Islands of Resistance: Between the First and Second Modern 1985–2012

• The Islands of Resistance Between Modernities, 1985-201200:00:02.154
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• Prague National Gallery Veletržžní 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 Veletržžní 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 Mančuška'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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• Mančuška'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

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