Autonomous language of exhibition architecture on Artyčok

The report presented is an edited extract from an email conversation we were having intensively for several days without a direct intention of another use. (Before this appeal was announced). It reflects a rich experience with institutional art operation we went through particularly after 2000. Within the conversation we chose from a wide spectrum of possibilities and performed two different identities – positions: an exhibition architect and a methodist of new exhibition strategies. Despite high divergence, efforts for humorous point, historical divagations or pursuit of definitions, the email conversation is predominated by an attempt to gather enough arguments so that the current institutional environment started perceiving exhibitions or „making exhibitions“ with an adequate attention. Methodical questions how to visualize contemporary art in a gallery setting can be thus answered obliquely and no unambiguous suggestions are made. Regardless we are both spontaneously convinced of relation to the theme given at least in the moment when the word „contemporary“ is bracketed for the III. thematic area.

Jakub Stejskal

Autonomous Speech of Exhibition Architecture00:00:01.473
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Good morning!00:00:06.893
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Today I should have been here with Ondřej Chrobák, but00:00:08.835
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unfortunately, he forgot that he is in Helsinki.00:00:11.812
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I must express my gratitude to Ondřej Horák who was willing to substitute him.00:00:13.953
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We will try to read you out a segment of email conversation00:00:18.303
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that I had with Ondřej Chrobák in March and April,00:00:24.684
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when we were contemplating exhibition architecture, its language and00:00:30.586
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the way of thinking about exhibition installation00:00:39.105
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in the sense of exhibition architecture00:00:46.730
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and the role of an architect as a co-author of an exhibition.00:00:49.536
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Exhibition architecture is an autonomous language.00:00:54.051
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It is a means of communication.00:00:57.363
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It is a higher form of narration.00:00:59.281
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It cannot be disturbed.00:01:01.342
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However, it is just a discourse. It is a type of independent language,00:01:03.278
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in the same way as the language of film, theatre, comics, and so on.00:01:06.647
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It develops in time both in its content and form.00:01:11.662
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It is not resistent to thinking, movements,00:01:15.253
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and changes in art, exhibition and social operation.00:01:17.797
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Within its own language it uses different intensity of expressiveness in statements.00:01:21.653
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In the text we perceive, for instance,00:01:24.661
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differences between formal language, narration and poetry.00:01:28.303
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It is necessary to choose an appropriate tone to a statement.00:01:30.344
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Exhibition language or exhibition as a medium00:01:34.141
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has its own history, on the one hand, related to the changes of art and society,00:01:37.238
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and, on the other, forms of presentation00:01:42.936
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often predetermine and influence the character of artefacts.00:01:45.280
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Exhibition language is not resistent to strategies of other media,00:01:49.066
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and neither to pop culture spectacularity.00:01:53.529
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I am thinking of the most often presented fact00:01:57.113
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that the way of presentation of paintings in Parisian salons led painters00:02:00.070
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to the creation of large-format paintings,00:02:03.065
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which were showy, with drastic or saucy motives.00:02:05.462
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As a consequence, exhibition or exhibition format, and the way of presentation00:02:09.737
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may, retrospectively, influence the appearance of art.00:02:14.009
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Similarly, the Prague's off-spaces of the last decade00:02:16.576
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have undoubtedly changed the character of art,00:02:19.275
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unlike the great expectations of the nineties00:02:22.698
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when large, inflatable Malibu spiders and the like were being made.00:02:27.755
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This process goes both ways.00:02:32.668
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Exhibition strategies not only react to metamorphoses of art,00:02:34.730
