concert snapshots, and soon after, had a solo exhibition of diptychs at the prestigious Foma gallery in Prague (1986). He derived his manner working with analogies of form found in diverse motifs containing visual paradoxes. For example, he juxtaposed the dark shadow of a human silhouette, stretched out in a snowy field, with the image of a snow-white seagull, wings spread out, alighting upon the surface of a muddy river. Župník emphasizes his subjective approach with the exhibition’s title: "Vo Mne" (about me), also the name for a cycle of bright-colored touched up blow-ups displayed in the present exhibition. These hand-manipulated solitaires are formally contrasted with a collection, entitled Pair (1982 – 90), published together in the artist’s monograph, a book that includes a text by Václav Macek (published by Osveta in Martin, 1993). The book argues that Peter Župník seeks a way of return: aiming on one hand towards his point of departure, and on the other, in opposition to contemporary currents defined by the digital revolution. The current double exhibition documents the depth with which the photographer worked over the last decade while living as a father of three in Paris. He found there a decisive time to himself, a time to pause and gaze and a time to contemplate childhood. In the end, he found sufficient patience to allow creative ideas mature. But it wasn’t easy: "The more I wanted to photograph something," he says, "the fewer pictures I could take." Župník’s poetics accompany a liberation from exterior effects. He continues to photograph things from surroundings closest to him, such as in the beginning, in the country of his upbringing, at Spiš (Slovakia). Whereas his juvenilia lacked individuality, the author has since come to himself and finally learned and matured to be able to subtly, non-violently intervene towards the positive. As the tightly moderated titles of his works indicate, he is not interested in illustrating fantasizing eruptions. A latent image is exposed impulsively, emerging from the compulsive need to capture a poetic situation such as a leaf of leek while preparing dinner. It is later, again under the influence of an inspirational moment, that he interprets anew by enlarging a straightforwardly obtained picture. Some positives tend to suddenly light up for Zupnik, as he says himself, "I don’t photograph what I see, but instead the tension, the feeling, the mood." "The story of the emergence is usually long. Pictures that are too specific fade with time. The ones with potential are those that are vague and non-speculating. For example, the symbol of the cross out of a leek leaf didn’t leap out right away. I didn’t recognize the crucifixion while taking the picture. That’s why I usually date my photographs twice: First when the negative is made, and the second in the final realization. I move on the boundary of the perceptible. The pastel over-painting is merely an accentuation of natural features, but it takes a lot of time, and it also took a lot of time before I could really develop such a suitable subtle manner." In comparison with the distant past, a mature vision has ripened in Župník. Some of the older photographs became definite moments and formed the spine of earlier work. One of these is Pocta Tarkovskému (homage of Tarkovsky) (1985/90), installed in the Ceské pojistovny Gallery. Since then, his own refined comprehension of his innate talent over the past decade has contributed towards more profound results. An apparition of St. Veronica’s veil in his Resurrection implies all of Christian iconography. The exhibition of thirty works (mainly from the past dozen years) is named Light of voices to alchemical essence of the photographic medium full truth. Just like Josef Sudek in his time, The art Peter Župník, in the replica of Sudek’s studio, evokes a secret soulfulness of the mundane world using the simplest of references: the bearer of poetic magic is the glance and introspection. Josef Moucha JAROSLAV RÖSSLER – Experiments of 50´– 70´ 2 April – 9 May 2004 Private viewing on Thursday 1 April at 6 p.m. This is the second of a series of three exhibitions of the classic of avant-garde photography, Jaroslav Rössler, organised by the Josef Sudek Studio and it is focussed on Rössler's post-war experiments with various photographic techniques. The photographer Jaroslav Rössler (born on 25 May 1902 in Smilov - died 5 January 1990 in Prague) is one of the most significant figures of world visual culture. He was a pioneer of abstraction in a medium, which before him had been understood as supremely realistic. There are two monographs dealing with his work (from the publishers Torst 2001 and Kant 2003). This year a retrospective exhibition, which had its premiere in the Prague Museum of Applied Art in 2001, ended its travels at the International Photographic Forum in Frankfurt on Main. The compact cross-section "Experiments of the Fifties to Seventies", however, appreciates in the intimate surroundings of the Josef Sudek Studio those results of the artist's imagination, which were not usually made public by the above-mentioned projects of Professor Vladimír Birgus. For instance it includes examples of a still-life series very rewarding to the viewer, combined with the projection of shots of the Eiffel Tower. The Josef Sudek Studio, managed by David Korecký, proved last year in a concentrated manner how basic a change in artistic thinking Jaroslav Rössler caused after the First World War with his unprecedented non-objective creations, fundamentally only making use of light. Surprisingly there has for a long time no exclusive selection concentrated solely on Rössler's pure photogeny (not even in a periodical). In this respect the turning point was the collection entitled "Jaroslav Rössler: Early Abstractions" (from 13 June to 27 July 2003). Rössler's first creative phase was appreciated by Karel Teige, when early in 1923, dazzled, he exclaimed: "Why, it's better than Man Ray!" Also at that time he accepted Rössler as a member of the Devìtsil arts guild and systematically published him in periodicals, collections and exhibition reviews of the avant-garde. The early Rössler represented in an outstanding fashion the modernism of the period between the wars. For more than fifteen years he moved in the group of top internationals. Apart from photography he also devoted time to drawing, collage or pictorial poems, eventually typographic montages. He returned to the abstract, however, throughout his productive life, from the beginning of the twenties to the end of the seventies. Jaroslav Rössler served his apprenticeship in the firm of Drtikol & Co. in the years 1917 to 1920. This