EXHIBITIONS
Tree, man, animal, machine. About hybrid communities.
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13th - 30th July 2023
Gallery of the Prague Creative Center, arcades of the Minute House, Old Town square, Prague 1
Considering the current state of the planet, we are increasingly acutely realising that viewing the world through human eyes, specifically through the eyes of an individual human, is not sufficient. The prevailing pursuit of subjectively individualist interests causes the destruction of species and our own environment. Is it apparently the time to take into consideration shared (symbiotic) perspectives, including the perspectives of all other beings that inhabit the planet? The interests of animal and plant species are mentioned often, but what about artificial organisms – the entities that we created? Empathising with or taking the role of trees is what authors Marie Tučková and Christina della Justina focus on in their audiovisual installations. Be-coming Tree is a grass-roots community, creating, sharing and documenting close entanglement with trees and barefoot technology through collective global live-streamed events that involved so far more than 100 artist from 6 continents. Janek Rous and Peter Bill reflect in their works the shared (community) interest in the life of trees in the context of history of adverse civilisation processes and disasters. The ARTBIOM artist collective explores the aspects of the contemporary environmental crisis from various perspectives including the viewpoint of artificial intelligence.
Participating artists: Marie Tučková, Be-coming Tree (Jatun Risba, Daniele Minns and O Pen Be), Peter Bill, Artbiom (Tomáš Samek, Tereza Pinkasová, Tereza Vydrová, Jakub Vaněk), Janek Rous, Christina della Justina
Exhibition opening on 13th July from 18.30
Exhibition open from 14th to 30th July 10.00 - 20.00
VestAndPage: f̵̢̻͈̫̬̻͔̘̞͈̆̇̍̈̌͊ͅu̷̬̩̰̫͕̘͎̔́̃̄̍͋̓t̸̫̫̤͕̳̻̰̣̭́̌̉͝ͅu̷̬̩̰̫͕̘͎̔́̃̄̍͋̓r̵̡͕͈͚͍͍̼͕̍̀̈́̽̎̍͗̍́̏̚͜͠ǎ̴̯̀͠ s̴̹̀̎̇͗̍͗̾̋̏̈͐͒̕͠͠ͅp̴̩͙̺̩͓̣͈͖̎ͅǎ̴̯̀͠ǧ̷̡̟̲̹̩̱͉̮̭͇͚̮̖̟̽̓͊̔̓̕y̶͔͗r̵̡͕͈͚͍͍̼͕̍̀̈́̽̎̍͗̍́̏̚͜͠i̶̡̹͈͎̳̞͙͖̾̂̀͑̀͆̑̓̽̉͐͘͘ͅc̵̛̥͊ǎ̴̯̀͠
13th - 30th July 2023
Stone Bell House, Prague City Gallery, Old Town Square, Prague 1
VestAndPage were invited to Re-connect Art 2023 as artists-in-residence under a Prague Biennale Foundation programme to conceive a new site-specific project. The final project is futura spagyrica, a multimedia installation spanning eight chambers of the cellar in Prague’s Stone Bell House from the 13th century. The imaginary alchemic itinerary unfolds as a transcorporeal journey into the human body, with each room dedicated to an organ or an element of the human body. In its under-skin hospitality, micro- and macrocosms entwine, their interconnectedness dissolving the inner-outer boundaries of bodies, mainly composed of void and space, and therefore permeable, transmittable and porous. In this meditative journey at the threshold of what is not ordinarily seen, VestAndPage invite visitors to reflect on and trace possible ways to heal today’s collective body in dis-ease.
They have conceived futura spagyrica as a structural cluster inspired by ancient alchemic medicine preparation methods. The eight cellar chambers encompass two sections: spa – that which divides, separates and draws out – containing the brain, bones, eyes and vocal cords; and ageiros – that which unites, combines and gathers – comprising the heart, lungs, blood, spirit and skeleton. The route views the cellar exhibition site as an anatomic itinerary, embracing the human and the non-human, form and space, and the cells of the collective body. VestAndPage assume that space emerges from the interrelation between objects, structures and actions, suggesting an embryonic dynamic theory of space that considers the relational context in which space is constituted. As a result of both visible and invisible exchange processes, symbiotic coexistence occurs on the body level.
German artist Verena Stenke and Venetian-born artist and writer Andrea Pagnes have been working together as VestAndPage in performance art and filmmaking since 2006. In a psychogeography of symbiotic realms, they move between embodiment and research, the unseen and the unforeseen, the oppressed and unspoken, the forgotten and the repressed. Their art practice is contextual and focuses on art’s liminal, spectral and ritual nature. In their recent artistic research, VestAndPage correlate the activity of agent pathogens within the human body as a resource of knowledge linked to the context of the resilience of a body when one of the symbionts becomes toxic. Examining the interactions between a body and the pathogens dwelling inside it, they define performatively potential scenarios of the relationship between the body and co-bodies/forms of life. In their live performances, video and film work, they look at reality through the lens of a queer ecology to deconstruct the presumed inside-outside binary. Their recent works explore the ongoing mediatisation and digitalisation of the biological through phenomenological research, examining the layers of the real presence and virtual representation of living agents inside the human body. They look specifically at how the paramount reality of a hospitalised body or any life-body studied in a laboratory expands into and reflects onto the digital and virtual realm. They unfold narratives that bring notions of self, loss and healing into unknowable spaces, stimulating impulses that may lead to ongoing transformation.