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but the artists also count on presentation possibilities,00:02:37.754
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already at the time of the ideological origin of the artwork.00:02:41.882
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Then there is our local particularity00:02:46.119
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which greatly determines exhibition strategies.00:02:48.790
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The spaces in our institutions.00:02:51.157
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They are mostly situated in historical buildings00:02:53.741
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whose original function is converted for the purpose of art presentation.00:02:56.814
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The significant part, if not the main,00:03:00.029
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of the work of an architect consists in the adaptation00:03:02.242
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of inappropriate conditions inherent to the building,00:03:05.247
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often emphasized by the badly realized reconstruction.00:03:08.030
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The space dominates over the architect and the curator00:03:12.124
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often as a main determining element of the exhibition.00:03:15.657
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Naturally, it goes so far, that the exhibition dramaturgy00:03:18.842
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can be dictated not by the interest of general public, but by spatial dispositions.00:03:22.228
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I think that the subject for a possible study could be the House at the Stone Bell.00:03:27.348
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It is undoubtedly mutually related.00:03:32.208
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The manner of presentation influences character and content of artefacts.00:03:35.107
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Easy examples of the principle of presentation of purpose come to mind00:03:38.867
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that influence the appearance of an artefact right at the beginning of its origin.00:03:44.149
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Let¥s start with Altamira, continue to early Renaissance frescos00:03:47.725
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in Roman catacombs, educative decoration in temples,00:03:51.358
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intention of personal representation of clients,00:03:54.220
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autonomous artistic production intended for gallery presentation,00:03:56.860
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art projects in publications and, finally, works in public space.00:03:59.946
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All have their clear instructions that,00:04:03.852
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naturally, influence the final appearance of works.00:04:06.063
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It is interesting to think of the way of secondary presentation of these works00:04:08.796
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out of their temporal and local context.00:04:12.539
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If we take them out of it, at least the temporal perspective is present;00:04:15.259
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the works begin to age immediately.00:04:19.920
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What happens?00:04:22.745
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What will we miss? What do we add?00:04:24.487
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Witnesses of the age turn into something standing outside time and space.00:04:27.199
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This museum and gallery selection causes some artefacts to become separated,00:04:29.755
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gaining institutionally proclaimed immortality.00:04:35.242
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They enter the hall of fame where they are supposed00:04:39.630
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to stay for ever next to the similarly priviledged ones.00:04:42.817
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We shall begin with the matter that you suggested.00:04:45.553
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Galleries here have at their disposal exclusively historical objects.00:04:48.223
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The younger the object is, the easier it is to work with it00:04:50.477
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since it better corresponds to contemporaneous art requirements.00:04:53.371
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Still, most galleries were built 80 years ago:00:04:56.967
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The House of Arts in Brno, GVU in Ostrava, M·nes, etc.00:05:01.211
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I don't know of any new exhibition building.00:05:05.302
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I propose in all seriousness to sell these00:05:08.106
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objects, especially the old ones, the least suitable ones,00:05:11.970
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all those Renaissance and baroque palaces which all cost a fortune to run,00:05:14.928
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and whose sole advantage consists of their placement in the city center.00:05:25.269
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Let's use the proceeds to build new galleries00:05:30.896
