CENA JINDŘICHA CHALUPECKÉHO 2008
Po několikaměsíčním klidu, během něhož se umělci ve věku do pětatřiceti let mohli přihlásit do soutěže, nabírá devatenáctý ročník Ceny Jindřicha Chalupeckého nové obrátky.
- Dům pánů z Kunštátu Gallery00:00:19.101
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- Let me introduce to you the finalists,00:00:57.066
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- although not all of them are here today.00:01:03.428
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- So we have here Tomáš Moravec,00:01:08.384
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- Radim Labuda,00:01:20.507
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- Evžen Šimera,00:01:26.777
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- and Ondřej Brody.00:01:32.704
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- And the two absent artists are00:01:39.032
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- Zbyněk Baladrán and Jiří Skála.00:01:42.023
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- Even before the Chalupecký Award we found themes00:01:45.254
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- we wanted to work on together.00:01:49.245
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- One of them was the so-called "righteous trial".00:01:53.081
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- We found the expression in the memoirs00:01:58.664
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- of the architect Masák.00:02:01.654
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- There's a short note about a "righteous trial"00:02:03.799
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- at the studio of Prager, in the early 80's00:02:07.877
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- concerning the consequences00:02:10.811
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- of prefabricated architecture00:02:17.573
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- in the communist Czechoslovakia.00:02:19.993
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- You could also see it as a generation conflict,00:02:23.221
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- but for us it was a starting point00:02:26.235
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- for our work.00:02:30.446
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- The nomination for the Chalupecký Award00:02:33.258
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- was a good opportunity to make it happen.00:02:35.910
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- We started the background research00:02:39.481
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- but we did not find a lot of information00:02:42.622
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- because many of the witnesses are dead now00:02:45.589
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- and those who are alive either don't talk about it00:02:49.737
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- or don't remember it.00:02:53.065
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- First we wanted to do a reconstruction,00:02:58.642
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- but that was impossible,00:03:01.252
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- so we decided to create a fiction00:03:04.333
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- based on facts.00:03:06.627
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- In the last 3 months, we've been doing research,00:03:08.710
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- expanding the context of the trial.00:03:11.396
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- This is the final phase.00:03:17.441
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- The installation is like an experimental novel.00:03:20.920
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- The architecture had become so vulgar00:03:29.438
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- that some architects needed self-reflection.00:03:34.336
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- The interesting thing was00:03:39.814
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- that this happened before 1989,00:03:42.292
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- and it may have been more interesting00:03:46.200
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- than we know today.00:03:48.997
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- Of course, the context has gotten much wider00:03:51.221
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- and connections have emerged leading to the present.00:03:55.973
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- Some elements of the texts are reflected in the present.00:04:00.232
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- We also found out that we couldn't work00:04:07.440
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- in a linear way.00:04:11.533
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- We had to follow the process of reconstructing the past,00:04:14.274
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- consisting of building the present00:04:20.126
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- out of a few pieces of the past.00:04:23.391
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- I'd also like to comment on the installation itself.00:04:26.554
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- In fact, there are two installations00:04:30.046
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- and it's not possible to see everything00:04:32.598
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- in one visit.00:04:35.036
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- You can see only eight texts at once.00:04:37.307
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- Everyday at two o'clock an operator00:04:41.359
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- replaces the eight transparencies with another set.00:04:44.701
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- So if you want to see the whole thing,00:04:50.443
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- you have to come four times.00:04:52.815
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- We are also interested in the way00:04:55.496
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- artworks are presented00:04:58.915
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- and also interpreted by the viewers00:05:02.118
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- who come to the gallery and spend some time there.00:05:05.734
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- In a way, we manipulate the viewers00:05:08.993
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- into coming more often.00:05:11.583
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- My work is entitled00:05:20.686
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- "The Disease of the White Man".00:05:25.509
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- I consider it a working title.00:05:29.734
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- It is a set of eight images00:05:32.944
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- in a presentation recycling their creation.00:05:39.367
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- The images were created in the streets of Plzeň00:05:46.192
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- where I brought a mobile unit with a projector,00:05:53.428
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- and on some walls I projected00:05:57.905
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- imaginary layouts of the particular places.00:06:02.474
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- My basic purpose is to be aware00:06:11.041
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- of the movement of men in the city,00:06:15.262
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- and the influence of the city on them.00:06:19.903
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- For me it is about looking00:06:23.220
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- for the freedom of movement00:06:25.471