is also where he found his future wife, Gertruda Fischerová. The couple then lived from the end of 1927 in Paris (after a preliminary working stay in the French metropolis in the first half of 1926). Rössler supported his family by working in commercial studios and complained bitterly that in such an environment there could be no thought of the free soaring of the soul. In July 1935 he was arrested for taking photographs of a demonstration by state employees. The French police expelled him without delay from what was then the Mecca of the Arts as a sympathiser. Deeply despondent, he and his wife then opened a studio in Žižkov in Prague. During the war, which seriously shook the sensitive artist, he did not devote any time to art. His inspiration was aroused once more in the second half of the forties. The new creative firing was ushered in, apart from drawn reminiscences of the years in Paris, by montages of negatives exposed in France with new shots, such as the portrait of his daughter Sylva (1947). The exhibition "Experiments of the Fifties to Seventies", realised thanks to the helpfulness and co-operation of the author's family, focuses on the period when Rössler's visions were altering considerably. Not only the photographer's heritage from between the wars, but also after the war is among the most original Czech contributions to the history of art in general. Rössler began to work intensively once again with free creativity in the second half of the fifties. Although he followed on from the eruption of drawings of Old Testament and Parisian motifs at the beginning of 1949 at the point where he had ended twenty years earlier on leaving France, he did not stop at the evocation of the ghosts of the past. The second unique contribution of Jaroslav Rössler lies in the parallels to the informal, sometimes with a quite unusual pastel background colouring. These works, however, cannot be realised anew because Rössler's alchemy in the harmonising of the varied shades remains a secret. As a result of having been sold up Rössler's often unique works have become scattered not only among the depositaries of well-known institutions, the list of which takes up several lines in the New Encyclopaedia of Czech Graphic Art, but also in private collections. From there they rarely reach the light of day. Nevertheless, even the black-and-white enlargements of the post-war photographs now exhibited show the harmony of the author with the products of contemporaries a generation younger. Rössler was one of those who, with the beginning of the second half of the 20th century, uncompromisingly rejected socialist realism. One must consider as his colleague in particular Vladimír Boudník. Except that Jaroslav Rössler fought his way to completely personal expression in hiding and introvert isolation. In spite of all the exceptional circumstances Rössler's experimentation fits the requirements of the expression of the period: from the fifties he worked in a line going against (although he himself had promoted it) the geometrical depiction of simple (and through purist vision further simplified) objects. And also against other remnants of the morphology of the avant-garde between the wars. Rössler's innovations were in harmony with the processes that on the other side of the Iron Curtain might be called subjective photography. If after the First World War Rössler was led by existential inevitability to the decorative design of advertising space, from the fifties he produced, apart from his livelihood, pictures on a basis that was technologically quite different and at the same time also spiritually original. The refined creative processes, which he used for this purpose, included the Sabattier effect, pigment and the turning of a negative into a diapositive. The author also liked to make photography creatively special by means of a prismatic attachment enabling the multiple interleaving of the motif in the picture, which was his own invention from the twenties. In the fifties, in addition to this, he projected into the arrangement of a still-life diapositives of further shots. Quite frequently the combination of the various procedures goes so far that it is impossible to decipher them. Rössler's heritage consists of some 710 negatives. Of these 55 were newly enlarged by the author's daughter. The dimensions of the positives do not exceed the customs of the artist's youth, measuring at most 27 x 20.5 cm. The aim is a triptych of exhibitions in the Josef Sudek Studio, opened at yearly intervals. Last year's "Early Abstractions" under the curatorship of J. Moucha presented 18 items from the oldest layers of his work (1923 - 1947); these were supplemented by a stylised self-portrait. These were almost all purely creations of light of which the negatives exist (usually on glass measuring 9 x 9 cm). Only variations very close in composition were omitted. The further two parts of the retrospective exhibition are comparable in extent and together correspond to the fact that roughly two thirds of the negatives are of post-war origin (6 x 6 cm on plastic). The amount of work makes it possible to model varying cross-sections. In doing this it is always necessary to differentiate the photographs intended only as an interim stage for further processing. "Experiments of the Fifties to Seventies" were selected by D. Korecký and J. Moucha. The dominant trait of the final stage of creativity will be portrayed by "Mirroring", which will take place in 2005 with D. Korecký as the curator. The selection of photographs is provided with approximate dates. The assigning of years is difficult in the case of Rössler, because he did not give up techniques once he had mastered them or invented them and repeatedly included them in the most varied ways, quite remote from similar ones. In the same way he returned to old negatives and processed them once again. Wherever it was possible we used as a basis the dates given for the reproductions published during the author's lifetime. Usually the works did not have titles even at the time of their origin. Josef Moucha, joint-curator of the exhibition Alexandr Hackenschmied – Prague / Paris / New York 11 February – 28 March 2004 Press conference on Tuesday 10 February at 11 a.m. in the Gallery of the French Institute, Štìpánská 35 Private View on Tuesday 10 February 2004 - From 5 p.m. in the Josef Sudek Studio - introductory speeches by Mr. Joël de Zorzi, Ambassador of the French Republic, David Korecký and Pavel Vanèát - From 6.30 p.m. in the French Institute - projection of the films Bezúèelná procházka (Aimless Walk, 1930) and Meshes of the Afternoon (1943), the projection will be opened by Tino Hammid, son of the