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situated on large, more accessible plots, better suited for contemporary art.00:05:35.944
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Let us not contract the so-called prestigious00:05:40.801
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architects studios, but rather those builders who trade in00:05:43.592
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the cluttering of our country landscape with storehouses and commercial halls.00:05:48.512
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Let's build a large, easy construction with large, empty spaces.00:05:52.247
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Saved money could be used for the programme,00:05:57.340
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its development, production and realization.00:05:59.221
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Let's not build expensive, representative buildings00:06:01.575
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because we'd gradually fall into the same trap in which we are now.00:06:04.131
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The building will stop being suitable for future requirements, now unknown to us.00:06:08.207
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It will be impossible to adapt, to rebuild, or to replace it,00:06:13.604
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which would not be a problem in case of a basic hall.00:06:17.877
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We should treat the artefacts in a similar way.00:06:20.556
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They should be got rid off the rest of the aura still00:06:22.821
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perceived by the bourgeois and art historian society.00:06:26.872
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Let's tell stories, human, social, and so on,00:06:29.309
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but let's not make the artefacts something they're not and never have been.00:06:32.907
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The reaction of artists to the exhibitional spaces00:06:36.199
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of prefab halls would be interesting.00:06:41.764
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Should we follow the clever book,00:06:44.965
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the commercial trend "discount" could be traced,00:06:47.313
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when people refused the culture of00:06:51.189
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old shopping centers in the name of the lowest price.00:06:53.064
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The discount hypermarket model, distributional warehouse, is a parallel,00:06:55.255
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which would not work on ideological similarity.00:06:57.549
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I was thinking of the hall mainly because of practical reasons.00:07:00.108
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It is a cheap, neutral, large, pure space making possible any built-ins00:07:03.278
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resulting from individual needs of a particular exhibition.00:07:08.239
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It does not look like a temple, so00:07:10.971
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there is no attractivity that would draw attention to itself.00:07:13.039
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Should we think of a gallery as of a place for articulation of ideas00:07:16.554
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taking place in space and time,00:07:20.665
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then the neutral building is an ideal place.00:07:23.607
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The line in the clever book could be defined as follows:00:07:26.179
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For the possibility of clear, undisturbed articulation00:07:28.953
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of exhibition projects it is more suitable to use the most neutral environment.00:07:32.254
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Like consumers00:07:36.702
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who give up more luxurious, spectacular and aesthetic way of shopping00:07:38.530
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in favour of the low-priced goods in discount hypermarkets,00:07:43.319
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gallery viewers give it up too in favour of better programme and quality.00:07:47.119
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In both cases it brings with it lesser financial burden00:07:55.576
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for the construction and operation.00:08:00.169
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If today's people go for a trip to IKEA or other suburban shopping centres,00:08:02.924
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it won't be because of their box-like architecture.00:08:06.156
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The requirements for leisure time are higher.00:08:09.308
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They go to a discount store to shop, to the mall to spend time.00:08:12.188
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In IKEA you are a part of your own story.00:08:15.697
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You see an exhibition of ideal flat compositions whose parts00:08:19.142
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you can take home as a souvenir.00:08:21.442
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Projection of yourself into an ideal, pure interior, quality lunch for a low price,00:08:23.445
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the possibility to put your children into a kindergarten.00:08:28.630
