Martin Piaček on Artyčok

Tvorba Martina Piačeka (1972) sa od roku 2006 tematicky zameriava prevažne na osobnú identitu z národno-historického aspektu, geneticky náhodnú príslušnosť k slovenskej národnej a štátnej identite, ako i z toho vyplývajúcu nesamozrejmú kultúrnu identitu. Piaček venuje osobitý záujem kritickým miestam “vlastnej” národnej histórie. Diela sa vyznačujú nedôverou k oficiálnym dejinám, ich lineárnej kauzálnosti a účelovej mytologizácii. Potrebou vyrovnania sa s danou predetermináciou i zvedavosťou spojenou s osobným výskumom.

First, I'd like to talk about what it is.00:00:03.160
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It might be easier to understand.00:00:07.600
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Let me show you this head.00:00:13.560
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I'll show you the head.00:00:19.880
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It's the same thing you can see here in plaster.00:00:28.120
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And this is the original I have got it from Zuzana Majlingová,00:00:40.400
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whose family was partly Jewish. This statue has an interesting story.00:00:45.960
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During the Slovak state (Nazi satellite state of the 2nd WW)00:00:49.480
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Jewish families were forced00:00:53.840
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to buy these objects as an artificial proof of loyalty, but in fact,00:00:57.320
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it was a form of racketeering.00:01:03.480
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It's a very nice work, though. Its author was Rigele,00:01:07.440
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and only later it was published by Tatran Bednár in this form.00:01:12.400
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I've long been interested in the story of Hlinka00:01:18.760
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as the Father of our nation and I tried to express it00:01:23.760
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in these works, using a new technology00:01:29.520
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that I was shown by interesting young scientists00:01:34.440
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from the Institute of Materials.00:01:39.760
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It's aluminium foam creating new, unexpected shapes.00:01:43.240
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The process can't be controlled.00:01:48.720
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These deformations are very interesting for me.00:01:53.640
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I'd like to use most of these castings,00:02:00.240
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from completely unrecognizable shapes00:02:04.760
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to fairly accurate reproductions,00:02:09.240
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in one larger project.00:02:12.760
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Sometimes, when the mold is removed,00:02:16.360
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a sort of halo is created.00:02:20.080
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Let's move to the busts.00:02:26.040
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This is what I'm currently working on.00:02:31.840
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The original is up there, it's a clay sculpture I found.00:02:36.360
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I made a mold from it00:02:42.200
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that can now be used to casting in bronze.00:02:47.000
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It's interesting to see how this accidental flaw00:02:52.080
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makes Štefánik look like a weary gladiator00:02:57.840
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after a fight.00:03:03.960
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His features are a bit worn out.00:03:09.000
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The title of this work is00:03:18.920
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"Self-portrait as the Bust of Milan Rastislav Štefánik".00:03:22.440
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It's my attempt to deal with his legacy in my own way.00:03:28.080
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After I'd read his diaries and the things written about him00:03:35.680
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by the general Janin or some legionnaires,00:03:41.240
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I wanted to express my idea about him.00:03:45.280
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That's why I made this costume.00:03:50.200
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As I found it too daring to impersonate him myself,00:03:55.760
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I decided to impersonate his bust instead.00:04:01.280
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By ironizing myself, I praise him. Or that's the idea.00:04:07.400
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Paradoxically, I think that all my works about Štefánik00:04:13.160
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are an homage to him in a way.00:04:21.320
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In this case, when I made the bust from soap00:04:27.160
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and then washed it off in the same way00:04:31.280
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as when I made it from acid-washed marble,00:04:35.520
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my purpose was to show the way we instrumentalize heroes00:04:40.200
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from our history.00:04:46.520
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As we constantly reuse them as clichés,00:04:49.960
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their personal features disappear00:04:54.920
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and all that's left is just an idea, a logotype.00:04:58.400
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We use them as pieces of Lego,00:05:04.320
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without seeing them in context.00:05:07.840
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In fact, I don't depict Štefánik, but our approach to him.00:05:11.320
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In the courtyard, there is a frame with a border stone.00:05:19.320
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The result will be a general allegory00:05:26.800
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of a border stone under which the land is changing,00:05:32.920
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as an image of our changing borders.00:05:38.720
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I started to make works concerning national history00:05:51.440
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in 2006.00:05:57.360
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It's a theme that never wears out.00:06:01.120
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History is an inexhaustible source of impulses,00:06:06.160
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and the more I immerse in it, the more associations it brings.00:06:11.000
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It's very interesting.00:06:17.480
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It all started with my work called "Hickey".00:06:21.360
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It shows a hickey on my neck in the shape of Slovakia.00:06:28.600
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It's a stigma of a homeland,00:06:34.280
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an ambivalent display of patriotism.00:06:37.760
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My theme is always history.00:06:41.280
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The problem is00:06:44.760
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that artistic expression is always concise,00:06:47.760
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which is a source of concern for historians.00:06:51.760
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They don't want history to be reduced to anecdotes.00:06:56.240
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However, for us it's necessary to find the anecdotal,00:07:01.480
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as we have little opportunity to show the whole context.00:07:07.120
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That's why we can only express some aspects of a theme.00:07:12.800
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In order to be concise,00:07:18.880
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I find it important to do a proper research,00:07:23.560
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to be able to justify my decisions.00:07:28.080
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Take the example of my series00:07:32.160
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"The Biggest Embarrassments of Slovak History".00:07:35.640
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It's an anti-history full of subjectivity.00:07:40.160
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I chose events that I found remarkable.00:07:45.160
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So far, there are the obvious events,00:07:49.360
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like the first meeting of Jozef Tiso and Hitler.00:07:53.840
