David Helán
Nedávno mi jeden zahraniční kurátor vyprávěl o umělci, jehož práce byla jen nesnadno „zaškatulkovatelná“ nebo terminologicky uchopitelná. Svůj dojem shrnul tak, že si nebyl jistý, jestli se jedná o blázna nebo génia. Podobná úvaha se možná nabízí i o Davidu Helánovi. Svým způsobem podivín a obrazoborec, potomek dadaistů, který jakoby umění nebral příliš vážně – přitom je do něj ale bytostně ponořen a prohlašuje, že je těžší umělcem nebýt než být.
Davida Helána (nar. 1979), který po ročním intermezzu na Mendelově zemědělské a lesnické univerzitě v Brně, kde studoval obor Krajinné inženýrství, absolvoval v letech 2004-2010 Akademii výtvarných umění v Praze v Ateliéru konceptuální tvorby u Miloše Šejna, skutečně charakterizuje spíš určitý typ uvažování (potažmo bytí), než nějaká konkrétní umělecká forma. Vytváří objekty, malby, fotky, instalace, situace – respektive na odehrávající se situace spíš často prostě nějak spontánně reaguje. Legendární se stal jeho „kus“ Havárie horkovodu (2008), kdy využil úniku teplé vody do výkopu před budovou Akademie k zimní lázni. Podobnou míru spontaneity mívají i jeho akce-reakce realizované spolu s Davidem Hřivňackým. V nich např. reagují na prostor galerie a cizí umělecká díla. Jako třeba objekt Jiřího Kovandy na výstavě Bob Dylan, Bob Dylan, Boba Dylana v DOXu. Performance konkurovala výstavě už svým názvem David Bowie 3D (2011). Podobnou povahu měla i akce Vysvětlování v galerii 207, jejíž titul můžeme vnímat mj. jako odkaz k Beuysovu Vysvětlování umění mrtvému zajíci. I Helán se často obrací k dějinám umění, jehož ikony různě podvrací a vpodstatě zneužívá pro svou vlastní potřebu – třeba vytvořením „1:1 parafráze na Mondrianovo notoricky provařené plátno Victory Boogie Voogie“ v projektu Manhattan: nahmatán – nenahmatán (2013). Nebo parafrázováním kolážových technik Jiřího Koláře, kdy zavádí vlastní termíny jako „fatamontáž“ nebo „protoproláž“. „Kolářovský syndrom“ se ale u Helána projevuje i v jeho dlouhodobém projektu – Slovníku cizích slov, jehož hesla se vztahují zejména k jeho vlastní tvorbě. Hra s jazykem vůbec charakterizuje tvorbu Davida Helána stále intenzivněji a sám se domnívá, že „je možné fungovat v rámci kontinuálního textu“. Možná, že jeho vlastní jazykolamy jsou nejlepším klíčem k interpretaci jeho práce jako takové – logický smysl příliš nedávají, přesto v nich dlí jakýsi význam. Helán je bezpochyby člověk dosti sečtělý a inteligentní, jakoby ale podkopával autoritu racionality a jazyka jako smyslupného nástroje komunikace a naznačoval, že nemusíme všemu rozumět, abychom mohli poznávat svět. Svérázný humor a ironie v tom hraje v Helánově případě roli nikoli bezvýznamnou.
Tereza Jindrová
- "Medicine-ball-man, pall-mall, cymbal festival,00:00:03.048
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- saharamaharadjah yoga00:00:10.780
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- of Sahaja Yoga of enlisting grandson Marduk00:00:15.207
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- of Genghis Khan's father-in-law receptacle.00:00:19.653
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- Monologue naked mongoloid00:00:27.722
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- naked Moholy-Nagy.00:00:31.859
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- Marathon man on sick leave00:00:39.477
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- Marat in bath tub of nation of Luděk Marold,00:00:43.715
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- levitation of Sol LeWitt's fiberboard.00:00:48.019
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- Solo Martian hogofogo00:00:52.419
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- dematerialization de Hugo Demartini;00:00:56.828
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- funus, fundusfundamentalism00:01:01.215
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- according to Non-Beuys."00:01:05.665
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- Those texts are very important, they are important to me.00:01:13.441
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- And I hope...00:01:17.846
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- well, I hope... there is so many of them,00:01:23.702
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- and I don't need them00:01:28.119
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- to be published at all costs right now,00:01:32.475
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- but it undergoes an unbelievable development00:01:36.794
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- whereby the dictionary mutates into one giant tongue twister.00:01:41.119
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- There is indeed a development.00:01:50.053
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- It's such natural a moment for me that when I want to shoot something,00:01:54.305
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- or when I write, I try since the very beginning00:01:58.616
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- to have it look differently by the end.00:02:02.966
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- Well... it's probably that I don't like00:02:18.412
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- to sum it up in one unfragmented category.00:02:22.736
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- Above all, I try to do a bit of everything,00:02:27.024
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- even though recently I have been doing mostly performance.00:02:34.487
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- In the last year I was trying to be a solo performer.00:02:40.086
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- I seek all the time00:02:47.006
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- to generate ever new things.00:02:51.510
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- And at the same time, there are projects I call unfinished.00:02:55.909
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- And there is a project of mine called LP that presupposes00:03:02.596
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- this constant piling up of ever new things00:03:06.848
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- that are growing in all directions and I am not allowed to finish them.00:03:11.099
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- That's how I occupy myself artificially.00:03:15.454
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- "Transshipment station, false base of translation00:03:23.299
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- with deposit in overpressure of basic load.00:03:27.783
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- Key groundwork of fortunetelling, expensive but worthwhile00:03:32.114
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- assumption of collapse.00:03:36.555
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- Pincers, every typo a gossipy tidbit.00:03:40.349
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- Dumping ground gurgling, undisappointed by cashier plot.00:03:47.690
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- Climacteric of damnation, storeroom of peace.00:03:51.996
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- Kneeled down while kneeling.00:03:56.188
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- Choking by law of unrecoiled vaultings.00:03:59.957
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- Jousting of clans with clones of clown tendencies bowing down."00:04:04.260
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- It's probably a year since I did so called eye acupuncture.00:04:17.947
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- It took place in a pub, not in a gallery space.00:04:22.153
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- I did it in a collaboration with Marek Hlaváč00:04:26.568
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- and Adéla Taublerová who accompanied me with music.00:04:31.033
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- And I was doing a corporal performance:00:04:35.319
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- I lied down on a table with an umbrella skeleton00:04:39.731
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- hanging above me. And in the spirit of00:04:44.020
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- eye acupuncture I was providing people with a service00:04:48.385
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- of the skeleton falling down on their faces.00:04:52.699
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- I was blinding and deafening them00:04:57.049
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- for the sake of their understanding of visual art.00:05:01.180