The artist-in-residency program of the Re-connect Art festival in 2023 was implemented thanks to financial support of the European Union through the National Recovery Program and Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic
Exhibition opening on 13th July from 18.30
Exhibition open from 14th to 30th July 10.00 - 20.00
Commented tour through the exhibition on15th July
Live performance on 28th July
Invisible Ties. Iranian Diaspora and Woman, Life, Freedom movement
14th - 30th July 2023
(A)VOID Gallery, Rašín embankment, Prague 2
Cell 17, Hořejší embankment, Prague 5
Art has historically been one of the most important ways to visibly stand up for humanist goals, express the desire for freedom and share gestures of protest and solidarity. Over the course of months of cruel repressions, artists in Iran and all over the world have been supporting and responding to the acts of resistance against the authoritarian regime, which began following the violent death of Mahsa Amini on 16 September 2022 using political and often viral works of art. They often use existing and universally understood symbols of freedom such as the red-green-white Iranian flag, a woman symbolizing Iran, clenched fists, the act of cutting hair, a tulip representing martyrs’ blood, slogans (in particular Woman, Life, Freedom) written in the traditional calligraphy style, and the historical Azadi ‘freedom tower’ theme. In a topical manner, the artists build on their own criticism of the regime that they have often pursued for decades.
Participating artists: Kianush Faried, Yasmin Golshani, Shadi Harouni, Mandana Moghaddam, Soroush Sanaeinezhad
Exhibition opening 14th July at 6 pm at Cell 17, Hořejší embankment
Public discussion with: artists Yasmin Golshani and Soroush Sanaeinezhad and Mona Khademi, an Iranist scholar from Faculty of Arts, Charles University on the destinies of the members of the Iranian diaspora, current situation in Iran and art in general on 14th July from 7.30 pm at (A)VOID Gallery.
Opening hours:
(A)VOID Gallery: Mo-Fri 15.00 - 23:00
Sa-So 12:00 - 23:00
*May be closed in case of bad weather.
Cell 17: daily from 15.00 - 20.00
Mothers Artlovers: Re-con-action, exhibition, live performances, workshops, safe space
16th - 22d July 2023
Piazzetta and ground floor of the operating building of the National theatre, Václav Havel square, Prague 1
The concept of the Re-connect Art Festival was born three years ago as a reaction to the situation imposed by the global pandemic crisis and responds to the need of artists and society as a whole to reconnect, both in the virtual and physical space. Even after the pandemic has passed, digital communication increasingly often replaces real encounters. Community Re-con-action consists in searching for answers to the question of how online communication in the times of lock-downs influenced the work of the Mothers Artlovers art group. It includes reflections on the online period, during which they incorporated online performance into their practice, established collaboration with the Berlin-based Maternal Fantasies collective and expanded their group to include several international members. This will create a space for encounter, sharing and self-reflection in the form of collaborative mapping of the collective body. The cumulative installation will emerge and continuously transform throughout the exhibition and live program.
Mothers Artlovers is a group of women who started meeting in Brno and Prague in December 2016. It is a support group for mother artists. It brings together mostly visual artists, theorists, curators, documentary filmmakers and activists – creative women for whom art is vital and whose interest in creation has not been stopped by motherhood. The members of the creative collective are mutually striving to make care more visible in the art world and in society in general, which is also the theme of their contribution, which comments on the current situation in two parts – text and images. The collective’s practice merges artistic creation with activism, with one complementing the other, which is why the visual part of the essay includes both collaborative actions in public space and individual works by the member artists.
14th July 16.00 - 20.00 Collective Body
Open meeting of Mothers Artlovers and mapping of our collective body. We'll be discussing the themes that resonate within our collective, which moments were significant and what we want to focus on next. The creation of the collective body map will be facilitated by Zuzana Štefková and Darina Alster. The live drawing recording will be done by Libuše Vendlová.
16th July 20.00 - 21.00 Screeners
Performative lecture by Petra Pětiletá is named Screeners.
I'm generation Z. The screen is the mirror and the mirror is the screen. I'm looking at myself, through myself into a binary universe. The portal is the app icon, it opens the gates to the next layer, the old familiar new digital world.
18th July 15.00 - 18.00 Parent-con-action
A fusion of a small parent festival of Kača Olivová's performance with a workshop on recording corporeality by Hana Hillerová. How does our artistic production change with the acquired parental experience? A festival by parents, for parents, for children and for everyone.
22th July 15.00 -18.00 Spheres of Love
Community Healing by Petra Janda is called Spheres of Love.
It is a collective weaving of the straw spheres, to which Petra offers us the mantra I love and am loved. It is essential that in today's speed and performance oriented world we do not forget to love, respect and mutual sensitivity. As we weave, we will talk about love and the workings of communities. We will try to reconnect with our own fragility as well. The spheres we weave may become part of Petra's larger realization as she treats touch, and therefore the connection and sensitization of people from different walks of life and generations.
22th July 17.00 - 19.00 The Body of the City
The workshop by Eliška Fialová is called The Body of the City.
A free monumental collective chalk drawing on the Piazzetta of the National Theatre. Suitable for anyone of any age.