Michal Novotný
Michal Novotný (*1985) je v první řadě kurátorem současného umění a v jeho práci často najdeme tematické skupinové výstavy, což je žánr poměrně náročný na přípravu a v českém prostředí ne příliš častý. Vyvstává zde především otázka vztahu mezi samostatnými uměleckými díly a tématem výstavy, do něhož jsou díla vřazena. Právě tento vztah je pro Novotného důležitým předmětem vlastního výzkumu a hlediskem, které ve své práci zohledňuje. Z velkých skupinových výstav lze jmenovat například Grafický design (2015), Sklenice vody (2013) nebo Za pět dvanáct (2011), které všechny proběhly v Centru pro současné umění FUTURA, jehož ředitelem je Novotný od roku 2011. Posledně jmenovaná výstava je také pro kurátora symptomatická v tom smyslu, že se v ní objevuje téma času jako konceptu, skrze nějž lze zachycovat různé pohyby v rámci umění. Těmi mohou být rozličné retro-návraty nebo snahy ovládnout materiál s myšlenkou na věčnost. Ze sólových výstav je třeba vyzdvihnout především nedávnou přehlídku děl Anny Daučíkové (FUTURA, 2016) nebo společnou výstavu Haruna Farockiho a Zbyňka Baladrána (FUTURA, 2015), přičemž oba počiny stály za zařazením Novotného na seznam dvaceti nejvlivnějších mladých kurátorů z Evropy, který v dubnu 2016 zveřejnil online portál Artsy.
Kromě výstav je Novotný také aktivním přispěvovatelem recenzí do předních českých periodik jako Fotograf, Labyrint, Flash Art, Fotograf nebo Artalk. Do začátku roku 2016 vedl rubriku Galerie v kulturním čtrnáctideníku A2. Má za sebou několik mezinárodních rezidenčních pobytů, mimo jiné v rámci prestižní nadace Delfina Foundation (2016), dále byl rezidentem ICI – Independent Curators International New York (2011), ve Ville Arson v Nice (2013), v Muzej Moderne i Suvremene Umjetnosti v Rijece (2014) nebo v Contemporary Arts Center v New Orleans (2014).
Anna Remešová
- Did you have an idea what the program should look like?00:00:04.336
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- Or how you would like to run the institution?00:00:09.450
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- Yes, I expected you to ask.00:00:13.922
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- I feel that the local context is important,00:00:16.502
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- the local context is given,00:00:25.572
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- we belong to the four art centres in Prague,00:00:27.461
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- the other three are Tranzit Display, Meet Factory and DOX.00:00:31.119
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- I think in this order they also cover the spectrum from art for art00:00:36.427
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- to the instrumentalization of art.00:00:44.154
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- Perhaps, in general we are closer to Tranzit Display and Meet Factory.00:00:48.055
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- but we still find research and experiments important,00:00:56.735
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- we don´t lay emphasis on visitor numbers,00:01:05.018
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- I don´t think visitors have to understand everything,00:01:09.761
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- they should mainly be able to experience art.00:01:12.645
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- We don´t focus on a certain type of art such as Tranzit Display.00:01:15.982
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- From the very start Futura aimed at covering the art spectrum,00:01:21.767
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- which is a wild goose chase,00:01:27.562
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- but we try to cover the wide spectrum of concepts in contemporary art.00:01:29.289
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- Of course, what is symptomatic of this institution00:01:34.728
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- is the fact that when it opened the other three art centres didn´t exist,00:01:39.606
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- and neither did most of the institutions, projects and galleries that exist today.00:01:43.491
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- It was established in order to fill this gap,00:01:49.023
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- which to a certain degree still exists at present.00:01:54.937
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- That´s why we keep trying to fill in these gaps,00:01:57.771
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- because there´s still no museum of contemporary art here,00:02:02.330
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- The National Gallery works but not on a standard, professional level,00:02:08.019
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- when compared with the Prague City Gallery.00:02:14.110
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- In this respect we concentrate more on the local art scene,00:02:16.552
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- above all on older artists, on exhibitions which are in a way retrospective shows,00:02:22.755
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- but due to our financial capacity we are not able to show the artist´s work00:02:29.073
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- in such a broad context as a large institution can.00:02:34.372
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- But we have the space to do it.00:02:36.553
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- We can present the work to the public in a large space.00:02:38.425
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- And another thing - Alberto founded Futura00:02:41.955
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- also with view to foreign art which wasn´t presented here in those days.00:02:48.648
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- We still show foreign art but now it´s more selective.00:02:55.600
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- The goal is to introduce only a certain type of foreign art,00:03:02.628
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- which is either somehow linked to the local art scene,00:03:06.003
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- or Central and Eastern Europe,00:03:10.802