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- That's how it looked like.00:05:05.402
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- The titles are at times directly associated00:05:09.162
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- with the thing itself and sometimes not at all.00:05:13.486
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- Mostly I try to complicate00:05:18.883
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- and combine the language enough to my satisfaction.00:05:23.055
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- I have always the feeling it is intended for people00:05:31.461
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- who are capable to grasp it immediately.00:05:35.817
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- Drawing from the way I try to work in,00:05:40.248
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- even the life, the artistic life00:05:48.787
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- that can be different and that doesn't even need to be00:05:52.983
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- a life so much, consists of some phases00:05:57.171
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- that can be neither stalled nor neared00:06:01.571
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- and have to be left at the right moment.00:06:05.838
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- "Stra.taggeD.00:06:17.450
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- Tagging by stratilian strategy in such a way00:06:21.877
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- that tactically present is many imaginable a consequence00:06:26.132
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- of supplementing Stratil's bequest by element of light.00:06:30.618
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- Strategically-contractually aware interference with an artifact00:06:34.988
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- fulfilling of museum twilighting. Affecting a constant,00:06:39.177
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- where brat, tragedian and offended representative00:06:43.615
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- of young scene, initiates arrival of strategist00:06:48.011
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- of his own journeys for an imaginary touch00:06:52.356
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- of the sovereign successor." Exhausting. Very exhausting.00:06:56.597
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- I am not surprised nobody wants to understand it.00:07:00.945
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- I also like to make variations00:07:09.270
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- of the things that already happened.00:07:13.581
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- I try to improve them, but also to abandon them quickly.00:07:17.736
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- Mostly I try really to come with new things.00:07:25.261
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- But it gets done.00:07:29.492
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- "So... we open a fresh cut...00:07:32.887
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- we explore here in more depth00:07:41.887
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- a special apparatus.00:07:45.927
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- The bookworm actually knows it,00:07:56.875
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- he has learned that cucumber00:08:01.028
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- has a wholesome effect on the eyes, right?00:08:05.272
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- In contrast to books that have caused the green cataract."00:08:11.254
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- Another interesting event I did with David Hřivňacký00:08:19.915
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- was a performance entitled Omnia Jam.00:08:24.267
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- Sporting tie-dye T-shirts00:08:28.619
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- we were introducing an exhibition00:08:34.441
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- where there were presented pickled cucumbers.00:08:38.868
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- We have made special binoculars made of flashlights.00:08:43.243
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- Specimens of cucumbers were prepared00:08:47.666
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- by attaching them to the spectacles00:08:52.114
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- that were thus illuminated with a great light effect.00:08:56.483
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- But heliosis is not a nonsense.00:09:04.517
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- It comes from English and it means sunstroke.00:09:08.838
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- I am Helán,00:09:14.320
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- and when I am writing it I think about van Gogh00:09:18.756
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- making paintings while suffering sunstroke.00:09:22.792
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- The heliosis gets associated00:09:29.474
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- with photographs and events00:09:33.939
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- where I use light to light up my face in various ways00:09:38.242
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- and I am interested in what happens.00:09:42.525
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- This interest of mine bears several names.00:09:46.890
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- Another thing-in-progress00:09:54.944
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- is a film Future Belongs to Helium00:09:59.211
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- that consists of photographs00:10:03.545
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- created in previous performances. The film works with light,00:10:07.867
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- it works very much with this element.00:10:12.062
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- And no matter how I try00:10:16.336
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- to use the effect of light I also try to prevent00:10:20.688
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- spectacular outcomes.00:10:24.948
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- The film is, above else, a part of a long-term project00:10:35.105
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- planned to go on for two years.00:10:39.466
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- It has its trailers already. The outcome is a projection.00:10:43.899
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- And later maybe...00:10:49.683
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- I want it maybe even an hour long or...00:10:53.953
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- later even longer.00:11:00.298
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- And the film...00:11:04.600
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- I call it epochal prognostics,00:11:11.080
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- which means that I try to elevate00:11:16.786
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- certain mental processes taking place00:11:20.849
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- to an element that is capable to form the future shape of universe.00:11:26.711
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- All of that takes place there, in this film.00:11:31.482
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- "Science specific..." One more time...00:11:40.936
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- "Science specific. Unspecifiable..."00:12:01.488
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- I don't remember it anymore. One more time.00:12:08.327
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- "Science specific. Unspecif..."00:12:19.550
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- "Science specific. Unspecified pacifistic fascicle00:12:28.773
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- of civilizing patents,00:12:32.949
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- damascened by unspacifiable sci-fi patients."00:12:37.291
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- Well, I guess that's enough...00:12:47.104