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Whether by his charisma, or by force,00:07:58.920
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Hitler convinced Tiso to found the Slovak State,00:08:03.440
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to "save" it after the breakup of Czechoslovakia.00:08:08.800
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Another work of the series00:08:13.760
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is "Demolition of the Monument of Maria Theresa".00:08:17.240
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It happened in 1921 when the legionnaires00:08:21.760
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had the executive power over the new Czechoslovakia,00:08:26.720
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especially in the problematic regions like Bratislava or Košice00:08:32.320
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that weren't sure to become a part of Czechoslovakia.00:08:38.360
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In a way, the outcome of this was barbarism,00:08:45.680
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such as in the case of breaking that statue.00:08:52.520
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The third situation is president Beneš's signature00:08:58.440
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of his Decree no. 33 after the end of the war.00:09:05.520
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This decree deprived ethnic Germans and Hungarians00:09:11.520
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of Czechoslovak citizenship.00:09:16.520
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The decree allowed treating those people arbitrarily00:09:20.040
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and made possible all the post-war atrocities.00:09:24.920
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We still don't pay enough attention to these things.00:09:29.240
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The fourth event in my series00:09:36.240
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is the "Explosion of the Car of Robert Remiáš"00:09:40.600
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during the rule of Vladimír Mečiar.00:09:45.600
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I think it was the climax of Mečiarism,00:09:49.600
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when the government decided to kill an undesirable person.00:09:53.880
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We can say it was a moment of ultimate evil.00:09:59.400
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Many of my small works are based on photographs.00:10:04.640
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I used my own method of chalk-woodcarving on them.00:10:10.160
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Woodcarving serves as a historical element,00:10:15.680
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and the chalk is used as the second surface.00:10:21.280
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It also gives the work a bright white color.00:10:26.440
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In fact, those works are models.00:10:30.520
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Another interesting theme is Štúr and his movement.00:10:38.680
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We talked a lot about it at school00:10:44.280
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and read many works by Štúr's followers.00:10:48.760
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However, I never took much liking for them00:10:53.280
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because of their stylization and saviorhood,00:10:58.800
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and also their "enlightened" approach to problems.00:11:03.880
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The same applies to Kossuth.00:11:09.477
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After all, the 19th century00:11:12.992
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is the source of modern European nationalism,00:11:15.992
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which means that emancipation processes went on everywhere.00:11:20.908
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Only we were a young nation with a small elite00:11:26.438
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so it was harder for us.00:11:32.191
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I still need to find my way to Štúr's movement.00:11:36.573
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I surely want to include it in my series00:11:42.408
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about the biggest embarrassments of Slovak history.00:11:46.908
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Not because it was embarrassing,00:11:52.408
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but because of its ambivalent aspects.00:11:55.908
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Roman Holec draws the pride in the Slovak identity,00:12:00.287
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which is basically something random,00:12:05.787
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from the fact that the Slovaks persisted,00:12:14.720
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as a minuscule nation among strong neighbors.00:12:20.467
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This persistence, whether it's a good or a bad thing,00:12:26.176
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was made possible by people like Štúr and his followers,00:12:32.016
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and the generations after them.00:12:38.472
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They all had a vision to work for.00:12:42.560
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Their efforts often appear comic from our point of view00:12:46.621
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but they certainly did a lot of work and risked a lot.00:12:53.692
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I had the chance00:12:59.920
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to touch Štúr in person during one of my projects.00:13:03.451
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It was my series "Touching the Hero"00:13:09.096
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where I hold his bone00:13:13.776
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and the pellets taken out from his wound.00:13:17.276
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The authorities decided to preserve it as a proof00:13:21.666
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of the incurability of his wound at the time,00:13:26.922
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in order to prevent conspiracy theories.00:13:31.922
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In one work I also try to reconstruct his death.00:13:36.926
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It was motivated by my incredulity00:13:42.221
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about how it's even possible to shoot one's own side.00:13:46.721
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I repeatedly tried it on a straw mattress00:13:52.673
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that represented the terrain.00:13:58.874
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I wanted to find the possible way it could have happened.00:14:02.605
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I don't ironize his death, nor I make fun of it.00:14:24.879
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It's just a sort of visualization of all the doubts00:14:31.963
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and conspiracy theories about the deaths00:14:38.158
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of Štúr, Štefánik, or anyone else.00:14:43.796
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I don't think I want to talk about the houses.00:14:48.161
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But I think the material is appropriate.00:14:53.029
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I always try to find the appropriate material00:14:57.454
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and the right technology for each theme.00:15:02.384
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I feel that some materials have a historical meaning,00:15:09.183
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like stone and wood,00:15:14.683
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others are monumental, like bronze and marble,00:15:18.457
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while still other materials have no exact meaning,00:15:25.993
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like aluminium. It's a strange substance,00:15:31.899
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very technical, and with an uncertain artistic quality.00:15:36.354
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It has no explicit value.00:15:42.944
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Some works even have no substance,00:15:49.307
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they're on video or in print.00:15:54.543
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The substance isn't needed in them.00:16:01.187
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Let's look at him. Here is the process.00:16:07.300
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Just like chocolate.00:16:14.294
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This is the statue of my son and on it this chocolate man.00:16:19.930

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