author - From 7 p.m. in the French Institute - introduction by the Director of the French Institute, Didier Montagné, and Pavel Dias This exhibition, which takes place simultaneously in the Josef Sudek Studio and the French Institute in Prague, presents the photographic work of Alexandr Hackenschmied in its most varied aspects: freelance and advertising photographs from the thirties, documentary photographs from his travels with Jan Baa, from travels in the USA (1936), photographs from his stay in Paris (1939) and photographs inspired by his wife, Maya Deren, from the forties. This is most extensive retrospection so far of this legendary author. At the time of the exhibition there will be a cinematographic retrospection in the Ponrepo Cinema - the projection hall of the National Film Archives. The exhibition in the French Institute is supplemented by the projection of fifty photographs published in periodicals in the years 1928-35. For the exhibition a selection of theoretical texts by A. Hackenschmied from the thirties will be published in Czech and French versions. Extent of the exhibition: In the Josef Sudek Studio are presented some twenty photographs inspired by Maya Deren From the meeting with Maya Deren there arose not only key works of independent cinematography, but also an extensive series of civilian photographic portraits, nudes and arranged photographs inspired by their joint film work. These range from fanciful arrangements to passionate imagery. Some fifty photographs are exhibited in the Gallery at Štìpánská 35 New Photography Although photography was for Hackenschmied only the pathway to films, he dedicated himself to it with great enthusiasm at the turn of the twenties and thirties. Apart from an exhibition in the Aventinum Attic his photographs also appeared in other exhibitions and in many periodicals, but especially in his home periodical Pestrý týden (Varied Week). Hackenschmied was thus at this time among the leading pioneers of "New Photography", as well as one of the leading authors of applied photography. America 1936 Unique negatives from the trip of the members of the Baa Film Studio to the United States were discovered in Zlín only in 1999. They display both enchantment with the American style of life and also the reserve of the European with regard to the mighty American culture. Paris From February to June 1939 Hackenschmied found himself fleeing from Nazism in Paris. As a sudden refugee at the moment of the outbreak of conflict he returned once again, after many years, to photography and the result was an outstanding series of photographs, which departed, as it were, from the heritage of the photographic avant-garde. OPENING HOURS: The Josef Sudek Studio (Újezd 30, Prague 1) is open daily except Mondays from 12 noon to 6 p.m. The Gallery of the French Institute (Štìpánská 35, Prague 1) is open Monday - Friday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. and on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Ponrepo Cinema (Bartolomìjská 11, Prague1), for programme see www.nfa.cz Curators: Pavel Dias, Pavel Vanèát, and Petra Kosková Author of project: Jana Bartoníková Texts: Alexandr Hackenschmied, Pavel Dias, and Pavel Vanèát Realisation: Anna Pravdová and Lada Hubatová-Vacková (French Institute), David Korecký (Fotograf v zahradì - Photographer in the Garden) Graphic design: Ateliér 2GD Acknowledgement of assistance and co-operation: NFA - Briana Èechová, Cabinet of Alexandr Hackenschmied in the Museum of South-east Moravia in Zlín, Moravian Gallery in Brno - Antonín Dufek, TORST - Viktor Stoilov, Martina Kudláèek, Jiøí Novotný, Václav Kofroò and Marian Beneš …and especially Saša, Julie and Tino Hammid The project was supported by: The Tomáš Baa Foundation Organisers: Fotograf v zahradì and the French Institute in Prague Text for the exhibition: ALEXANDR HACKENSCHMIED (*1907) Alexandr Hackenschmied (from 1947 the American citizen Alexander Hammid) is one of the founder creative and organisational personalities of modern Czech photography and films. From the end of the twenties he published in the periodicals of the time photographs in the "New Eternity" style and at the same time gradually made himself known in the film profession. In the course of the thirties he then became one of the most important Czech filmmakers and from the forties he made a name for himself in the USA as the author of documentary and experimental films. Hackenschmied was already interested in photography and films when still studying at secondary school and he began to develop both interests more emphatically already at the end of the twenties. An important impulse for him was a visit to the exhibition Film und Foto in Stuttgart in 1929. In May 1930 he organised the turning-point exhibition New Czech Photography, which meant the first joint appearance of the most important representatives of the Czech photographic avant-garde, among whom were represented, apart from him and his friends L. E. Berka and J. Lehovec, also J. Sudek, J. Funke, J. Rössler and others. Apart from the exhibition in the Aventinum Attic his photographs appeared at that time in many periodicals, but especially in his home periodical, Pestrý týden (Varied Week). Hackenschmied was one of the pioneers of freelance and applied "New Photography". Photographs from his earliest and most intensive photographic period are unfortunately known to us mostly only from the work published in periodicals. Already in 1928 Hackenschmied was co-operating as an assistant architect with Gustav Machatý on the film Erotikon and he gradually worked his way in among the film professionals. In 1930 he also made his first film as an author - Bezúèelná procházka (Aimless Walk), which he introduced at the first of four weeks of independent films organised by him in the Kotva Cinema. In the first half of the thirties he participated in several more films, both of his own and of others, and he contributed, among other things, the radical editing of the film Zem spieva (The Earth Sings) by K. Plicka, awarded the Gold Cup at the Festival in Venice in 1934. In the years 1935-39 he participated, together with E. Klos, L. Kolda, F. Pilát, P. Hrdlièka and J. Lukas, in the beginnings of the Zlín Film Studio and here he created a number of advertising and promotion shots still valued today. The advertising film Silnice zpívá (The Road Sings) received an award in 1937 at the World Exhibition in Paris. Unique negatives from the journey of the members of the Baa Film Studio to the United States in 1936 were only discovered in Zlín in 1999. Within the framework of his Zlín commitment Hackenschmied also accompanied J. Baa in 1937 on trips abroad to Italy