Since 2010 I have actively cooperated with artists Cyril Blazo. At regular "survey" of public space of Slovak towns, we have found inspiring images and situations. Based on these,we created an improvisational method of creating images that are funny and are also irony and critical reflection of the public space.
Education
2008 - 2010
Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Technology, Rybářská 125/13/15, 60300 Brno
Figurative sculpture studio 1, Head of studio doc. ak. soch. Michal Gabriel
2007 - 2002
Faculty of Education of Trnava University, Department of Teaching general subjects for 2nd grade school, combined of biology and art education
2002 - 2001
Civil military service in Cultural Pedagogic Centre DIVA - the production of historical musical instruments, Tulipánová 14, 917 01 (Miro Švický)
1999 - 1995
Vocational School of Forestry in Banská Štiavnica, study: art and craftsmanship of wood (graduation)
1993 - 1995
Private art school in Trnava (Doc. Akad. Mal.B.Baláž)
Work Experience
2010 - 2011
Stredná odbporná škola polytechnická Trnava
2011 - 2012
Základná umelecká škola Galanta
2013 - present
Slobodné umelecké povolanie
Exhibitions
Toolkit for Expression, Košice, Tabačka 2023
Revízia_ Považská galéria v Žiline, 2023
Body 3_ Krajská galéria v Prešove, 2023
Vedľajšie účinky , Schemnitz gallery, 2022
Od emócií k tvaru, Galéria Jána Koniarka, 2020
Erotic, Mesiac fotografie Bratislava, 2019
Domáca úloha, Altán Klamovka, Praha, 2019
Medzi krajinou a telom, Galéria Hotdock, Bratislava, 2017
Rukami a srdcom, Voderady, Umelecký festival, 2010
Akce Zet, Ústí nad Labem, Galerii Emila Filly, 2010
Výstava atelieru Sochařství 1. Fakulty výtvarných umění
VUT Brno, Praha, Dox, 2010
Výstava ateliéru Sochařství 1. Fakulty výtvarných umění
VUT Brno Divadlo Reduta. 2009
Výstava „BEST OF KLAUSURY“, Praha, The Chemistry Gallery, 2009
Nic na odiv…? Praha Kateřinská zahrada, 2009, intervencia do priestorov parku
Trnavský džezík 2008
Trnavské záhradné slávnosti: 2008, 2006, 2005
Kvalita super no problem - intervencia galérie hit do eventu Europa jezt Mak 2004
Media
Books
Užitočná fotografia Fotografia v súčasnom slovenskom umení, SNG, ISBN: 978-80-8059-219-6, s. 12, 26-27, 100-105
SONDA 1 Příběh slovenského (post)konceptuálního umění, Galerie hlavního města Prahy, 2019, ISBN 978-80-7010-147-6, s. 190, 176,196-197,201
Keratová, M. Cyril Blažo & Martin Kochan. Pub Art. Bratislava: Photoport v spolupráci s vydavateľstvom Slovart, 2017. 104 s. ISBN 978-80-556-2998-8.
Beskid, V. Miekkie kody/ Soft Codes. Tendencje konceptualne w sztuce slowackiej. Wroclaw: Muzeum Wspolotczezne, 2015. ISBN 978-83-63350-178, s.148-154.
Sýkorová, L. Postkonceptuální přesahy v české kresbě. Ustí nad Labem: Fakulta umnění a designu Jána Evangelisty Purkině, 2015. ISBN 978-80-7414-956-6, s. 106-107.
Gatialová, K. Martin Kochan Zateplovanie/ Insulation. Banská Štiavnica: Štokovec, 2013. 24 s. ISBN 978-80-89587-13-1.
Mráčková M., Šimonová B., Vejvoda V. Legenda o sídlišti. Praha: Akademie výtvarných umění , 2014. ISBN 978-80-87108-53-6, s. 106-107
Catalogues
CRITICON (Kritická maľba dnes) Múzeum Vojtecha Löfflera, Košice, 2018. ISBN 978-80-88760-80-1, s. 12-13.
Popelár, R. Young Slovak Contemporary painting. Trnava: Galéria Jána Koniarka, 2018. ISBN 978-80-85 132-80-9, s. 26- 31.