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- in given conditions.00:06:29.917
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- Each situation gave birth to one image,00:06:32.666
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- one projection documented on a transparency.00:06:38.437
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- Here, the transparencies00:06:44.458
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- are projected on the wall again,00:06:47.696
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- so that their creation00:06:52.787
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- and presentation are recycled.00:06:55.593
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- My reason for using the projector00:06:58.607
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- was that during last winter, I started to appreciate00:07:06.680
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- analog media and working with light.00:07:13.277
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- This is why I am now using the projector.00:07:19.004
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- It gives me wider possibilities of shaping the light00:07:22.559
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- than digital technologies.00:07:27.376
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- On digital images, black is never really black,00:07:30.786
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- whereas here it's all about light and shadows,00:07:35.978
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- which seemed perfect to me.00:07:39.350
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- My project for the Chalupecký Award00:08:05.265
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- consists of two social situations.00:08:13.001
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- I came up with this expression to differentiate00:08:17.159
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- this project from other types of artworks,00:08:21.477
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- such as performances.00:08:26.282
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- In the first part of the project,00:08:30.859
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- I had five men tied with a rope00:08:36.202
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- by professionals00:08:42.329
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- who have been doing this for a long time.00:08:44.643
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- The essential thing for me is the interaction00:08:47.695
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- with the viewers during the opening.00:08:53.225
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- This is why I'm doing this at the opening -00:08:55.747
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- I want to create a certain situation,00:09:00.210
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- a certain social atmosphere.00:09:05.163
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- In the second part, there is a Filipino boy00:09:08.479
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- who I found on the Internet.00:09:12.877
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- He earns money by an erotic show00:09:17.493
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- through a webcam.00:09:22.355
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- He's not able to find any other job.00:09:26.122
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- It's a quasi-altruistic act00:09:31.691
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- because I gave him almost all the money I had00:09:34.936
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- for the exhibition.00:09:40.907
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- It's hard to say what the exhibition is about.00:09:46.511
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- It's only two situations00:09:51.762
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- to which the viewers have to relate.00:09:54.954
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- For instance,00:09:58.889
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- the Filipino boy is available for chat,00:10:01.455
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- but I don't really think someone will do so.00:10:06.042
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- I'm rather interested in the communication barrier.00:10:09.263
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- I don't know how the situations will develop.00:10:15.097
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- We'll see.00:10:21.191
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- I'm also curious about00:10:23.415
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- what the bondage situation will become.00:10:25.449
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- The name of my work is00:10:43.813
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- "The Gravity Monument".00:10:47.412
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- This is my first attempt00:10:50.971
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- at making such a complex geometric object,00:10:54.598
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- an object made of geometric shapes.00:10:57.259
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- I wanted to apply to it00:11:01.371
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- my way of working with dripping paint.00:11:04.420
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- In this project I wanted to discard00:11:10.148
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- all colors, so it's all black and white.00:11:13.857
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- The drops are applied to a ready-made object,00:11:17.258
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- so I couldn't put them everywhere I wanted to.00:11:21.494
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- I really wanted00:11:25.341
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- to get rid of my personal style,00:11:28.562
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- which is why the drops are only on places00:11:31.218
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- with shadows thrown by the white cubes.00:11:34.274
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- So inside of a black room there's a white arch00:11:36.972
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- made of geometrical shapes00:11:40.673
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- that are not only white00:11:43.041
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- because the lights make them appear00:11:45.566
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- in grayscale shading almost into black,00:11:48.200
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- depending on the shadows.00:11:51.940
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- I also use the paint drops00:11:55.096
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- located not at the edges00:12:00.127
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- but instead corresponding to the shape of the shadow.00:12:03.931
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- Sometimes they're oblique and flow down...00:12:07.281
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- I wanted this object to deny gravity.00:12:10.835
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- The boxes, randomly stuck together,00:12:15.995
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- should remind people of weightlessness.00:12:19.112
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- In contrast to this,00:12:22.970
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- the work with paint drops00:12:25.062
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- is based on gravity.00:12:27.319
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- It's an intersection of the two approaches.00:12:30.141