and India, from which he brought back extensive film and photographic documentation (later included by E. Klos in three films). After co-operating in the film Crisis by director Herbert Kline, dealing with the German annexation of the borderlands, he spent the period of February to June 1939 in Paris fleeing from fascism. Here, as a sudden refugee at the moment of the outbreak of conflict, he turned once again after many years to photography and the result was an exceptional series of photographs, which seemed to depart from the heritage of the photographic avant-garde. At the end of 1939 he departed via London for New York, where he began to co-operate in further projects with H. Kline, including a film to the libretto of J. Steinbeck - Forgotten Village. In 1942 he became acquainted in Hollywood with Eleanor (later Maya) Deren and together they made one of the foundation works of American independent films - Meshes of the Afternoon. In Deren's further films he participated as editor and technical adviser. The meeting with Maya Deren resulted in more than one key work of independent cinematography and also in a large series of civilian portraits, nudes and also arranged photographs inspired by their joint film work. In 1943 Hackenschmied moved, this time permanently, to New York. He gradually implemented himself independently as a director, cameraman and editor of documentary films and then in the course of the sixties and seventies, together with Francis Thompson, as a pioneer of technically demanding film formats (IMAX). In 1965 their film To Be Alive! won an Oscar as the best short documentary (Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Subject). When making his last film, On the Wing, he returned twice to Prague for the last time in 1986. Although Hackenschmied devoted only a few years intensively to photography and later at least occasionally, from the point of view of the history of photography his photographic works is very closely connected to his film work and cannot be completely separated from it. There thus spreads before us a sequence of pictures that belong among those, which prefigured the culture of the main part of the century, based as it was on pictures to a hitherto unseen extent. His photographic work, however, still speaks out independently, with justified self-confidence and ever-amazing lightness. Pavel Vanèát JAN RABA – In a Different Time 9 January – 8 February 2004 Private viewing on Thursday 8 January at 6 pm Exhibition to be opened by Josef Moucha, musical performance by Theo Kampfer. The curator of the exhibition is David Korecký. The Photographer in the Garden - Josef Sudek Studio would like to invite you to an exhibition of work by Jan Raba entitled In a Different Time. This exhibition of photographs, made up of a selection of the author's cycles Still Life with Fruit, Picture of a Place, Peaceful Things, Sequences and also In a Different Time (all made between 1998 and 2001), is the first showing Jan Raba's work in Prague. The names of the different parts of the exhibition lead you to understand that there will be a contemplative atmosphere in Sudek's garden studio in January. Jan Raba was born in Týništì nad Orlicí on 17th March 1943. Josef Sudek, in a replica of whose workshop Jan Raba is now exhibiting, turned forty-seven on that day. Raba's photographs certainly stand out here - for the right reasons, which we can see at first glance. Like the two-generations-older Sudek, Raba devotes his attention to classical genres, such as still lifes, landscapes and also portraits. But the whole thing is more complicated, and therefore more interesting. A carefully prepared catalogue to this exhibition, the curator of which is David Korecký, was published last year. This was enabled by the Art Gallery in Náchod, the town where Jan Raba has lived since the 1960s. The volume contains commentaries by Tomáš Pospiszyl and Jan Kapusta junior, who was the curator of a retrospective in Náchod. In the catalogue you can find more detailed information about Jan Raba's work, his exhibition and print activities and his work in cycles and sequences over three decades. Raba has been taking pictures since his childhood and also trained as a photographer, which led him to return to it repeatedly after further education and various problems in other jobs. Although there is no continuity in the sense of him being creative constantly, this is no lack of an unbroken internal thread. In his case the breaks are not dead time, as the author's development as a human being continues during them. There are fine differences with the work of Josef Sudek. Raba is interested in phenomena that we would not expect from Sudek, for example the diagonal composition of a wall painted with a roller (Staircase, 2000). A clearer innovation is the concept of a series of pictures which follow either transformations in a selected motif over time (Aging of Fruit, 1998) or are views of a place taken from various angles (Deserted Orchard, 1998). However, I regard the most important things as those which link Raba and Sudek. The work on display was clearly created with a great deal of care. The first of Raba's photographs to be exhibited in 1957 were taken using a plate camera. By the way, he was given the camera by his father, which I think is a sign of one of the characteristics of good family. Without the precision of the shots, he could not have achieved the effect he did, which makes the pictures attractive for viewers, amongst other things. It becomes a stakeholder in the meaning of the photographs, as it is the bearer of the message. All the simple motifs - whether shown by Sudek or Raba - are certainly not mere passing observations. On the contrary. The well-thought out photographs stick to their themes like glue. They are a confession of awareness of the passing nature of life. They attract the viewer's attention not only to the pictures themselves, but they also turn it from the photographs to our life in the world as such. Jan Kapusta junior rightly points out the existential grounding of the exhibits. The Josef Sudek Studio is reviving work in genres which are often forgotten in the current hectic round of exhibitions. The In a Different Time Exhibition of work by Jan Raba paradoxically proves that their message is perhaps even more urgent. Josef Moucha Zuzana Knìzeková, Soòa Sadloòová a Jana Znášiková – „SVETLOFÍLIA" 21 November 2003 – 4 January 2004 Private viewing on Thursday 20 November at 6 pm Josef Sudek Studio, 30 Újezd, Prague 1 An exhibition of three young slovak photographers who graduated last year at VSVU in Bratislava by the profesor Milota Havrankova. Curator: David Korecky, text for