Rostislav Koryčánek. Paneland. Největší československý experiment. Brno: Moravská galerie, 2017. ISBN 978-80-7027-312-8, s. 60- 61.
Petišková, T., Knoflíček T., Hlaváček L., Pokorný M. Sochy v ulicích. Dichtung und Warheit. Brno: Dum umění 2017, ISBN 978-80-7009-181-4, s. 37.
Kančevová, N., Osamelí. Bratislava:GMB, 2016. ISBN 978-80-972425-0-3, s. 49,51,53.
Bodnárová, Z., Mikita S., Chovanová I., Reset 2015, XI. Trienále malého objektu a kresby. Banská Štiavnica: Štokovec, 2015. ISBN:978-80-89587-16-2, s. 16.
Šošková, N. Medzicentum Topolčany: V. Outdoor Gallery o.z. 2014 s. 36-37.
Fišr, M, Mílek, V. Prostor zlín 2013. Zlín: Krajská galérie výtvarného umění ve Zlíně ,2013. ISBN 978-80-85052-94-7, s. 40-47.
Šošková, N. Medzicentum IV, Košice: SPOTs, 2013. ISBN 978-80-971515-0-0, s. 18-19.
Šošková, N. Outdoor Gallery Betónový podstavec. Bratislava: Outdoor Gallery, 2010 ISBN 978-80-970806-0-0, s.7.
Houser, M., Zálešák, J., FAVU Diplomanti. Brno: Fakulta výtvarných umění, 2010. ISBN 978-80-214-4111-8, s. 38-39.
Beránková, A., Cinková, O., Daňhelová, V., Horničáková, A., Nováková, T., Veselá, R. Akce Zet. Ustí nad Labem: Fakulta umnění a designu Jána Evangelisty Purkině, 2010. ISBN 978-80-7414-300-7, s. 46-47.
Baladrán, Z., Čarná, D., Geržová, B., Fišr, M. VII. Nový zlínský salon 2014, Krajská galerie výtvarného umění ve Zlíne, ISBN 978-80- 87926-06-2, s. 74-75.
Magazines
Vančo, F. PORT No 21., ISSN 1337- 4907, 2014, č.4.
Macek, V. FoTo noviny, ISSN 1337-6454 č. 31/2015, s. 10-11.
Kukurová, L. Repolitizácia slovenského výtvarného umenia po roku 1989. Profil , ISSN: 1335-9770, 2013, č.3., roč. XX., s.68-71.
Ptáček, J. Individuální protesty Martina Kochana. Vlna, ISSN 1335-969X, 2012, č.52, s. 62-67.
Tamášová, A. Totalita vs variabilita. Flash Art cz.sk., ISSN 1336-9644, 2011, vol. VI. no.22, s. 34-37.
News
Denník N, štvrtok 18. augusta 2016 ročník 2. číslo 160.
Toolkit for Expression, kurátor výstavy: Samuel Velebný Košice, Tabačka 2023
Objektom stabilizovania nie je len telo ako také, ale aj nehmotné objekty ako salto, ktoré vďaka fixačnej skulptúre nachádza stabilizovanú pozíciu. Fixácia pohybu s bauhausovsko-funkcionalistickým výrazom vytvára metafyziku diel Martina Kochana, ktorá predstavuje manipuláciu aj súlad s fenoménmi ako gravitácia, premenlivosť a zážitok.
Počas vernisážového večera tieto procesy performatívne stvárnili: Su Tanaka (Národné divadlo Košice), Tamara Petrovčinová a Sofia Rauchová ( Konzervatórium Jozefa Adamoviča, Exnárova 8, Košice )
Kurátorovali sme so Samuel Velebný
Technické riešenia: Bernath Robert
Tím: Nicholas Wintzler, Viki Juhásová
Foto: Tibor Czitó
Podporil Fond na podporu umenia.
A child fell from the climbing frame, statue, 2020
Kaštiel Moravany (technical support from 4galery Galanta)
Side Effects, 2022
Schemnitz Gallery, Banská Štiavnica, Výstava: 24.9.2022 - 24.10.2022
Názov výstavy Martina Kochana je inšpirovaný kritickou teóriou významného nemeckého sociológa Ulricha Becka o rizikovej spoločnosti (kniha: Riziková spoločnosť, 1986). Beckopísal nový vývojový stupeň modernej spoločnostiacharakterizoval ho rizikom.Riziko je podľa neho následkom víťazstva technológii aspôsobu života, ktorý dnes vedieme na účet budúcnosti. Riziko znamená, že budúcnosť jeneistá a jedným z jej možných scenárov je predpoveď katastrofy.
