She Wolf of the Night II: Winter
A Few Remarks on Romance
Romance in the city tends to turn into a sentimental pathos, especially around the imported St. Valentine’s Day. Plush hearts in the shop windows, slobbery lovers in the subway, pink cakes in the bakery. There is just too much of it, and as a consequence it empties itself into the Disney-like stage outlining Prague’s panorama, so beautiful it hurts. Romance outside the city is usually mediated in one way or another. An Instagram picture shared via Facebook, 72 likes, 10 comments. Talking about an escape to a different reality over a glass of red wine in the sexy dim lights of the Bukowski’s bar in the Žižkov neighborhood. What would happen, if you were left alone with it, Romance, with yourself? What if you resisted the lust to share? Would you bear it? Would you feel embarrassed? Would cynicism kick in? Would you be afraid? Imagine that you are here all by yourself today, without the glass in your hand and the cell phone in your pocket. In this utmost artificial reality, in a forest made out of paper and brush strokes, visually structured rays of light shining through the projector lenses and the reproduced sound of a heartbeat, recorded by a stranger a month prior to the exhibition in order to be sent over the ocean as a delayed self-portrait. Would you recognize if your eye pupils dilated?
This year there has been no real winter. No snowdrifts, which would immediately turn into sludge in the streets. Is it still coming? What a discussion topic. The fascinating thing about romance is how fleeting it actually is. If one attempts to touch it with a word, or, even worse, with an object, it immediately begins to disappear. Despite that, we can’t stop yearning for it, although we feel we ought to relativize our desire through taunting. Especially in the city. But in the forest, when unseen… The hardest part is to cope with yourself.
Karina Pfeiffer Kottová
- The exhibition She-Wolf of the Night II. Winter00:00:19.065
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- continues my exhibition I made two years ago00:00:22.939
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- in the Vysočina Regional Gallery in Jihlava.00:00:28.148
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- There weren't many authors, the exhibition focused on the theme00:00:31.538
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- of forest in work of several contemporary artists,00:00:36.683
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- mainly Czech ones and Marcus Selg from Germany.00:00:41.216
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- At that time I perceived the forest rather in its00:00:48.950
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- mythy essence, as a net of roots connected00:00:53.249
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- under the ground or as a structure you become00:01:02.656
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- a part of within its rhythm or symbiosis.00:01:08.636
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- There might appear mythological fantasies00:01:14.617
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- or visions and I tried to connect00:01:18.595
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- contemporary art tendencies towards a new mythology00:01:21.886
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- or imaginary visions and dreams with00:01:29.324
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- the forest structure and its reverse side.00:01:33.604
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- In the Karlín Studios are more artists presented,00:01:39.085
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- Maja Wilchelm from Poland,00:01:42.684
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- Tereza Příhodová or Radim Labuda.00:01:44.988
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- Together with the artists introduced in Jihlava,00:01:48.025
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- they presented their new projects and00:01:55.451
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- the exhibition's concept shifted a bit as it deals00:01:58.081
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- with a romantic vision of the artists and probably mine as well.00:02:02.324
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- Our fascination by art is very sensitive and00:02:08.123
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- it might be immersed in emotionally...00:02:14.381
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- But the most important idea is the objects' artificiality.00:02:19.295
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- The forest is made from paper,00:02:25.530
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- brush strokes, projections and sound installations,00:02:30.442
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- it creates a kind of environment for the viewer00:02:35.831
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- who can adapt to the romance intermediated00:02:43.250
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- by the artists and their visions which00:02:51.636
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- are mainly sensational and profound but at00:02:55.283
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- the same time the exhibition is an artificially created reality00:03:00.256
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- which was a very interesting motive for me to explore.00:03:05.986