Dušan Zahoranský

• About two years ago we had a collective exhibition together with00:00:04.965
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• Michal Pěchouček, Pavel Sterec and Pavlík Karous under Martin Mazanec in Brno.00:00:10.731
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• The topic was exhibition strategies.00:00:21.626
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• At the exhibition I tried out analysing00:00:26.124
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• the attitude of art as a system of symbols.00:00:32.893
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• It's one of many aesthetic theories regarding art as00:00:40.322
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• a potential symbol strategy via which the author creates00:00:46.574
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• some situation or work and points out some significance00:00:54.102
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• he discovers knowingly or unknowingly during the process.00:01:00.906
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• In Brno I made use of stage designing and architectonic play.00:01:08.383
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• I divided the gallery space by a wall with a hole00:01:15.522
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• which appeared from certain distance as a two-dimensional sign,00:01:22.043
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• but when you came near or moved,00:01:29.164
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• you could discover the sign on the wall - the canvas00:01:32.982
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• is a not any canvas but a hole into another space.00:01:37.105
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• I am really interested in the activating ability of00:01:44.554
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• art gesture which draws the viewer's00:01:54.264
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• attention to his point of view or disposition.00:02:00.145
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• In 2008 there was a solo exhibition where00:02:15.885
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• I appeared as a guest with a German group.00:02:22.007
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• The exhibition's theme was sport, at that time there were Olympic Games in Beijing00:02:27.782
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• which provoked me by their power-mythy pathos.00:02:36.930
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• It was a mixture of ideology shrouded into00:02:45.079
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• rituals of human body performance and skills.00:02:50.425
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• It's a weird conglomerate of power, politics and body fascination.00:02:55.671
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• The sport appears dormantly in my current work,00:03:06.574
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• I'm quite tempted to reveal what's hidden behind00:03:14.538
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• the visuality and all the symbols representing sport.00:03:21.311
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• At my current exhibition I paraphrase and move a bit00:03:32.541
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• the logo citation of two powerful companies Lukoil and Gazprom,00:03:40.585
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• which are being presented as two strong sport magnates.00:03:47.527
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• Paradoxically, we both wanted to avoid accenting sport,00:03:56.913
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• but sport is a corridor via which the power00:04:02.769
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• imprints its visuality into public awareness.00:04:08.490
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• After my graduation I felt like experimenting00:04:17.226
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• with various art techniques which was certainly enriching,00:04:23.003
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• but then, in many ways, you waste your energy00:04:30.337
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• just on getting familiar with all the possibilities00:04:36.007
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• and before you reach some expression,00:04:39.803
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• you don't have any energy left or your ideas get old.00:04:42.676
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• So I went back to the technique I physically handle best00:04:49.158
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• and which doesn't mean any technical problem to me.00:04:59.217
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• Thanks to that, I am able to express myself quickly and effectively.00:05:04.017
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• The material and its force attracted me00:05:07.670
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• and I started to create these drawings I call word translations,00:05:17.645
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• as they transfer verbal word into a specific form and in fact,00:05:30.207
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• as I said before, I returned to a faster technology,00:05:41.272
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• I use the metal as a drawing.00:05:49.287
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• It's a method of three -dimensional drawing,00:05:54.579
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• which helps me to redefine or give an authentic meaning00:06:00.760
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• to classic words determining our opinion,00:06:12.207
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• from words such as here and now over motto and slogan.00:06:20.035
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• They are presented at my current exhibition,00:06:29.735
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• thesis, antithesis, manifesto...00:06:34.530
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• According to me, all these terms refer to public space.00:06:37.867
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• Words in public space are given certain meaning,00:06:47.611
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• they might be imposed or have form of an instruction,00:06:54.123
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• they belong to those manipulative words filling public space.00:07:03.137
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• I came across a group of scientists,00:07:17.105
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• living in Prague in the 1920s,00:07:23.923
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• Roman Jakobson, Vilém Mathesius, Havránek, Trnka00:07:32.031
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• and other Czech linguists, Mukařovský,00:07:36.666
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• who established the Linguistic Circle.00:07:41.849
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• The were connected by a certain structuralist idea.00:07:49.345
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• Scientifically it is a closed point of view,00:07:55.233
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• but I found it very interesting as it00:08:01.913
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• accelerated my experiments somehow.00:08:04.805
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• I make wire drawings, but I concern with00:08:09.952
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• the words' visual aspect whereas their meaning remains open...00:08:16.500
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• But I do accent the form in my sketches.00:08:27.060
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• We use language on a daily basis and often00:08:35.482
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• forget about its form and subject matter,00:08:41.182
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• but when we come across technical language00:08:47.769
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• or language we don't understand,00:08:51.069
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• language a specific group of people use,00:08:53.248
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• then the we see its meaning more clearly.00:08:58.430
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• I was captured by the linguists' correspondence.00:09:06.561
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• I didn't understand the details but focused on00:09:11.395
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• their line of reasoning, how they convinced each00:09:17.127
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• other of something, how they accepted or refused it.00:09:21.392
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• I found the movement in their communication very interesting,00:09:26.205
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• more than the subject matter I didn't fully understand.00:09:31.724
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• I'm practically interested in the words' visual aspect00:09:40.727
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• we are flooded and surrounded by.00:09:44.169
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• Also how they determine our lives and priorities.00:09:47.758
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• I came across a phenomenon of ultra right-wing extremists00:09:57.776
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• which has been here proliferating recently00:10:09.219
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• and I discovered that one label, Thor Steinar,00:10:14.627
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• is represented by a chain of stores in Czech Republic.00:10:21.959
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• After a minor research I found out there was00:10:28.738
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• a counter label assailing with humour and intelligence00:10:33.068
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• the pathos snowballing this fascistic aesthetics.00:10:40.874
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• Thor Steinar is a Nordic- Germanic construct and00:10:49.698
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• the name incorporates aggression and power.00:10:58.255
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• It's being parodied in German by Storch Heinar,00:11:04.958
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• which means stork Heinar and this anti-label00:11:10.013
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• embodies the aesthetics of a stork which is being00:11:16.132
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• dragged helplessly by the fascistic ideology.00:11:20.035
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• For the shop which is in Prague, I created a fictive00:11:27.552
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• promotional object, which is being used as a promo in shopping centres00:11:35.221
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• and I smuggled in the name of the anti-label.00:11:44.881
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• After a short attempt to sell the object,00:11:50.339
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• the sellers took it without noticing what's really in there00:11:54.859
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• and they have been using it till today.00:12:03.009
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• It's placed in front of the shop and it's00:12:05.636
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• probably the best result of my plan concerning00:12:08.767
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• this sad phenomenon I wanted to point out.00:12:13.845

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