exhibition: PhDr. Eva Trojanova. Man and Space Although Zuzana Knezeková, Soòa Sadloòová and Jana Znášiková, recent graduates from the Department of Visual Arts at the University of Fine Arts in Bratislava, initially chose the above title for their exhibition in the studio gallery of Josef Sudek in Prague as a working name only, they later made it more specific by calling it "Photophilia". I think it clearly expresses the nature of their art, in particular the core issue of space - a central question for every artist. The question of space is actually in the focus of all visual arts, irrespective of whether they deny it or look for new expressive means and relationships for it. Thus, we must logically ask what the pieces of art presented by the young photographers add. I would not like to worship or condemn youth because it is neither a merit nor a permanent condition, yet many young artists typically and somewhat demonstratively topple traditional procedures, often identifying the means, i.e. the tool, with the end of the process, i.e. the artifact. Of course it is impossible to place an equality sign here. We might expect young authors, with the photographic medium predestined for this, to fall headlong over current digital technologies, allowing for various visual effects and magic. But surprisingly (or perhaps not) they remain with their feet on the ground, while trying to convince us by not only knowing their "craft" but also by being able to present their views about working with the object lens. They have chosen a simple and classic means, which means light in photography: luminography, perhaps attractive because of its simplicity. Since a camera lens open long enough allows you to work with the image in multiple layers, using the game of chance, the resulting impressions may be more convincing than theatrical, or an artificial looking arrangement like in a theater. In any case, it very often has the charm of the unwanted. All three artists more or less build on a certain kind of almost documentary realistic photographic record, which is possibly a common aspect of their artistic interests. Examining them further, we can discern their individual differences of opinion and emotion - their respective perceptions of space, work with light, and understanding of the facts in a given context. The collection of photo-objects by Zuzana Knìzeková has a traditional title: "Panorama". The true object of her interest is the classic panoramic view of landscape; landscape as man's primary living space with all the good and bad it brings. How does the author handle it? How does she perceive this "living space"? She divides the landscape image into three parts. In the center there is the normal view, also in the context of the figural motif, and on the sides she has made space perception rather special. She interprets it as diffusing layers in various colors, which at the same time defocus the given image. She creates this effect by stacking layers of multiple transparent foil of a given motif. The question of space perception becomes indefinite because its movement puts its basic perception in doubt: what we see is not really as we see it. What about the panorama? The author may not have asked such questions, but in any case the audience may perceive it because she suggests possibilities of viewing the "traditional" image of reality differently. Soòa Sadloòová in her photo-object series of "Gates" most effectively uses the principle of luminography and long exposure. Her primary photographs document a series of trivial metal garage gates, garages that at first sight referred to the uniformity of our society as we experienced it everywhere not too long ago. Much has changed but the metal gates remain as mementos. What is behind them? Only after being opened do they reveal the original stories of particular people because the interior bears the owner's seal. The space obtains its unequivocal qualities. We in particular perceive the contrast formed by the closed gate and the interior after we open the gate - maybe an unexpected interior. For example, it may serve as a dwelling, possibly for students. Yet the interior can be more than a garage interior; this concept extends and diffuses in the question of what the interior actually is? Also the author suggests the relationships of other qualities by working with the light, which actually suppresses the real nature of the interior itself. By using colored lights and long exposures, she changes the real interior into a kind of magical space. The nature of her photo-objects - miniature gates that open into which we can peer inside, evoking connotations of wing altars that are keeping secrets. The secrets of modern men may not have such a sacred nature, yet they are no less mysterious. Jana Znášiková has also chosen a classic artistic theme besides the landscape: the portrait. She calls her series "Personal Stories", not her stories, mind you, but those of the persons portrayed. If one of the authors' common characteristics is space (e.g. landscape, garage interior), Znášiková has made her portraits in the same interior. The result of the dual view of the portrayed person is the gap, or the difference between a natural portrait in an unspecific space and a photograph of the same person in his/her own real context, in the world that the person himself experiences. The portrait, despite its frequent effort to be introspective, may, in the end, be very indefinite; yet a photography comprising personality attributes uncovers a world for us that we cannot see at first sight. Znášiková formally answered this question by using a different visual design because she presents the world of the portrayed persons using slides in small boxes, which the visitor needs to look at through a special ocular glass. At the same time, the author evokes in the audience a feeling of entering into the portrayed person's intimate sphere, a kind of thirteenth chamber that is not accessible to everyone. Unknown, unrealized, mysterious, forbidden, all these attributes are attractive for the visitor and motivate him to look at the exhibited pieces of art a little bit closer. The young artists will surely attract audiences by the fact that they have not set out to astound at any cost. They perceive the real world as something that certainly does form the basis of our world and art, but which does not, however, prevent us from longing to "touch the stars". Eva Trojanová ANTONÍN HORÁK – Photographer of the town of Zlín 19 September – 2 November 2003 Antonín Horák was born in 1918. In 1935 he entered the Zlín Studios (Zlínské ateliéry) and worked there alongside such photographers and cameramen as were Alexandr