Kochan riziko opisuje na úrovni tela a jeho pádu.Beck riziko charakterizoval ambivalenciou, alebo tiež iróniou, pretože anticipuje katastrofu, nozároveň tiež môže otvárať nové pozitívne možnosti.Kochantútodvojznačnosťprenáša na úroveň tela, ktoré naraz povstáva a upadá, ožíva aj umiera. Ambivalentnú telesnú poetiku, kedy jeden obraz v sebe spája pozitívny aj negatívny pól, môžeme nazvať grotesknou.
Groteskné obrazy sú dvoj-telesné, pretože vždy sa nachádzajú v procese premeny - „stávania sa“ niečím iným. V tomto zmysle groteskné telo nie je nikdy dokončené. Kochanove telesné obrazy sú performatívne, telo je prerastené s neživými predmetmi, alebo prírodou, s ktorými vytvára spojenie (kostra ruky prerastá v hrable, telo z ktorého vyrastá strom, figúra ktorá je ťažidlom a pod.). Telo pre Kochana nie je cieľom, ale nástrojom, pre formulovanie širších súvislosti a obsahov zakorenených v sociálno-spoločenskej, historickej alebo kultúrnej problematike. Groteskné obrazy predmetom len prepožičiavajú telesný charakter.Takouto dualitou groteskné telo opísal aj literárny vedec MichailBachtin, ktorý práve v priesečníkoch reťazenia tela s inými článkami identifikoval výraz grotesknosti.
Diela, ktoré sú na výstave prezentované nadväzujú na autorove skoršie práce, v ktorých sa zaoberal otázkami vizuálneho stvárnenia telesnosti a možnosťami umenia po moderne. Martin Kochanje intermediálny umelec, sebavedome pracuje a experimentuje s rôznymi médiami. Na výstave sú zastúpené objektové formy, koláž, video aj fotografické práce zaznamenávajúce jeho intervencie vo verejnom priestore.
Medzi najnovšie diela, ktoré sú na výstave prvýkrát prezentované, patria objekty a video. V prvom prípade ide o mužský akt v telesnom kŕči. Socha bola modelovaná v digitálnom priestore a výsledná prezentácia je sekundárnym prepisomvirtuálneho obrazu do 3-dimenzionálneho priestoru.Druhým prípadom sú dve abstraktné geometrické konštrukcie, ktoré usporiadaním foriem vychádzajú z ľudského tela. Konštrukcie odkazujú na ľudské telo, ktoré sa nachádza v zvláštnej polohe fatálneho pádua zároveň,pôsobia ako ochranné schránky pre toto telo.Novo vytvoreným dielom je aj poetické video, zachytávajúce telo uložené v zemi, z ktorého vyrastá strom. Kochan pracuje s archaickou symbolikou a rituálom stvorenia. Telo síce umiera, no zároveň sa stáva potravou pre nový život. To sugeruje nádej, teda, že koniec (ešte) nenastal.
Kurátorka: Lucia Miklošková
Intervention and performance in public space, 2016 - 2019
Supermarkets, a series of watercolours on chewing gums 2018
In this series of watercolours, in the first place I metaphorically refer to painting as "chewed", or more precisely a "pre-chewed" medium, commodity. In parallel / at the same time, I limit the consumption aspect of the painting into a mere slice and by folding of chewing gums, where the consumer is as if blown out, reduced to the size of an ant. It is the opposite of the world of advertising, where, on the contrary, consumers are inflated and magnified on billboards. I was also inspired by books written by Gilles Lipovetsky, where the author describes the manifestations of today's individualized hyper-consumer pop-market culture. It is my avant-garde, if I can say so boldly, demonstration of contemporary live painting through supermarket-chewing gum-micro-painting.