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You don't have to buy a new sofa, a flower pot for a hundred will do.00:08:31.440
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You are a member of the IKEA FAMILY.00:08:34.936
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You have lots of friends, of the "I like", facebook variety.00:08:36.398
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It could be similar in case of an exhibition.00:08:41.170
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You walk around viewing arts whose copies00:08:43.270
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you can find at the end in a self-service section.00:08:47.111
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You can see a movie, have lunch, drink coffee in a café.00:08:49.472
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Children can play with fun tutors.00:08:52.159
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You become a friend of the gallery, subscribe to the weekly bulletin, etc.00:08:54.542
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I think there is a parallel from the clever book, which can be applied.00:08:58.443
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I think that the similarity of a building does not play a role there.00:09:01.567
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To defend historical buildings as a residence for a museum of art,00:09:06.045
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it is necessary to say that they can be a natural place for presenting00:09:10.287
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contemporary art, let's say of art created at the same time as the buildings.00:09:13.887
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Many artefacts were created on the request of the owners of these palaces,00:09:18.792
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and were moved there right after being made.00:09:22.828
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There is a problem with large alter paintings and enormous sculptures00:09:25.996
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originally meant for exteriors,00:09:33.576
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due to their imcompatibility with the maximum load of the ceilings.00:09:37.261
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It is possible to generalize that authentic space00:09:40.380
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can be seen as an adequate environment to present time relevant art creation.00:09:42.301
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Altars look best in churches for which they were painted.00:09:46.838
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Braun's Nativity scene in the forest, mosaics on the floor and fresco on the wall.00:09:50.724
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It is necessary to emphasize the word "authentic".00:09:55.472
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If the object was built in the baroque time,00:09:58.188
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however its reconstruction was done by Metrostav, like in case of GASK,00:10:01.614
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we can no longer speak of an authentic space.00:10:06.521
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Today's art in historical buildings looks best00:10:10.401
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when the time continuity hasn't been interrupted,00:10:14.459
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when von Habsburg buys Mančuška for his collection.00:10:16.505
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It can be presumed that there is a kind of relation and it adds authenticity00:10:19.122
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to the new constallation by its family tradition.00:10:25.736
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It is true. The attempt to adapt historical buildings results in hybrids,00:10:27.391
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where a white cube is implemented due to the impossibility to change the space.00:10:31.878
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The authenticity is decreased because of the interference.00:10:38.091
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In practice it works like this: stucco decoration is surppressed,00:10:42.017
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the halls are laid by plasterboard, windows are hidden,00:10:44.321
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lights are hung, and all is covered in white paint.00:10:48.024
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The exterior of the house then looks different than from the interior.00:10:52.248
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Then it is just a step away from the knocking down of the interior,00:10:55.619
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see the former Holešovice town hall opposite the Veletržní Palace,00:10:58.498
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or the Berlin's town hall plan00:11:02.217
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to built a replica of a palace that used to stand there00:11:04.438
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instead of the Palace of Republic.00:11:06.814
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I see the problem of these spaces especially in their ground plan.00:11:08.917
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Even if we have an authentic environment, works, and exhibition - all time related,00:11:12.660
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still there is a problem with dramaturgy, tempo, etc.00:11:16.694
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All must adapt to the space: number of rooms, their size, ranging...00:11:20.795
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all that represents the dictate for the script of the exhibition.00:11:26.344