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- or it has something to tell us.00:03:14.355
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- I think the works have to be carefully selected.00:03:17.810
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- You said the visitors do not have to understand what is shown at the exhibition,00:03:20.831
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- they should rather feel the experience.00:03:27.556
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- If we forget for the time being the role of the curator00:03:29.622
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- and the Futura institution00:03:34.964
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- and if we generalize your curator´s work in other institutions and abroad,00:03:37.023
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- do you think about the public in advance, do you think about "the ideal viewer"?00:03:45.265
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- And if so, could you describe him?00:03:56.462
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- Perhaps it sounds arrogant, but I don´t think so.00:04:02.131
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- A couple of years ago, perhaps ten, I went with a friend to the National Gallery00:04:04.899
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- to see the permanent exhibition00:04:16.919
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- and he´s a guy with no education,00:04:19.413
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- who has no idea what00:04:21.184
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- But his observations were much more profound than mine.00:04:27.659
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- I can´t avoid categorizing,00:04:33.131
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- if there´s purple it must be Art Nouveau and so on.00:04:36.014
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- So you certainly can´t expect ideal types of viewers,00:04:40.292
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- but there is a great demand on openness.00:04:44.978
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- In fact, I almost never verbalize what art is00:04:47.975
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- because I think it´s not right00:04:56.247
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- and I try to guide the viewers in different ways,00:04:59.968
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- by the exhibition design or by the selection of art works00:05:05.152
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- or by the text, which is, however, never explicit,00:05:08.639
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- and I enable them to gain some kind of experience.00:05:10.690
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- I think that art is a kind of science,00:05:13.330
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- since it is a comprehensive domain of human endeavor,00:05:18.418
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- and which produces knowledge.00:05:22.928
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- But it is not that positivist, exact, quantifiable knowledge,00:05:26.809
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- and that means that art historians00:05:31.712
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- should not relate to it in this way.00:05:36.367
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- It doesn´t mean it cannot be expressed by words,00:05:39.985
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- but perhaps it´s better done indirectly than explicitly.00:05:45.830
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- I hope the visitors will be able to experience00:05:49.772
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- or understand - that´s the wrong word again -00:05:56.363
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- too rational again and I´d like to avoid this,00:05:59.930
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- perhaps intuitively feel what I´m trying to say through the exhibitions.00:06:03.891
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- One of the things I find specific, which may sound arrogant again,00:06:08.635
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- is the fact that the exhibitions I do are not thematical.00:06:16.652
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- And they are neither illustrative.00:06:21.034
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- This means that most curators in the Czech Republic00:06:27.423
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- work the following way:00:06:32.713
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- they start with a thesis and then they try to find some corresponding works.00:06:34.297
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- But what I do is I start with the art works,00:06:39.350
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- which means there are works I´m interested in,00:06:46.530
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- sometimes it´s just one single work,00:06:49.624
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- and then I start gathering the other things.00:06:51.424
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- I can mention the last exhibition in Karlin Studios as an example.00:06:55.780
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- Preliminary Sadness.00:07:00.531
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- The key work which shaped the exhibition00:07:02.264
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- was the video by Jaspers Spicero,00:07:05.794
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- which has a specific atmosphere,00:07:09.448
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- and which refers to different topics00:07:11.642
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- such as sadness, youth, emptiness00:07:15.077
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- but at the same time they have a specific, cinematic sensitivity,00:07:20.148
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- which we all know well, because we grew up watching movies,00:07:26.985
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- and so we understand different genres.00:07:30.193