The exhibition project entitled Painting is the result of the joint creation of an artistic "tandem": Cyril Blažo and Martin Kochan. It is a continuation of their 3 previous projects (Sculptures, Photos and Pub Art). It represents a strong dose of juicy expressive figuration and many experimental positions of contemporary painting. The authors create their own wild "ride" through the medium of painting - an uncontrolled, crazy journey through paintings with unfettered creativity and broken dadapoetics. At the same time, it brings about a matter of vivid and elemental diversity and "testing" of the possibilities of contemporary painting against the background of a strong lesson of modernity. They format painting on various substrates: not only on canvas or paper, but especially on aluminium printing sheets, painting on chewing gum, or old prints, on the back of the canvas, on stretcher bar, etc. It is also about creation by various non-classical means: painting with markers, paints straight from the tube, painting with sprays, smoke grenades, painting with chocolate, feathers, etc. The colour of the environment is also special, where their common images are most often created. It is often a reaction, or else the creation in public space, or in the local taverns and local pubs in Trnava (hence the pub (lic) art). At the same time, they apply a holistic "alco-holistic" approach. The resulting creation is thus born spontaneously from the mutual creation, drawing, and also within communication or even drowning out the other. This creates a full-color collage of humorous encounters and scenes, ironic sketches, interventions and comments. Every idea becomes a big “bastard-work”.
The project was funded with a scholarship by the fund of arts support
Curator: Vladimír Beskid
Swelling
Kochan's intervention skilfully combines radicality with inconspicuousness. Although it appears to be an integral part of the public space, it also substantially changes and ultimately alienates it. The impact has the character of a rising terrain wave suddenly emerging from the horizontal surface of the sidewalk. In the strictly rectangular framework of urban space, this formation implies something organic, slowly growing, spilling over from side to side, like edema on the human body. For the author, this association is essential, because the origin of “Swelling” metaphorically connects with the presence of a larger number of people, whose personal frustrations, feelings of exclusion, neurosis or hatred are reflected in the face of the city in this way. If, from a medical point of view, one of the causes of swelling is an inappropriate allergic reaction of the body to foreign substances, Kochan sees them figuratively in information disseminated through current media and social media. The work does not directly suggest who is to give the ill society the antibody, however the nature of the installation suggests that it could also be the art, which for many is a small, sometimes annoying, in any case, perhaps, active virus. Curator: Tomáš Knoflíček (Brno sculptures in the streets 2017).
Migrating architecture
Martin Kochan's work is characterized by diversity in form and content - object / sculpture, painting, drawing, video or performance. A frequent subject of his interest is public space, housing estates and their architecture represented by prefabricated houses. He declared it in his works Antimonument (2007), Kite (2013) or The Non-Historical Core of Banská Štiavnica (2015). It intervenes in this environment in various ways, thus creating (not only) ironic paraphrases or responding to current social problems and suggesting further conceptual overlaps.
The name can act like an oxymoron, because architecture is mostly associated with immobility. Especially in the case of an element such as a column intended to fulfil a load-bearing function. However, this is not about migration in the strict sense, just as it is not about real architecture. Although the dimensions, colour or surface finish, correspond to those the author saw in Hlohovec, where they supported the ceiling of the passage in the panel house, it is only a hollow shell.
It could be said that the author works here with a game of paradoxes and references that intersect in different ways. It is an imitation of architecture exhibited in a space popularly called "under the pillars", where, however, there are no pillars. The shop window displays, that communicate a powerful impression, do not fulfil any supporting function. Theatrical scenery, or staffage. Joke, we'd like to say.
However, the ludic character, or theatricality, was not the sole intention of the author. He continues the tendency, which began with his work Antimonument, when he used a fragment from the housing estate architecture - a copy of the panel and moved it to the city centre. Its aim at that time was to point out the inadequacy of contemporary memorial work in public space and the contradiction of the ideas of the completed work with the ones of the client who ordered it. However, migrating architecture approaches differently the public space. The columns chosen by the author represent an important part of the architecture of the prefabricated house, which allows pedestrians to cross and thus forms a social space connecting the two streets. They have a universal shape and can be part of any space designed in this way.
However, migration must be seen in a broader sense. This is a shift from the real to the symbolic, as a basic aspect of art, representing one's own sign language. The columns become a supporting element here, no longer the architecture, but the concept. Originally useful (necessary from the point of view of statics) matter enabling the transition, it finds itself here in a position where it is isolated, deprived of its function and transformed into a form of sculptural-artistic work. It is also an imaginary transfer of art from the fringes of our interest to its centre.