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All formats of the dialogue with historical context00:11:29.918
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could be considered heavily00:11:33.564
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especially the further they go from the performative events,00:11:38.950
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and have a character of a normal exhibition.00:11:42.985
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I suspect that they are just those events that cause the origin00:11:45.992
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of the legendary artefact - a pile of sand in the corner.00:11:50.410
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As well as we don't like deprivation00:11:54.601
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Yes, dialogue with space today00:12:00.968
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is a challenge only for bad contemporary artists.00:12:05.208
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I can recall a few places where it functions well even today.00:12:08.871
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They were not historical buildings but new construtions, e.g. Berlin's bienalle.00:12:11.968
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From another perspective.00:12:17.984
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Why do all the minerals, coins, fossils, canned and pickled things look best00:12:20.130
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in old schools windows - dark wood, glass?00:12:25.715
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Why do they look so desperate in the high-tech aluminium new ones?00:12:28.386
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Is it not because the objects started to be collected in a certain time,00:12:32.007
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when it was considered to be serious and scientific work,00:12:38.234
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not empty fetishism.00:12:44.087
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As a whole it creates an authentic model00:12:46.861
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of an otherwise artificial situation - systematicized nature.00:12:49.129
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A law should be passed that one who would like to throw out00:12:52.902
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these old windows and order new ones00:13:02.661
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for tens of millions from that certain company00:13:05.648
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should be punished with a double-digit jail sentence.00:13:08.613
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New exhibition model won¥t be created00:13:11.282
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by giving a facelift to an old exhibition model.00:13:13.459
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Here we get on the thin ice of museum of museum,00:13:15.744
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and musealization of musealization.00:13:18.198
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I fully agree.00:13:20.248
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Facelift or tuning of space without any deeper concept00:13:21.652
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doesn't solve anything. It is just a waste of money.00:13:24.549
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Can we speak about scenographic exhibition solutions of expositions?00:13:28.386
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For instance, the practice of Prague's National Museum where00:13:34.763
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concrete artefacts often play the role of decoration of the whole design.00:13:38.114
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However, the design itself communicate a lot -00:13:42.505
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with reduced number of exhibits or by their different selection.00:13:45.282
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On the other hand, the tradition of00:13:49.437
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scenographic exhibition, despite our despect,00:13:51.522
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has a rich and interesting history. Many reknowned people have focused on it.00:13:56.270
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Lisick˝, Mies Van Der Rohe, JI¯Ì Kroha.00:14:03.346
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Much of its aestetics is used by artists classified by Karel CÌsa¯ as00:14:06.511
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archive expression. For instance, Groöka Matzuga and00:14:11.284
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in the spirit of the age, Dominik Lang¥s Sleeping Town.00:14:17.194
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I feel a certain despect against exhibition realization in its most vulgar appearance:00:14:20.416
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auto salon, travel expo, etc.00:14:23.741
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Should we study its better forms, I am in favour of it, but00:14:26.349
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I do not see anything like it today.00:14:30.454
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Even the largest and most expensive world presentations such as the World EXPO00:14:32.981
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are from this kind of perspective quite hopeless.00:14:35.649
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What else can be a state presentation in the form of a copy of a sculpture00:14:37.906
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from the Charles bridge, props from the subway with 3D graphiti,00:14:41.562
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or a big exhibition about the Earth in the National Museum, where a big00:14:44.278