Hackenschmied, Jan Lukas and Karel Ludwig. In 1936 he assisted Josef Sudek on the photographing of the Baa Works. He co-operated as a cameraman with Karel Zeman and Hermína Týrlová. In the photographic work of Antonín Horák we can find the influence of pictorialism, new materialism and also surrealism. The Prague exhibition is a concentrated and intimate reprise of Horák's retrospective Zlín exhibition. Nudes, landscapes and portraits from the thirties to the fifties will be displayed. A retrospective catalogue has been published for this art project. "Horák's photographic pictures of Zlín in the thirties and forties are splendid and artistically perfect, works exceptional in their atmosphere. From everyday rainy moments of Zlín he created poetical magic, a beautiful experience… His photographic portraits of the thirties belong to the pinnacles of the period portrait culture of Czech photography." Pavel Dias Text from the catalogue Antonín Horák - Photographer of the Town of Zlín More information on the project: www.diosgallery.com More information on the Prague exhibition: David Korecký, Tel.: 606 666 242 Jaroslav Rössler – Early Abstractions 13 June – 27 July 2003 Jaroslav Rössler is the pioneer of purely photographic abstraction and is therefore one of the outstanding representatives of visual arts of all time. A corpus delicti has been gathered at the exhibition titled Jaroslav Rössler: Early Abstractions. Jaroslav Rössler (25 May 1902 in Smilov - 5 January 1990 in Prague) was an apprentice at František Drtikol and Co. from 1917 to 1920, where he also met his wife, Gertrude Fischer (1894 - 1976). The couple then moved to Paris in 1927 (after staying in the city over the Seine briefly in 1925). In July 1935, Rössler was arrested while taking pictures of demonstrating civil servants. His German surname was allegedly the reason French police authorities expelled Rössler from the then retreat of Euro-American culture. Rössler's post-war work is close to the orientation of a younger generation, refusing the figurative art that followed the Socialist Realism, a binding doctrine in what was then Czechoslovakia. The continued retrospective, titled Jaroslav Rössler: Experiments of the 1950s and 1970s, is a worthy comparison with the works of other leaders of that movement. However, in the 1950s, Rössler resumed his revelations of the early 1920s, when he approached the issue of original photographic abstraction. He also occupied himself with drawing, collages or graphic poems, creation of posters and typographic designs. In the 1920s, he developed a rectangular lens adapter, thanks to which it was possible to expose mingling reflections. Next year, Rössler's exhibition triptych in the Studio of Josef Sudek will be concluded with the planned collection of Jaroslav Rössler: Reflections. In early 1920s, Jaroslav Rössler presented innovations in expression, comparable to those of František Kupka (1871 - 1963) in painting, claiming world supremacy by exhibiting his abstraction during an Autumn Salon in Paris in 1912. Even though Rössler is a prominent figure, the fact that abstraction, unusual in photography of his era, was his continuous expression from the mid 1920s to the late 1970s, has never been exclusively reflected in literature (e.g. in professional magazines). Alvin Langdon Coburn (1882 - 1966), Man Ray (1890 - 1976), Christian Schad (1894 - 1982) and László Moholy-Nagy (1895 - 1947) are generally recognized as the pioneers of abstraction, followed by others. However, Man Ray, Christian Schad as well as László Moholy-Nagy abstracted with the use of photograms. No matter how novel their topics and technological methods were, they never broke the traditional uniqueness of manual painting. Photograms come into existence as a shadow play of items laid directly on photosensitive material. And when paper used to be applied instead of film, the result was impossible to copy without losing its quality. Man Ray made use of his invention of this technique in 1922. Before him, the same technology was used by the Dadaist Christian Schad, presented under the title of schadography. Only Paul Strand (1890 - 1976) and Alvin Langdon Coburn anticipated Rössler towards the end of the 1910s by abstracting with the use of a camera. However, strictly speaking, these were just single experiments and mere illusions of abstraction. Their themes were based on subjectivity and their photographs never got beyond materiality. For his creations, similar in principle but aesthetically unique, Rössler created paper constructions or other models - and he also developed abstract creations with the use of photograms ... These are originally cultivated positions that the exhibition avoids, to be able to present just the latest, revolutionary - and virtually ideal - diversion of Rössler's imagination from the photography of ordinarily shared realness. However, Rössler was not a confessor of self-contained formal ideas and he sought out possible ways of communicating with the outside world. This also influenced the tone of the author's self-portrait. The revolutionary character of Rössler's views of light sources - motion during exposure and a transformed combinations of lenses - was based on the fact that photographs were considered as multipliable, a fact accepted by the avant-garde, not as unique objects. While many of the author's photograms are typically missing, it was possible to create a collection of Early Abstractions and other sets particularly thanks to the kind care of the family and the interest of the Studio of Josef Sudek, organizing the triptych - Photographer in the Garden. The first collection focuses on the 1920s, represented by sixteen pieces, i.e. almost all pure luminous compositions that survived in negatives. Some of the alternatives that do not enrich the basic morphology have been left out. We are witnesses to Rössler's continuance in the primarily constructivist transformation of a classical genre of still-life into a series of variations. Two photo-abstractions document morphologically varied visions of the early 1930s, one photograph originated in 1947. New positives were processed by Sylva Vítová - Rösslerová, the author's daughter. They are the projection of entire negatives on standard photographic formats without, however, simulating the originals. The artefacts have no names and were identified only with dates provided in literature. In some cases, it was difficult to decide on the side orientation of Rössler's images, as he himself sometimes varied in his interpretation of negatives. This is why the orientation differs in some publications, as do the dates. The Studio of Josef Sudek at Újezd 30 in Prague's