Curator: Peter Molari
Deposit
In my installation I brought some things from my parent´s basement. I also adapted a wooden imitation of a block of flats for the interior of bunker in Nitra. Inside the basement, there were basic items, usually found in these kind of places, like old shoes, sport equipment, tools, various materials but also some artistic objects, which are stored in our family basement. In my opinion, a basement in block of flats has the same role as a deposit in a gallery. Tennants store there their objects, keep records about them and during holidays and anniversaries, they use them.
I created a concrete object called "non-historical core of Banská Štiavnica" for the event "The invisible Štiavnica". It represented a housing estate Drieňová in the scale 1:500. Originally I meant to install it in the centre of the town, as an alternative to traditional tourist locations, the descriptive models of historical centres, replicas and sculptures. Finally, I chose a different place, with a view on the Drieňová housing estate, with a neutral nature, non-defined by predetermined function, which enables us to percieve the work without irony and recession.
I live in a housing estate in Trnava town, which often inspires me to process the theme of collective housing in block of flats. I worked with this theme in the form of photographic series of geometric structures of insulation. One of my creative intervention in the public space was also monumental sculpture "Antimonument".
In 2013 a model of historical centre of author´s hometown was placed in one of the town squares. The trend of placing bronze historical models as a tourist and information points, has not arrived to Banská Štiavnica. I therefore took the lead by realization of "Antimonument", which draws attention to the modern "non-historical core" of Banská Štiavnica.
I try to think of housing estates in a broader context and associates various themes with the concept of existence in our cultural environment. On one hand, I recognize the function in the vision of cheap collective housing of previous political regime, but on the other hand, I notice the disproportionate market growth of this type of housing after the fall of totalitarianism. I assume, the state does not create adequate regulations and sensible housing policy for young families, paving the way for the indebtness of families. There is also a lack of culture in this environment, which is centralized into the historical core of the town. This trend acts antisocially and turns housing estates into ghetto.
Landscape painting (lenght: 28minutes, cut: Ján Šebík) by Martin Kochan is a multi-coded play. Title of the work is based on the historical genre of painting reinterpreted and updated by author. Traditional genre is here interpreted literally as naive and "raw". Kochan enters the countryside, paints the surface of the trees with lime and therefore multiplies the colorful fracture of birches. Applying lime on the surface of trees is commonly used in horticulture as a protective layer. In this sense, Kochan becomes a kind of healer, who takes care of the forest. He repeats the duct natural color of bark, respecting nature and the countryside. That is a non-violent intervention and revelation of a strange lyrical expression. It is a melancholical and romantic gesture, presented in the senselessness of conducting an action. Another level of understanding the work is opened at the moment, when Kochan operates with terminology of art history and thus enters the sphere of institutional practice. The record as a relation to the "painting" can be seen as a secondary output documenting intervention in the countryside. With this work, Kochan enters the land of the institutional debate on the specifics of media paintings, which ultimately allows us to state intervention itself called painting.
Exhibition "Supercomposition" was realized in the gallery Photoport (April, 2015), under the tutelage of Lucy Miklošková. It was a presentation of a series of photographs titled Thermal insulation – supercompostions. Views originated through spatial collages, drawing in architectural angles at which the different "prefabricated" objects overlap, so that created the illusion of a purely abstract compositions.
Supercompostions (summer 2015) were exhibited at the joint exhibition with Roman Gajdoš called geometries in 2016. It was curated by Vladimír Beskid and it was a collection of photos taken in residential areas. These are photographic cutouts and vistas to the geometry of the insulated block of flats. Our main work was a collection of four photographs with a common geometry, but different color. Subsequently, the color theme of one of these photos (Supercompostitions / insulation II) was used as a motive for a dress. In addition, at the exhibition were also presented the four drawings on the theme of blocks of flats (The birth of block of flats, The Kite, The holiday scattering and Stadium).
Insulation of the bus stop, 2014
By thermal insulation of blocks of flats in our neighborhoods, we try, at least visually, to correct the deficiencies and inherited greyness of the former regime. Insulation of a new bus stop creates an absurd situation, when the function itself is lost in the open space. Martin Kochan cynically responds on purpose of paid work, created by pointless surplus labor. The work, however, reveals more leves that are normally hidden from view. Because of glass, we can see the paintings which are inside and which is created by sticking insulation material on the glass. This gives our anonymous master builder an artistic status and quality.