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flashing paper volcano can be found.00:14:46.885
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This is a very bad kind of exhibition realization00:14:49.082
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on the level of a museum of torture.00:14:51.492
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It is meant retrospectively, in the time between wars,00:14:53.864
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border between art and the commercial was not drawn as sharply as nowadays.00:14:57.003
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Especially, in the home context, either public or private sector.00:15:02.085
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The difusion was far bigger and less incriminating.00:15:05.919
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The formal language of avantgarde was very quickly applied.00:15:09.952
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For instance, a commercial product photo was composed on a diagonal.00:15:13.777
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Josef Sudek often took photos like this.00:15:18.014
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Progressive firms quickly sensed the potential.00:15:21.090
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Also a significant part of public tenders ended up in hands of avantgarde artists.00:15:24.122
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Even the Stalinists understood that for the presentation on EXPO00:15:28.719
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it was necessary to use the capacity available on the margin.00:15:31.847
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Super & Co projected exposition of the National Gallery that00:15:36.876
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at least in George¥s monastery, Gothic and Baroque, were highly00:15:43.982
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above the standard of the age.00:15:47.715
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They codified the standard, mentally, at least.00:15:49.923
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The border between art and commerce00:15:55.027
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was not perceived as a programme by the avantgarde.00:15:56.341
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The fusion of art with life, photos, commercials, graphics, design of toys.00:15:59.562
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Architecture served to solve social problems,00:16:02.443
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Kroha thinking about structure and relationships in society.00:16:04.324
00:16:04.324
ZlÌn, large capital paying for the solution raising00:16:08.075
00:16:08.075
from the inter-war avantgarde.00:16:11.936
00:16:11.936
Would Kellner employ Keller today?00:16:14.104
00:16:14.104
Today¥s desperation relates generally00:16:19.546
00:16:19.546
to the absence of a great idea that would be able to stand00:16:22.708
00:16:22.708
against the corrupted presence.00:16:25.776
00:16:25.776
As an author of exhibition stands, stages and corporate parties,00:16:27.921
00:16:27.921
I am always confronted with the pressure for a solution corresponding00:16:30.608
00:16:30.608
to fears of clients and their company manuals.00:16:32.965
00:16:32.965
The difusion is zero which is why00:16:36.656
00:16:36.656
I do not boast about this line of my work.00:16:38.636
00:16:38.636
Actually, the difusion is here.00:16:42.219
00:16:42.219
However it is delayed by at least one decade.00:16:43.905
00:16:43.905
I read that the official music for the Olympic00:16:46.147
00:16:46.147
Games in London was by Underworld.00:16:48.785
00:16:48.785
Music, visualization, graphics come from the work of people00:16:50.632
00:16:50.632
who create authentic things here and now00:16:53.016
00:16:53.016
that are only taken up at the time when they stop being new and political,00:16:55.555
00:16:55.555
when they¥re accepted by wider public,00:17:00.979
00:17:00.979
when the public gets used to them.00:17:03.145
00:17:03.145
I will never forget photos from the trance party Sensation in White00:17:05.612
00:17:05.612
where Milan Richter hugs his Miss World.00:17:09.523
00:17:09.523
I think it is necessary to see and use these kinds of movements in culture,00:17:12.321
00:17:12.321
and try to establish them before00:17:18.059
00:17:18.059
they¥ll be taken up and exploited by the commercial sector.00:17:21.068
00:17:21.068
It involves engaging good authors, graphic designers, and architects, and00:17:23.584
00:17:23.584
giving them the opportunity to cooperate on the creation of the look and feel00:17:26.920
00:17:26.920
of these institutions that shouldn't be mainstream even in these kinds of aspects.00:17:30.827
00:17:30.827
Also today's neoliberals try to exploit the progressive capacity on the margin.00:17:34.105
00:17:34.105
See the EXPO in Shanghai or Entropa at the seat of the EU.00:17:40.142
00:17:40.142
However, I think it's a bit off the mark.00:17:44.043
00:17:44.043
I think what we're doing now, is more like a presentation in Bauhaus00:17:47.037
00:17:47.037
than an Oriflame stand in a shopping centre.00:17:50.475
00:17:50.475
Perhaps, we should define the term better.00:17:53.703
00:17:53.703
Yes, undoubtedly.00:17:57.301
00:17:57.301
Prefab stands with labels do not possess even a perverse quality for our sensitivity.00:17:59.055
00:17:59.055
I'd like to add something to the EXPO -00:18:03.948
00:18:03.948
extraordinary and good quality expositions of the past few years,00:18:06.278
00:18:06.278
intuitively accepted also by the viewers, were on the border00:18:11.281
00:18:11.281
between exhibition and conceptual art work.00:18:13.373
00:18:13.373
For example, the British pavilion with flower seeds00:18:15.190
00:18:15.190
resembling a hedgehog from inside and outside,00:18:18.338
00:18:18.338
or Zumthor's Swiss pavillion in Hannover.00:18:20.767
00:18:20.767