Lesser Side will present the collection of Jaroslav Rössler: Early Abstractions, from 13 June to 27 July 2003. Josef Moucha, exhibition curator Lukáš Jasanský a Martin Polák – „Ignace" 25 April – 8 June 2003 Private viewing on Thursday 24 April at 6 pm Josef Sudek Studio, 30 Újezd, Prague 1 From 25 April, the Josef Sudek Studio will be presenting an authorial selection of an as yet unexhibited collection of black and white photographs of Czech photographers Lukáš Jasanský and Martin Polák, titled Ignác. The photographs were taken between 1998 and 2001. After several photographic cycles where the authors focused on details of cities and interiors, un-picturesque images of Czech villages and above all the striking Krajiny (Countryside) depicting the open and almost cleared horizons mainly from the Polabí region, these photographs take us back to the city, to Prague. The seemingly uncertainly composed, sometimes unfocused images of Prague buildings might remind us of the first photographers' old pictures. It is an ironic walk through the Prague architecture. The exhibition is open until 8 June. Gérald Assouline – On the baltic borderlands Mar 7 – Apr 21, 2003 Private viewing: Thursday, 6 March, from 18h00 The exhibition will be opened by the author with an improvised musical performance “Tango Baltico” Josef Sudek Studio, 30 Újezd, Prague 1, 118 00, www.sudek-atelier.cz The Josef Sudek Studio is exhibiting work by the French photographer and sociologist Gérald Assouline, whose sociological research brought him to the Baltic region for the last three years. On show are twenty black and white pictures that capture the specific atmosphere of the Baltic towns and the borderline regions. It is a subjective document, whose poetry emerges from uncertainty, concerning the place and time in question. Assouline does not answer these questions. The atmosphere of the exhibition is created by the photographs from „ghost town“, Karosta, Lithuania, an abandoned military harbour, empty after the russian army left. The set of photographs can be divided into ”winter” – a tranquil and peaceful section and ”summer” – the more dynamic section, where everything slowly comes to life. We can follow a parallel between the photographs and the present development of the Baltic republics, with a renewed search for national identity. The exhibition is supplemented by the projection of a short documentary by the author. The author’s biography: Gérald Assouline was born on July 15, 1951 in Vincennes (France). He went to university, majoring in socio-economics, and completed with a doctorate in developing economics. He has been working as a development expert (specialist) since 1984. He has taken part in programmes concerning organisational support for small to medium sized business owners and agriculturists in Europe and even in Central and Southern America. In 1987 he created the first photographs of the homeless in Brazil. Photography is, therefore, mainly a means to illustrate the situation, but at the same time to evoke interaction of the actors within certain groups of people. His photographic work is targeted at the greater public. The logic of the work becomes autonomous. This was followed by documentaries concerning the homeless in Brazil, the first world-wide social forum in Porto Alegre and the natives of the Borboletas tribe. He then started developing personal research and work on the ”Borderlands of Europe”. From recent exhibitions: ”Interior – Exterior”, December 2000 – January 2001, Eliane Poggi Gallery, Geneva ”Borderlands”, Galerie Image in Aarhus (Denmark) ”Impressions from the Baltic borderlands in winter”, organized by the Lithuanian Union of Art Photographers, June, 2002, Vilnius, Lithuania ”Impressions from the Baltic borderlands in winter”, within the framework of monthly photographs organised by the French Ambassador, December 2002, Riga, Latvia ”On the Baltic borderlands, summers, winters”, Josef Sudek Studio Gallery, April 2003, Prague, Czech Republic Exhibitions in preparation: ”Impressions the borders of the Baltic borderlands, summers, winters”, Le Bleu du Ciel Gallery, Lyon, France (more information on the author at www.qap.fr) The author’s commentary on the exhibition: This is the story of a personal journey of discovery within the borderlands of Europe, on the north-eastern side of the Baltic Sea. It is motivated by the desire to lose oneself, living on the border of one’s own capacity. To go there, where what we regard ourselves to be, does not apply. In these bordering lands between the East and West, which are a mosaic of the past and present, one can have the impression as if you were ”nowhere”. You perceive the presence of Lithuanian, Latvian, Polish, Russian, German or the absence of Yiddish. These newly independent states, where national identity is gradually being renewed, are a visible crossroads of cultural, social and language barriers emerging from the relationship between the various populations of Lithuanians or Latvians and the Russian speaking population. The work is primarily a subjective documentary. Impressions, discoveries, walks and meetings, that ascend in the form of a gradual bewitching in visual depiction of one’s own specification of Lithuania and Latvia. The faces, smiles, silences, landscapes, which seem strange, draw nearer and become unexpectedly close (without one being aware of it). Watcher – the traveller changes into a cat on his own window.. Gérald Assouline DRAGAN DRAGIN – „Planet of Shepherd” 17. January – 2. March 2003 Private view at 6 p.m. on January 16, 2003 The exhibition is open daily from 12 to 6 p.m. until 2. March 2003. Closed Mondays. Josef Sudek Studio, Újezd 30, Prague 1 The shepherd symbolizes constant wakefulness and protection. He’s often likened to the sun that sees all. He always watches the sky, sun, moon and stars. He anticipates changes of wind, and like a sailor he steers his flock. He knows the meaning of every sound. His senses are guided by wisdom sharpened by every day co-existence with the beauty and cruelty of nature. Josef Sudek's Studio presents eight diptychs: portraits of people paired with "portraits" of landscapes. They represent a selection from a large cycle of photographs by Dragan Dragin made in 2000 - 2001 in the Durmitor Mountains of Montenegro. The exhibition is accompanied by a small catalogue and a short film, which was created by the artist in the same period as the photographs. Dragan Dragin is a photographer originally from Yugoslavia, living in Prague. He studied at the University of Social Sciences in Yugoslavia and then photography art at FAMU in Prague. He is a co-founder of and lecturer at the BARTcentre for Performing