Crust, 2014
This is an intervention into the stand of the former monument to V. I. Lenin on the Freedom Square in Banska Bystrica, which now serves as an outdoor gallery. Pedestal of the monument is made of brown-red marble and after the change of the regime, The statue of Leniin was removed from there. After the removal of the statue, a hole remained in the memorial. I decided to make a scrub on the place where the statue was pulled down. The scrab has become for me a metaphore for propagandistic art that is kept in a public space like an injury. The artist becomes only a stupid tool for the regime, used only for marking of teritory of the leading political party. The work itself ends in the background. After the change of political regime, metaphorically it falls off, like scab (People shed their propaganda ritual statue as an act of liberation). Curator Nina Šošková helped me to present antimonument "Scrab" to public.
At the beginning of my work, was mostly interested in engaged art in public space,. For me, the main inspiration were the works of action artists from the Eastern block. I primary used to considered art as a set of aesthetic, political and social aspects and individual outputs. Since 2010 I have actively cooperated with artist Cyril Blazo. Later, I started to work with Tomas Benedict and with others. Today, an important dimension of my work is humor, banality. This individual unity encodes into new contexts. On the one hand, it is a fair analytic conceptual work. On the other hand, it is not concentrated freestyle a bastard creation of multiple outputs, oscilating from monumental to momental. I think that today you can not think about my work as a single, comprehensive character - "brand", but rather an attempt to communicate across the broadness of hybrid languages and across media.
Insulation, 2014
The work was created in PROGR center in Switzerland organized by Banská Štiavnica Contemporary and supported by Ministry of culture of Slovakia and by Stadt Gallery in Bern. Here I discussed the topic of insulation of housing estates. I painted the handkerchiefs which I hanged one next to other. I chose handkerchiefs deliberately because such material is closer to me than traditional canvas. In the beginning, I was in Banská Štiavnica, painting according to the insulated panel house. I intuitively inscribed the gray brush strokes to the areas of unfolded napkins. I put handkerchiefs over a radiator and the hot air put them into motion. White painting on handkerchiefs reminded me of a housing estate. In the final composition I painted two handkerchiefs in the center. This developed an impression of windows on the block of flats. The project was developed by Katarina Gatialová, curator of the gallery Plusmínusnula in Zilina.
Kite Dragon This work will take place in Kosice on a housing estate near Kuzmányho exchanger Štítová, in which author Martin Kochan tried to combine two opposite standing prefabs by colored cotton thread. 150 windows from one prefab were combined with cotton thread over the other one. The artwork reminds kite dragon so name of this work is derived from it. Apart from the author himself residents of the flats also participated on making this artwork. They could choose the color of thread and they tied thread on the doorknob and then threw it out of the window. In addition to the actual work, the author and people acquainted with cultural activities exchanger Štítová on the estate.
The work has been implemented under the project Medzicentrum.
After the uninstallation of my artwork from the block of flats at the exchanger the volunteers by mistake disentangled the bundle of yarn, which I planned to exhibit again. As a satisfaction the same volunteers from the exchanger in Kosice knitted a hat for me which I wear during winters.
"PETráž"
The installation is created by colored lemonade in plastic bottles between bars in the arcade of Ostrava Museum in winter 2014. The work associated the colors which reacted on movement of visitors. It was created for Lauby gallery. Curator of installation was Tomáš Knoflíček.
Burning Dustbin – Monument of Liberty, White Night, Night of Contemporary Art, Košice, 2012
Burning Dustbin – Monument of Liberty was accomplished for the event called White Night, Night of Contemporary Art, Košice 2012. White Night is an event offering space for presentation of light art in public space. In this work, I opened the topic of street lighting by means of object in which I combined a classical dustbin with a flame taken from the motif of the Statue of Liberty. It is a combination of the “high” (flame of the Statute of Liberty monument) and the "low" (dustbin). It is something that functionally serves for waste and a part of something that serves as a reference point, for navigation. Monument of Liberty shows the flame illumination the path to freedom, metaphor of freedom or memory of the past. Dustbin represents the object that is being filled, emptied and that changes its position on wheels. It is the place of deposition, discarding, storing useless things, boxes, containers waiting for recycling, renewal. Burning dustbin is a sign of rebellion; it serves as a barricade during demonstrations in the world or as a means of protection against violence, firing. It is a kind of alternative, flexible monument of liberty, light, resistance and friendship. Since the object has an autonomous built-in source of power and it is on wheels – it was up to people where they installed it during White Night 2012.