Historically, the field is a temple for visual adventure.00:18:23.577
00:18:23.577
00:18:27,457 --> '0:18:31,202 For example, Filko¥s cathedrals have an intuitive relationship for me00:18:23.577
00:18:23.577
to the similarly complex installations in the pavilions of EXPO00:18:31.606
00:18:31.606
from the end of the fifties to the beginning of the seventies.00:18:35.496
00:18:35.496
This is the language of an exhibition architect and a curator spoken to a viewer.00:18:39.640
00:18:39.640
The architect is the curator's partner in articulation of the communication.00:18:44.475
00:18:44.475
Basically, there are three basic approaches00:18:48.119
00:18:48.119
toward an exhibition, and three types of architects.00:18:50.356
00:18:50.356
One deals primarily with space,00:18:53.422
00:18:53.422
the other with artefacts, the third with content.00:18:56.467
00:18:56.467
Naturally, never in the pure crystalline form,00:18:59.503
00:18:59.503
there are always all three elements present in the architectonic solution.00:19:01.750
00:19:01.750
When choosing an architect the curator should consider00:19:04.345
00:19:04.345
which of the approaches is most suitable00:19:07.040
00:19:07.040
for the specific place, character of artworks,00:19:09.942
00:19:09.942
and an idea of the exhibition.00:19:12.626
00:19:12.626
Also it is about the00:19:14.706
00:19:14.706
formal acknowledgement of the exhibition status00:19:16.459
00:19:16.459
as a fully-fledged output.00:19:18.369
00:19:18.369
Basically, it is a problem mainly of an academic field.00:19:21.235
00:19:21.235
It does not consider exhibition as a goal,00:19:24.240
00:19:24.240
completion of a long-lasting activity,00:19:26.612
00:19:26.612
but only as an appendix of research, its extension towards the public.00:19:28.222
00:19:28.222
Exhibition is seen as a mediation activity, popularizing.00:19:33.297
00:19:33.297
Popular, meaning substandard.00:19:38.735
00:19:38.735
Even though hardly anyone would admit it openly.00:19:40.902
00:19:40.902
In academic operation, it often means that a scientist gathers findings,00:19:43.516
00:19:43.516
and from the beginning he thinks of the outputs -00:19:47.548
00:19:47.548
article in a prestigious magazine, or a monography.00:19:50.190
00:19:50.190
Finally, when he is asked and even persuaded, when it is all ready,00:19:53.849
00:19:53.849
it can be exhibited.00:19:59.390
00:19:59.390
At that time, many scientists get in trouble, because00:20:01.593
00:20:01.593
they don't know how the exhibition is prepared00:20:04.858
00:20:04.858
from the practical perspective,00:20:08.132
00:20:08.132
and also because while preparing it00:20:10.171
00:20:10.171
they often realize that the object of their research00:20:12.315
00:20:12.315
is visually unattractive, generally non-communicable,00:20:14.360
00:20:14.360
non-functional and often half-baked.00:20:17.803
00:20:17.803
Or, their practice, when they work00:20:21.480
00:20:21.480
in their texts mainly with reproductions00:20:26.669
00:20:26.669
of artworks, can't made into an exhibition.00:20:29.277
00:20:29.277
Because their comparing material either physically does not exist,00:20:31.603
00:20:31.603
or it isn't accessible, or it cannot be lent, or,00:20:35.422
00:20:35.422
from the perspective of format and media, it is disparate.00:20:38.716
00:20:38.716
For instance, a large format painting, drawing on a beer coaster,00:20:45.804
00:20:45.804
gothic Madonna, a magazine photo, commercial TV spot, etc.00:20:47.506
00:20:47.506
The author's desperate state is often transfered to the architect,00:20:53.091
00:20:53.091
in this case, the saviour.00:20:57.288
00:20:57.288
Here it is necessary to think of two traditions.00:21:00.282
00:21:00.282
The older, so-called exhibition management,00:21:02.449
00:21:02.449
with scenographic base, the EXPO tradition,00:21:04.782
00:21:04.782
and the newer one - i.e. the more conceptual, multimedia artist.00:21:09.472
00:21:09.472
The show Spectacle can bridge discrepency between incompatible author¥s thinking00:21:13.325
00:21:13.325
mirrored in the gathered material for exhibitions00:21:19.670
00:21:19.670
and the exhibition as a medium, a language.00:21:23.993
00:21:23.993
In worst cases, the author of the exhibition transfers the responsibility00:21:27.768
00:21:27.768
to the architect due to the ostentative lack of interest in exhibition -00:21:33.713
00:21:33.713
this sounds almost absurd -00:21:36.390
00:21:36.390
or due to alleged lack of time.00:21:38.215
00:21:38.215
It is the same as if when writing an article,00:21:41.774
00:21:41.774
the notes were handed to a writer who would articulate it in words, ideas.00:21:44.628
00:21:44.628
The acknowledgement of exhibition as a language00:21:50.078
00:21:50.078
is important to the setting of the system of work evaluation inside art history.00:21:52.884
00:21:52.884
This language is superior to the artefacts,00:22:00.155
00:22:00.155
it itself creates a meta artefact - the exhibition itself.00:22:03.861
00:22:03.861
The feeling, experience, are superior to art history.00:22:07.104
00:22:07.104
For me, the superiority is a search for00:22:10.922
00:22:10.922
the optimal translation from language to language.00:22:13.837
00:22:13.837
Good quality translation is a complex transfer with minimum losses.00:22:15.963
00:22:15.963
The greatness of a curator could be measured by the00:22:19.966
00:22:19.966
fact that the significant sources would not be published at all.00:22:22.566
00:22:22.566
He will keep them to himself,00:22:25.701
00:22:25.701
not willing to show himself in favour of the exhibition, and00:22:29.549
00:22:29.549
as a need of empathy to the viewer.00:22:31.968
00:22:31.968
It is not correct to make the content easier, but to find its adequate form.00:22:33.991
00:22:33.991
I think it is necessary to strive00:22:38.512
00:22:38.512
for a multiple level mode of exhibition perception.00:22:40.947
00:22:40.947
If I simplify it, it could be expressed by interjections like this:00:22:45.405
00:22:45.405
Nice pictures, wow, nicely hung in an interesting space.00:22:50.574
00:22:50.574