Art Research in Montenegro and the Czech Republic. During the Balkan wars in the 90’s he produced a number of photographic cycles and video films on Balkan rituals with the support of UNESCO. Dragin has worked as a lecturer at the Duncan Centre in Prague; he is a collaborator on a number of international projects in the area of dance and performance. Dragin has exhibited in Prague, Brussels, Lier, Ljubljana, Belgrade, Novi Sad, Amsterdam, Paris, Arles, Rome and has received a number of international awards. contact: dragandragin@hotmail.com www.sudek-atelier.cz sponsored by PPF The cycle “Planet of Shepherd” revolves around expressive faces set in and against the landscape in which they live. Visual discipline, pureness of form and attitude all help to mediate the authenticity of the life of shepherds who even in the 21st century live in harmony with nature. In this respect the author’s attitude is very straightforward and intimate. The photographs present a suggestive picture of life deeply influenced by the surrounding landscape. “Planet of Shepherds” is a part of Dragin’s photographic work centred on Balkan rituals within the framework of long-term research carried out by an independent group of artists and the BARTcentre in Montenegro. Beginning with the project “Landscape as Faith”, the BARTcentre started an international cultural initiative whose aim is to help the integration of the Balkan people using creative work, summer schools, art workshops and performances with the participation of local inhabitants. In the past, Dragan Dragin has created a number of photographic collections for several theatres. His photographic cycle “Diary of Silence” received recognition in France. The author is a talented photographer interested in art-oriented documentary photography whose work bears the mark of a deep personal and emotional involvement. Pavel Dias, Senior Lecturer Department of Photography, Film Academy of Prague Jindøich Vávra : Photograms „FANTASTIC SUPER ATTAK ART BOY“ 22 November 2002 – 12 January 2003 Josef Sudek Studio, Újezd 30, Prague 1 When, almost two years ago, artist Jindøich Vávra (1928-2001) passed away tragically, his extensive body of work almost ended on the garbage heap. Fortunately, a group of his pupils saved some of the work, and they are now exhibiting, in co-operation with the Josef Sudek Studio Gallery, sixteen of Vávra’s photograms from the years 1963-65. These photograms were exhibited for Vávra at Mánes in the year 1965 by Jiøí Koláø himself. However, since the beginning of the seventies they had been hidden from public view in Vávra’s apartment. We now have the chance to recognise one of the lesser-known chapters of Czech photographic history. The photogram technique, which works with photographic chemicals but does not use a camera, is often excluded from the photographic family and thus unjustly remains of marginal interest as uncommitted experiments with photographic paper. As the cycle of Vávra’s photograms shows, this technique brilliantly suits the expression of timeless and spaceless structures which other techniques would have much greater trouble achieving. The exhibition is accompanied by a showing of the documentary “A brief glimpse into the studio of Jindøich Vávra”, filmed shortly after Vávra’s death. In his work, Vávra followed all of the known changes in creative thinking in the second half of the twentieth century. His early attempts at painting experimented with certain expressional means of the “isms” in the first half of the 20th century, then suddenly approached the creative work characteristic for the rising Czech informel. Painting, however, was not meant to become the core of his creations and the experimenter’s attention soon turned to other areas. At the beginning of the sixties, he developed the photogram technique, enriched it with contemporary structural elements, and in 1965 exhibited his photograms at the Mánes Club of Creative Artists. At the same time, he gradually created the concept of “found abstraction”, parallel to Duchamp’s ready-mades. Slowly and laboriously, he constructed an assembly of consistently new discoveries. The development continued for many long years and never stopped. At the beginning of the seventies, he finally stopped painting, but even before this, he had started supplementing his paintings with found items. He thus disturbed the traditional format of art work and changed it into a secondary assembly, which is simultaneously a denial and a completion of the former painting. Unlike traditional, compact works of art, which rely on a certain effect, his assemblies remain intentionally non-conformist and their effect is unforeseeable. They are more like configurations of random elements than sculpturally reworked amalgams. They do not affect their location in any other way then by simply occupying it with their presence. Their effect is secondary, because their whole is the result of addition and their materials are secondary raw materials. This is poetics of remainders, supplements, references and links, which in its introversion escapes and masks itself with its strikingly sovereign, yet incomplete, parts. It suggests the incompleteness of individual daily needs and the impossibility of creating a higher whole from them, the purpose of which would be human need as a sum of the array of the objects used. The objects are used, but they remain unused, because much greater skill was invested in them than any of them can regain through purposeful use. Vávra’s assemblies, therefore, are not machines for the absolute, but factories for the concrete. Vávra did not hesitate to pass on his creative method to his pupils. As a teacher at the Popular School of Arts, in March and April 1988 he organised a series of artistic works together with the children, under the name of “Stocking flowers heading towards May”. Children dressed in body art moved around land art through environmental art. The teacher does not interfere directly into DADActivities, only leads them peDADAgogically and documents the entire event. Vávra’s class was indistinguishable from his apartment and cottage, overgrown with assemblies and snowed under by children’s artwork. Everything in art can be recycled. The class, apartment and cottage serve as a depository and museum, but they are primarily recycling factories, laboratories for untried reactions. Text by Petr Šourek from the FANTASTIC SUPER ATTACK ART BOY – Jindøich Vávra catalogue. Graphic design by Eva Holá, published by Gema Art. This exhibition is realised with the assistance of the Vavrum Civil Association (www.vavrum.cz) www.sudek-atelier.cz The founder of the Studio is PPF, the operator is Gema Art