Islands of Resistance: Between the First and Second Modern 1985–2012
Exhibition project of the National Gallery in Prague in cooperation with the Academic Research Centre of the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague. Every effort to summarize or assess fine art of the past 25 years will inevitably remain a subjective authorial attempt. Evidently it also goes for The Islands of Resistance exhibition whose name alludes to one of Václav Bělohradský essays. The project Between the First and Second Modernity 1985-2012 is based on an extensive documentation included not only in the exhibition catalogue but also in a voluminous anthology of contemporary texts by art historians, critics, philosophers and sociologists that has been published to mark the exhibition opening. Artyčok.TV has made an interview with curators of the project which presents a new phase in the process of learning about recent developments in art in Bohemia.
- The Islands of Resistance Between Modernities, 1985-201200:00:02.154
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- Prague National Gallery Veletržní Palace, 9.3.-1.7. 201200:00:04.296
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- An interview with the curators00:00:13.066
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- Come closer.00:00:15.166
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- - You will do the talking. - No, I won't.00:00:18.531
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- Research methodology00:00:21.302
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- Research methodology... It was mainly gathering documents.00:00:25.934
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- We gathered a bibliography of hundreds, perhaps thousands of texts.00:00:33.576
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- These served as our departure point.00:00:42.176
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- Reading those texts was important.00:00:45.709
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- Reading a text several times multiplies its potential.00:00:52.288
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- You insert into it the experiences you've had since the 1st time you read it.00:00:56.785
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- The text becomes more meaningful.00:01:05.292
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- However, you have to take notes as the meaning tends to slip away.00:01:09.933
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- During the reading of the texts,00:01:17.230
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- I noticed that several phrases and words kept being repeated.00:01:22.801
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- These were efforts to describe the Czech art scene of the past 30 years.00:01:30.349
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- This was the subject of the research of the so-called Transformation.00:01:37.048
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- Transformation became an institution. Everybody worked at "transformation".00:01:41.669
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- There were notions and words that kept reccuring.00:01:46.230
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- I think these became an opportunity to read the events and texts00:01:52.142
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- and demanded to be organized in a certain way.00:02:03.151
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- Title00:02:07.904
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- There were several developmental stages.00:02:11.182
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- First we thought of the title "Approval".00:02:16.718
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- An approval of the events of the past 30 years.00:02:20.510
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- An attempt to describe the events in this country.00:02:26.474
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- Later, we discovered that an Italian exhibition had already used this title.00:02:34.137
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- So we opted for the title "Between Modernities".00:02:38.453
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- It refers to Václav Bělohradský's article,00:02:45.661
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- however, the topic of modernity and its temporality is widely discussed.00:02:49.942
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- Later came the "Islands od Resistance". To me it's a metaphor.00:02:59.177
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- A constellation of separate items which exist in an archipelago.00:03:04.732
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- This metaphor occurs to many people, not only to Václav Bělohradský.00:03:12.142
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- Bourriaud mentions it in his text Altermodern.00:03:17.048
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- The metaphor occured spontaneously, even before the exhibition.00:03:20.625
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- Time restriction00:03:30.278
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- We could start counting from the year 1985.00:03:33.945
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- The first "confrontations" related to Jóna and Skrepl's performances.00:03:41.248
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- Exhibitions at Jiří David's.00:03:46.427
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- Within two-three years such confrontations multiplied00:03:49.606
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- and the art scene evolved.00:03:55.598
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- The oldest paintings exhibited at this exhibition are from 1987-88.00:03:57.698
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- In architecture, the periods would be totally different.00:04:02.720
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- In architecture, the "revolution" came in the second half of the 1970s.00:04:08.059
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- In art, it came ten years later.00:04:16.076
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- Breaking points00:04:20.666
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- I don't think there were major breaking points.00:04:24.225
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- At the time, it was necessary that a generational break occur.00:04:26.843
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- The break needed to be done to make things clear.00:04:34.221
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- If the transitions were smooth we wouldn't be able to recognize00:04:39.049
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- the 1970s generation from the 1980s one.00:04:47.944
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- The move needed to be made in order to show00:04:51.257
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- that modernity hadn't been forgotten and that it had undergone a change.00:04:56.258