Read more
Illuminating Trnava
Illuminating Trnava To commemorate the events of November 89 in Trnava in 2011 I decided to light the welcome sign by Milan Dobeš located at the entrance to the city of Trnava. The light welcome sign by Milan Dobeš dates back to the late eighties and at the beginning of a new regime it stopped lighting and started to decay. It consists of the sign Trnava built on steel bars. Using a ladder I installed one torch under each letter of the sign to make the sign TRNAVA to shine again after many years. My intervention in someone else´s work, which was, just as most of the high-quality works in public spaces of Trnava, forgotten and neglected, metaphorically “illuminated” the grassroots attempts to change and draw attention to cultural policy of the city of Trnava. The event had a positive response in the local media and one year after the publication the work came to life again thanks to the local MP Štefan Dvorský. Inspired by my intervention and following multiple complaints he arranged that this work is functional and it lights again. Milan Dobeš (1929) is an internationally recognized author of kinetic and light-kinetic objects, he is a representative of geometric abstraction in Slovakia and Czech Republic.
Read more (Revival of the welcoming board through a connection of artist and member of parliament)
Transfusion station, polystyrene, red oil paint, glue, 2011
In this work, I symbolically insulate my room by polystyrene.
Stains, unknown authors, action painting, photography on canvas, different sizes, 2011
"Patriot", hubcap on the car, polyester, gold and blue color, 2010
Patriot is the name of my practical diploma thesis related to the theoretical diploma thesis where I dealt with the status of art in public space in the city of Trnava after 1989. In my practical thesis I made one wheel cover for the right wheel of my parents´ car (silver Skoda Fabia). There was the historic emblem of the city of Trnava (cart wheel with a Byzantine ring and Christ´s head in the centre) on the wheel cover. I moved and displayed it in the city where I studied and presented it as a sculpture in a public space. The sculpture referred to the culture of the town I come from (Christian values, family and tradition after 1989). With this work I also tried to go beyond public art and figurative sculpture as I presented it as a whole during its migration. There are many paradoxes in my work. There is "The Good Soldier Schwejk´s” fiction of patriotism on one hand and on the other hand the mere functionality of the city emblem perishes with its movement thus getting a new, abstract, non-ideological resemblance, which I, myself, like more.
“Sfáranie”, Antimonument 2, MEDZCENTRUM III. BANSKÁ ST A NICA contemporary, Banská Štiavnica, 2012
I descended a mine – namely the hereditary drainage tunnel Glanzenberg in Banská Štiavnica. There are numerous memorial plaques in the mine commemorating visits by public personalities – scientists, politicians, kings, miners from all over the world. Among the historical plaques there was a plaque installed in 2003 dedicated to the visit of former president Rudolf Schuster and representatives of the Slovak cultural community. Next to the president, among the personalities eternized on the plaque there were several representatives of socialist realism and prominent chieftains of normalization in the arts such as the sculptors Ján Kulich, Tibor Bártfay and Arpád Račko. I took a picture of the plaque and sent two requests to the Bureau of Mines and the Municipal Office of Banská Štiavnica in which I asked for correction of the text. Specifically, I requested to remove the word eminent in the opening text of the plaque that was installed after the visit of Rudolf Schuster. In addition to sending the letters, I publicly displayed both requests in the premises
of the Mine Station Contemporary in Banská Štiavnica together with the copy of the memorial plaque with the flash reflection on the word "eminent" /významných/.