Yeah, an interesting content, hmmm, the result of research, aha.00:22:55.496
00:22:55.496
If we process higher in the levels, the layers are put over each other.00:23:02.324
00:23:02.324
So it means that with aha I perceive yeah, wow and hmmm.00:23:05.982
00:23:05.982
As a basic problem I perceive that we do not speak just about viewers00:23:13.048
00:23:13.048
but also about the organisers of the exhibitions,00:23:16.861
00:23:16.861
who cannot speak about other levels that the "yeah" level.00:23:20.164
00:23:20.164
I am interested whether these levels of perception are seen as opposite.00:23:25.643
00:23:25.643
Whether it means that reaching the aha level, the yeah ilevel s reduced.00:23:30.395
00:23:30.395
I don¥t think so, I think the levels interfere each other.00:23:35.917
00:23:35.917
Naturally, each is different.00:23:38.711
00:23:38.711
One is more analytical, other more emotional.00:23:41.054
00:23:41.054
However, t doesn't mean that I could be visually charmed.00:23:43.441
00:23:43.441
After all, we are dealing with a visual format.00:23:47.207
00:23:47.207
I agree to perceive these emotional levels not only within one personality,00:23:51.857
00:23:51.857
but spread out into more persons.00:23:55.957
00:23:55.957
For sure there are people who are not able to accept the level AHA.00:23:58.308
00:23:58.308
Also, AHA people have prejudice, not accepting the yeah emotion.00:24:02.738
00:24:02.738
This opens a question - exhibition for all, and a blockbuster.00:24:09.669
00:24:09.669
I think so. This can be generalized.00:24:13.747
00:24:13.747
Not imagine only the ideal viewer, but the collection of them.00:24:17.127
00:24:17.127
In fact, to somehow satisfy everyone.00:24:21.495
00:24:21.495
The levels in higher degrees can be satisfied not only in the exhibition hall,00:24:24.774
00:24:24.774
but also by the accompanying program.00:24:29.346
00:24:29.346
It can lead to the fact that different types00:24:31.401
00:24:31.401
of viewers will leave the exhibition with different00:24:33.227
00:24:33.227
feelings about what they've just seen.00:24:35.106
00:24:35.106
I am thinking of the Radimsk˝ exhibition in the Prague's City Gallery.00:24:37.476
00:24:37.476
If we forget the reason why it was realized, and who was responsible for it,00:24:40.659
00:24:40.659
this could be the result.00:24:45.417
00:24:45.417
Yeah people leave the exhibition with nice feelings due to impressionist00:24:47.724
00:24:47.724
paintings known from the copies of the French masters.00:24:51.645
00:24:51.645
Wow people admired good lights,00:24:58.482
00:24:58.482
settings, friendly impression of the institution.00:25:00.522
00:25:00.522
Hmm people think of the comparison00:25:06.007
00:25:06.007
of two of the artist's periods, lack of shift in production,00:25:09.172
00:25:09.172
his social status expressed by owning a car, unusual back then, and so on.00:25:11.924
00:25:11.924
Aha people understand that in every age there is burgeois art with copy trends00:25:18.902
00:25:18.902
and which guarantees comfortable living to the artists,00:25:24.903
00:25:24.903
slowly accepted by town middle classes00:25:29.513
00:25:29.513
and feature of progress, and of state of lawyers, dentists, and financiers.00:25:31.298
00:25:31.298
Every exhibition theme potentionally contains all these interjections.00:25:40.210
00:25:40.210
The problem lies in the solution of details.00:25:42.998
00:25:42.998
For instance, how to write accompanying text for people to read them00:25:47.372
00:25:47.372
with the same interest, but of course with different capability of understanding,00:25:49.577
00:25:49.577
by both AHA people and Yeah people.00:25:53.941
00:25:53.941
In other words, there are extensive texts for Aha's and oversimplified ones for Yeah's,00:25:57.225
00:25:57.225
not to be left only with a superficial emotion.00:26:06.235
00:26:06.235
It has to be solved by feeling, by compromise.00:26:09.037
00:26:09.037
Do not overestimate Yeah people, do not underestimate Aha people.00:26:11.445
00:26:11.445
I think that the problem of Aha people can be solved00:26:15.645
00:26:15.645
by extensive captions and different type of presentation:00:26:18.671
00:26:18.671
concertina books, catalogues, reading rooms, accompanying programmes,00:26:22.128
00:26:22.128
lectures, etc.00:26:25.393
00:26:25.393
Still, I can better imagine an exhibition00:26:27.177
00:26:27.177
with a warning label on the door saying "IQ 80 plus".00:26:29.926
00:26:29.926
In the sense that the whole dramaturgy00:26:33.267
00:26:33.267
should satisfy the whole society, yet its segments don¥t have to.00:26:36.250
00:26:36.250
On the contrary - they are focused on: children, blind people ...00:26:41.255
00:26:41.255
Then we are speaking about the dramaturgy of the whole institution.00:26:45.728
00:26:45.728
Let's not solve exhibition as a single act.00:26:50.681
00:26:50.681
It is not possible to make each exhibition as an innovative breakthrough.00:26:53.581
00:26:53.581
I think that an exhibition with respect00:26:57.053
00:26:57.053
to its architecture should be more creative and intelectual than design-driven.00:26:59.909
00:26:59.909
I'd consider whether design is not a subset of the creative work.00:27:02.500
00:27:02.500
It is natural that all exhibitions look a certain way, finally,00:27:06.672
00:27:06.672
it is a visual phenomenon, so it is designed somehow.00:27:09.645
00:27:09.645
From my own experience, I know that if00:27:13.048
00:27:13.048
there is an intelectual solution, design comes out of it, too,00:27:16.412
00:27:16.412
which does not mean that the design should be suppressed.00:27:19.635
00:27:19.635
If the design and final image serves the concept, it is alright,00:27:24.732
00:27:24.732
if not, it is a confusion.00:27:28.179
00:27:28.179
If all is just design without any idea behind it,00:27:30.740
00:27:30.740
we get to the level of showrooms and exhibition stands,00:27:35.214
00:27:35.214
which could be an intention, but if so, it should be declared beforehand.00:27:39.856
00:27:39.856
Thank you.00:27:43.995

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