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- That it was rebuilt.00:05:03.210
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- In architecture, this transition was smooth.00:05:05.973
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- Some architects would refuse to be considered postmodern.00:05:09.651
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- They would consider the return of modernism in the 1960s a seamless one.00:05:18.019
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- It was smooth but the modernism was different.00:05:29.638
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- It lost its utopias00:05:37.256
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- and it was rebuilt - both in details and through formal aspects.00:05:40.305
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- The National Gallery00:05:44.395
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- Ladies and gentlemen, good evening.00:05:51.069
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- I would like to have your attention. Please, come closer.00:05:53.468
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- Welcome to the opening of the exhibition "Islands of Resistance".00:05:58.678
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- Allow me to pass the floor to the gallery's General Director,00:06:04.720
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- Mr. Vladimír Rösel.00:06:09.534
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- I apologize to all of you for the as yet non-existent cloakroom,00:06:14.040
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- but that's not important. The important thing is00:06:20.393
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- that we are going to have exhibitions again.00:06:25.090
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- I hope this will be one of the first.00:06:27.536
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- Our hope is that these exhibitions will help introduce visionary curators00:06:29.871
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- I hope you will find these exhibitions enriching00:06:42.163
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- and that Veletržní Palace will become a destination for those eager to look at art.00:06:47.288
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- and that you will especially enjoy our new exhibition schedule.00:06:53.889
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- At the beginning of this project the concept of the National Gallery00:06:59.890
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- was not quite clear, and it still isn't.00:07:06.517
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- We've had no reason to go against it.00:07:10.615
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- I do think this exhibition has its place in the National Gallery.00:07:18.860
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- I think such type of exhibition belongs there.00:07:26.052
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- There was no point in not giving the new gallery management00:07:30.930
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- the opportunity to organize such an exhibition.00:07:37.170
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- However, we soon became part of a bigger idea.00:07:44.365
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- A hope that the NG will undergo some changes.00:07:47.517
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- It is uncertain how this idea will take shape and what steps will be necessary.00:07:51.183
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- And we know nothing about these so far.00:07:58.483
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- Two floors Two exhibitions00:08:00.675
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- Was there a chance to discuss the space we were offered?00:08:03.296
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- They told us we couldn't get one of the floors,00:08:08.937
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- since they couldn't uninstall the present exhibition.00:08:14.773
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- Later, we learnt it would, in fact, be possible.00:08:19.411
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- It is a pity it didn't happen. The division was very unfortunate.00:08:25.556
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- The viewer is confused.00:08:31.127
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- Some visitors enter on the first floor, others on the mezzanine.00:08:34.818
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- The exhibition order is not defined clearly enough.00:08:38.431
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- A visitor might only see half of the exhibition.00:08:42.695
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- Or in the wrong order00:08:48.744
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- and therefore it's difficult to form an accurate impression of the Czech art.00:08:53.176
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- The so-called Other Exhibition is not an exhibition00:08:58.171
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- but another island inhabited by different artists.00:09:05.316
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- At first sight they seem to be similar.00:09:10.785
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- But these artists can suprise both the public and their contemporaries.00:09:14.134
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- Their attitude is closer to reality, to ephemerality.00:09:20.435
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- This way they create a situation which will need to be given a title.00:09:28.311
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- It will have to be acknowledged as a proper field.00:09:33.520
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- It goes beoynd the norm by its sociological research methods.00:09:39.002
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- It somehow exceeds the average notions of art.00:09:43.909
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- These things are not very visual.00:09:48.433
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- They are more a matter of discourse and text.00:09:53.062
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- The text is terribly important but the audience is not used to it yet.00:09:59.562
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- It's a different way of viewing art.00:10:04.405
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- The items exhibited are arranged in a certain rhythm.00:10:08.015
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- The culmination was to be Ján Mančuka's film00:10:12.930
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- but at the same time there isn't a major point to end on.00:10:16.533
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- This is typical of the situation at that time.00:10:20.936