Antimonument - polystyrene, concrete, synthetic and acrylic colors, 2007
This object was realized in Trnava in 2007; in this way I responded to the monument installed in the city center. The monument was dedicated to the communism victims and it looked like a cake with a wreath and candles. I covered it with a copy of a building panel from a block of flats which I made in 1:1 scale. It was a symbolic shift of outskirts to the city center. I can see the panel that I chose for covering the monument from the window of my block of flats and I chose it because there were the most drawings on it. This abstract drawing was created by workers who fixed the cracked panel walls of the house with a white sealant. I made a copy of the panel from outer and inner side and leaned it against the monument. Through this gesture I pointed out that the real victims of communism are living in these blocks of flats. And 17 years after the Velvet Revolution the city of Trnava created other victims; this time I do not mean people who have to live in poor architecture, these are victims of the newly made object of art that is silly with its ideological reference to the nineteenth century through hymnal texts on plates fitted to the sides of the monument and the crack-opened cube with the chain ant the wreath.
Snow, 2013
The exhibition was conducted in the area AMT. Project curator of it was Lucia Gavulová. The exhibition was compiled from photos, of which the common denominator was the snow. The supporting were the images of interventions. On the one, I stuck snow on the block of flats, that I intuitively illustrated additional lines alongside lines formed by cracked sealing flat panels. This abstract painting refers to the work of Antimonument (2007) in which I covered the newly constructed monument with the imitation of the panel from block of flats. Among other interventions documented in the photographs is a removal of snow from the field - outside the area for walking - thus creating a white cross, or sketching designs on dew-covered car window while driving, which resulted in the sudden appearance of the countryside behind the window blurred by motion. At the exhibition was also presented an object named "Magorák" – a teapot, in which until the end of the exhibition was black tea.
The skyscraper –type blocks of flats started in 2004 as a reaction to a new floor built on top of one block of flats in the housing estate of Družba. The point is the irony that I have shifted into this kind of esthetical bizarre position. At the same time, the project introduces the criticism of the Slovakian “capitalism”, that builds its existence on the foundations of the previous regime and is incapable of bringing any new and progressive features into the public space. These formations were created when I wasn’ t very skilled in Photoshop (more specifically in the usage of ruler tools), and after some time, when I got back to these files, I just exaggerated its original asymmetry.
The exhibition "Art Pub" was premiered as a series of drawings created during the last two years in the hospitality of pubs with artists Cyril Blazo. Freehand drawing arose spontaneously. I was the joint work in which we showed motives of pubs - beer, weather, toys in children's corner and linked linking them with socio-philosophical associations, often mocking situations that we freely discussed. We later expanded these drawings to redraw printed materials and publications, thematically focused on hunting, safari, bodybuilding culture of Slovakia, or on the annual printed institutions. The exhibited drawings additionally complemented names registered on the gallery walls. The exhibition for the Stredoslovenská galéria was introduced by curator Mirka Keratová.
Homework, drawing, A4, 2010
The Homework, is a collection of drawings that was created during the time I spent working with students. I asked my students, to bring to me - as their tutor, on a weekly basis a drawing of any object they freely chose. To motivate them, I myself did the homework. Once a week, I made a drawing of an object on A4 size, each time from a different angle, it was a tape of a punk band O! Poloi.
Object
Object Guarded by Dog, Outdoor Gallery, Nitra, 2011
The Object Guarded by Dog was a performance in which I was reading the cases of dismissal of directors of galleries that took place during twenty-one years in Slovakia. While reading the individual cases my dog was chain-attached to the object – the stand of Outdoor Gallery in Nitra that the dog guarded temporarily during the event. It was also a metaphor for cultural policy in Slovakia for the past 21 years. Regional politicians act as watchdogs supervising the “correct” operation of cultural institutions. In the text, I critically reflected the situation in public cultural institutions such as galleries, theatres and libraries that are under the pressure from regional politicians who control both their finances and professional activities. I expressed my view that cultural policy in Slovakia should be free and independent as it is funded from our taxes. The practices of the cases mentioned in the texts I read I labeled as unacceptable and vulgar, putting the art and the science of art in the position of an ideological toy with a clear aim to get a political dominance and power over a public institution. I remarked that the public galleries are a professional, not primarily entertaining or “moralistic” territory. At the end of the event, symbolically, I left the dog collar and leaflets on the stand. Leaflets contained information that I read at the opening. And the dog owners were informed that they can also attach collars to their pets and thus find themselves in the role I demonstrated during the opening.
Read more info about exhibition
Theatre of support Beskid, performance, Theater of Ján Palárik in Trnava, Trnava, 2008