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- In fact, I was trying to come up here00:12:35.868
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- with a new base line00:12:39.662
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- from which I could move on.00:12:42.849
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- I didn't want to repeat myself00:12:44.954
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- so I only used the theme of dripping00:12:47.977
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- and applied it to something new.00:12:50.776
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- I worked together with the architect00:12:55.191
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- Mirek Vavřina.00:12:57.787
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- We agreed that the arch00:12:59.590
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- is a very interesting shape in architecture.00:13:02.235
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- Wait...00:13:08.365
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- Can you see anything?00:13:12.140
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- Go shoot the texts in the space00:13:14.057
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- and then I'll say a few words about it.00:13:17.514
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- A part of the project started00:13:21.707
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- about a year ago.00:13:25.617
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- The other part is based00:13:30.147
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- on my recent visit to China.00:13:32.558
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- It's an installation consisting00:13:35.612
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- of two main parts and one detail.00:13:38.438
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- The first series of paintings00:13:41.546
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- consists of JPEG images00:13:45.505
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- downloaded from various websites00:13:48.582
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- monitoring human rights in China.00:13:52.825
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- Some of them are quite brutal,00:13:56.284
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- others are kitschy family portraits,00:13:58.758
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- but all of them have a touch of violence00:14:02.907
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- because sometimes people disappear00:14:09.644
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- without any trace...00:14:12.158
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- So it's a strange mix of beaten people00:14:14.970
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- and kitschy portraits00:14:19.521
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- and a few photos of buildings00:14:25.454
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- that don't mean anything00:14:29.059
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- unless you know it's the central jail -00:14:31.170
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- for instance, keeping political prisoners.00:14:33.897
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- However, those photos are forbidden in China.00:14:37.461
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- So I sent the photos back to China00:14:41.382
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- over the Internet00:14:44.838
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- to a painting factory that manufactures00:14:47.116
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- all kinds of paintings.00:14:49.997
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- I downloaded these forbidden photos00:14:52.776
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- and sent them there.00:14:56.185
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- The paintings were ready 3 weeks later.00:14:59.093
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- As I said, this part of the project00:15:04.670
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- started about a year ago, for another exhibition.00:15:07.617
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- Last month I returned from China00:15:11.245
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- where I wanted to visit this painting factory00:15:15.168
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- and document it.00:15:19.161
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- I finished by meeting an interesting artist00:15:21.893
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- with the pseudonym "Apple"00:15:25.732
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- who makes portraits of Chinese leaders00:15:28.529
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- just to vandalize them with his friends00:15:32.781
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- during a series of performances.00:15:36.892
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- He works half illegally -00:15:41.174
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- a dissident artist.00:15:43.051
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- I thought the paintings I got on the Internet00:15:47.385
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- were quite complementary to his work.00:15:53.425
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- I always try to achieve neutral presentation.00:15:57.111
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- The accompanying texts are concise,00:16:01.559
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- merely describing00:16:04.581
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- why I chose to do this00:16:07.791
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- without mentioning my political attitude.00:16:11.263
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- I think that's important because the exhibits00:16:15.286
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- are so extreme that no interpretation is needed.00:16:18.676
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- I don't want to convey cheap stereotypes00:16:22.542
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- about China00:16:27.076
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- or about human rights.00:16:29.758
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- By the entrance,00:16:36.173
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- there's an inscription "Painting China Now".00:16:37.609
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- It's a reference to all the exhibitions00:16:41.941
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- of Chinese art, mostly painting,00:16:45.492
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- usually called "Chinese Painting".00:16:48.596
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- All I did was reverse it00:16:52.229
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- so it's about painting China now.00:16:59.417
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- Under the title of the installation00:17:06.931
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- there is a 20 year old palette00:17:11.385
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- by one of the artists from the painting factory.00:17:14.140
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- It is a stalagmite-like structure00:17:21.569
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- that has fascinated me since the moment I first saw it.00:17:24.640
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- I can't imagine how many paintings00:17:27.956
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- the palette has produced.00:17:30.634
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- This object presents the means of production00:17:35.282
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- of the paintings themselves.00:17:40.332
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- I guess that's it.00:17:44.594