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- We are able to decode messages in a spontaneous and very sophisticated way.00:07:35.207
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- Even as regards fashion, for instance,00:07:42.398
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- we immediately find a historical context for everything.00:07:44.620
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- So I create a grouping of other art works around one particular work of art00:07:47.437
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- which are meant to further develop it in a certain way.00:07:52.555
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- The surrounding space is, of course, also a part of it.00:07:56.366
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- The space is not only the space for the works of art,00:08:00.085
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- but a part of the entire situation,00:08:03.696
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- which is perhaps more like scenography00:08:05.271
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- creating a situation into which the visitor enters00:08:07.176
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- and it should be full of overwhelming emotions,00:08:12.292
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- and prepare him for some sort of activity.00:08:14.193
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- I don´t mean any performance, it´s rather a sort of scenography.00:08:16.903
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- In this case, the space of the former Karlin Studios,00:08:21.417
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- which also has an obvious atmosphere,00:08:27.338
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- was a part of the whole situation.00:08:30.519
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- That´s why I´m not really interested in the White Cube.00:08:32.976
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- Maybe I´m interested in its demagogy.00:08:37.689
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- But otherwise I prefer working in other spaces,00:08:42.768
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- which are not neutral00:08:46.484
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- because nothing is neutral,00:08:48.902
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- everything has some sort of style.00:08:50.575
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- And then you need to make the theme visible00:08:53.167
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- indirectly, also through the title and text.00:08:57.792
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- I agree with what Anna Daučíková said,00:09:04.288
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- that art is visualization of the invisible.00:09:11.282
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- I think that exhibitions should also be visualizations of the invisible.00:09:14.292
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- The art works should not illustrate the exhibitions but vice versa,00:09:19.194
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- the exhibitions should illustrate the works.00:09:22.808
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- Everything shown at an exhibition should somehow relate to the approaches,00:09:25.680
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- concepts and mechanisms which are present in the art works.00:09:29.873
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- I have read a review of the exhibition you´re talking about00:09:35.457
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- in which Tereza Hrušková said that you didn´t use labels there00:09:40.430
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- and that it gave her a feeling of collective authorship00:09:45.745
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- and I think that in connection with your name00:09:48.043
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- we often hear about the changing role of curators or artists.00:09:50.287
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- You participate actively, do you work deliberately with your contributions?00:09:55.015
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- Yes, of course. I always claim, with a little bit of irony,00:10:02.998
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- that I´m also an artist.00:10:08.951
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- I think a curator surely is an artist00:10:12.005
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- and perhaps it´s better to admit it in advance00:10:14.497
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- because then he will treat the other artists with the same respect.00:10:16.892
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- The problem is that sometimes the curators feel they have a different position,00:10:22.225
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- and the power they have comes earlier,00:10:29.271
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- than in the case of artists,00:10:32.670
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- the curator tends to show his power a bit,00:10:34.082
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- so this might be helpful.00:10:36.643
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- I also say, and the artists at this exhibition noticed,00:10:39.406
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- that I manipulate the things. Of course I do.00:10:44.585
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- I think everybody is manipulative, and that´s why I intentionally manipulate more intensively,00:10:48.445
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- so that my manipulation is visible.00:10:55.486
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- Because for me this is perhaps the only way how to get rid of it00:10:57.911
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- or how to work with it,00:11:02.379
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- I extrapolate it to such an extent00:11:03.750
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- that everybody must see it´s not like that.00:11:06.102
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