KRYPTONORMAL

Filip Turek is one of the most original although the least known figures in
Czech art over the past two decades. His works are characterised by a sense of humor, playfulness and intellectual paradox. Filip Turek’s exhibited objects, installations, photographs and computer images were created over the past 20 years. Rather than a chronologically arranged retrospective, this exhibition attempts to document (in some cases reconstruct) randomly preserved artifacts. It’s a chance to become acquainted with the historically recent part of Czech art history, that has yet to be examined. A somewhat Duchamp-like strategy of artistic mystification and the creation of a personal mythology are characteristic of Filip Turek: he exhibits confusing artifacts without any explanation, places an obsessive emphasis on sexuality, takes on various identities and has seemingly abandoned art in favour of other activities. In the early 90s Filip Turek was part of the first generation of artists that began to work with objects and installations. He was drawn to aspects of everyday life, which in certain contexts allowed for diverse readings. In his assemblages Turek paradoxically employed features of original materials and functions. Discovering multiple meanings in found visual materials, he appropriated them in a post-modern spirit with an inclination to creating unexpected meanings. In early objects and the series of images From the History of Art he personally interpreted historical art from Gothic to minimalism. In the series Jindřich Chalupecký Memorial Contest he used a method for deviating and subversively relativising references to the period of the untouchable figure of Czech intellectual life. In the mid nineties he used computers to assist in the creation of visual collages and remixes. His objects from recent years take the form of enigmatic themes and secret fetishes. Fellow students, friends, and co-exhibitors of Filip Turek include Markéta Othová, Kateřina Vincourová, Jiří Černický, Štěpánka Šimlová, Ivan Vosecký and Petr Lysáček, and he has been closely associated with the Pondělí group and Divus publishing. In the 90s he exhibited at the MXM gallery and participated in exhibitions curated by Jana and Jiří Ševčík and Martin Dostál. While a certain group of artists and theoreticians highly value his work, he is virtually unknown among the broader artistic community and public. This may be a result of artistic passivity or his direct boycott of exhibition opportunities which he does not consider to be essential for his activity. In recent years his artistic creativity has been increasingly channeled into his private attitudes and life views.
Tomáš Pospiszyl