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- A retreat to modesty, to experiences experienced,00:10:23.591
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- nothing monumental or spectacular.00:10:29.110
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- Mančuka's film is built with a strong story,00:10:33.754
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- but it remains very low-key.00:10:38.886
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- I think this line of art is present from the very beginning.00:10:44.644
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- Audience and focus00:10:50.339
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- I always find it problematic to define the audience.00:10:54.201
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- I feel we speak about things we all know.00:10:59.253
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- Or you don't know whom you're addressing.00:11:03.933
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- I organized a guided tour and the people kept staring,00:11:09.831
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- and then they asked questions00:11:13.564
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- but I couldn't understand where they were coming from.00:11:16.655
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- They'd ask about specific things: "How did Hlavina do this?"00:11:18.606
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- I'd reply: "I don't know."00:11:21.513
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- The people had nothing to grasp.00:11:23.346
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- It's very difficult to connect when there's nothing.00:11:27.407
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- It's a problem of this type of institution.00:11:31.377
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- This exhibition comes here from the outside.00:11:33.765
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- Although biennales have been held in here,00:11:38.555
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- and people could confront with certain ways of seeing00:11:43.514
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- also present in this exhibition.00:11:47.534
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- However, the gallery visitors aren't told it's regular art.00:11:50.849
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- The type of support necessary is not present.00:11:59.104
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- I think the title "National" is also problematic.00:12:02.105
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- People consider it as national art, or as their art.00:12:04.988
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- Since they don't understand it, they don't understand themselves.00:12:10.326
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- Emotions are not as strong when it's an international show.00:12:14.545
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- They want to see the presence but they can't grasp it.00:12:17.730
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- Maybe this is why there are such tensions.00:12:23.545
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- They want the exhibition to also be didactic.00:12:26.566
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- This is what they always want.00:12:32.505
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- Well, the "national" will be represented by the "Slav Epic".00:12:35.785
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- You can see it from this exhibition through the glass panels.00:12:39.420
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- Critique00:12:42.610
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- I think the critics focus on things discussed in the 1990s.00:12:50.169
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- So, in fact there is no critique.00:12:58.535
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- Is it related to the National Gallery? To the artists shown?00:13:01.676
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- - Major problems are not discussed. - There was no problem!00:13:08.850
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- It was: Who's missing? Who's superfluous?00:13:14.044
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- The strongest reproaches were: provincialism,00:13:16.731
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- copying what's trendy in the West,00:13:19.947
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- new academism00:13:23.346
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- and the tendency of the younger generation to chase grants,00:13:26.457
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- which - according to the critics - enables them to live an easy life.00:13:32.726
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- The exhibition is accompanied by two books.00:13:42.846
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- A catalogue and an anthology.00:13:48.954
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- This is important.00:13:51.895
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- To want to have everything represented evenly is...00:13:53.590
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- ...is the same as saying it was too sad, not joyous enough.00:13:56.840
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- In the postmodern part, that is.00:13:59.617
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- To tell a writer who writes serious things that he lacks humour...00:14:05.125
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- ...is a known example of lack of understanding.00:14:11.067
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- In fact, a certain situation is given a name and canonized.00:14:14.182
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- From here we can walk on00:14:19.533
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- and search for the uncertaincy elsewhere.00:14:23.347
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- It's a canonization of a state.00:14:26.817
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- For an educated audience, that's a fact.00:14:29.623
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- That's why we thought00:14:35.548
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- it was possible to grasp the thing as a whole,00:14:40.406
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- including the widely accepted title,00:14:42.407
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- and thus close it.00:14:50.752
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- In this sense, "Approval" was a great opportunity.00:14:53.259
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- The next exhibition has to be different.00:15:00.957
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- This exhibition will serve as a departure point.00:15:05.692
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- interview: Vjera Borozan camera, editing: Artyčok00:15:12.689