Committed to Change
The theme of the exhibition is rendering visible and acknowledging the unseen work and independent activity of the artist in an individually chosen terrain. It problematizes the value of a contribution that is unquantifiable and ephemeral in contrast to the promotion of results based on effectiveness and fast profit from labour. The exhibition confronts with works in which the role of the artist as observer or documenter meets the role of the social worker. Artists conduct their self-exploration in a territory that is not predefined and change the status quo by means of active engagement in interpersonal relationships. This activity counts on intervention into the social environment, economic systems, educational institutions and disadvantaged social groups. These are, for example, environments left to the mercy of degradation and pillaging, the rejected remnants of socialism, abandoned pensioners, the unemployed, segregated social groups, artificially divided communities etc.
- Committed to Change00:00:05.479
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- The title of the exhibition Committed to Change responds to the feeling of needed change,00:00:18.393
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- in the surroundings where we are found.00:00:36.547
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- It is about artists which are focused more on the process than the result,00:00:39.839
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- which deal with environment they live in, and with the condition of our society.00:00:44.954
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- As a curator I was interested in communities, and people´s associations,00:00:51.520
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- and how the artists enter into relationships with others,00:01:02.898
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- and also I was interested in affective work, it means work that is free form material result00:01:06.901
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- and does not have to be quantifiable.00:01:15.159
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- Pavlína Fichta Cierna is the author known for her films.00:01:24.780
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- Here we have the series of reports and a portrait of a businesswoman.00:01:28.183
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- She became an heroine, but as we enter into her psychological background,00:01:36.687
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- we can see the portrait full of contradictory issues.00:01:47.623
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- Then we can see another work of monumentality,00:01:52.541
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- Pavel Sterec works with an experiment in political science,00:01:59.276
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- the big box is an extended space where one finds himself when coming for elections,00:02:04.135
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- so it is a space where we are suppose to vote for our representants,00:02:11.618
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- then there is a group Bankler - the heads are without the body here -00:02:17.475
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- financial system steals the bodies from people,00:02:26.749
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- talking heads are without organs, without locomotive system,00:02:29.834
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- and they are talking for themselves and also for others.00:02:35.914
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- My body does not listen to me anymore,00:02:39.485
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- I´m doing what I´m not allowed to do,00:02:41.233
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- I´m drawn by something,00:02:43.230
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- my presidential body is falling apart,00:02:45.733
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- my intestines, spleen, lower back ...00:02:47.971
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- Oto Hudec and Daniela Krajcova made nice workshops cooperating with community centers00:03:00.483
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- in different parts of Slovakia and initiated number of workshops with children´s participation,00:03:08.116
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- I wouldn´t say it is an activist work, but it comes from a need to integrate children,00:03:15.420
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- as the schooling system does not integrate, but rather the other way round00:03:24.793
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- and their activity is aimed at something that is missing.00:03:31.686
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- Rafal Jakubowicz works are of similar character, he is from Poland and his projects always00:03:36.341
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- include others and the result might disappear from the reality and it is kept in records only.00:03:44.508
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- Matej Gavula works the same way, in cooperation with Milan Tittel and Miroslav Cole they made00:03:58.234
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- happening where they transferred the parts of destroyed promenade from the river bank,00:04:04.794
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- it represents the relics of socialism and nobody is interested in it.00:04:11.645
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- It points out the processes happening in society.00:04:16.690
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- I think every work of art here requires full attention and considering00:04:20.209
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- the position of artists towards the reality they are documenting and depicting.00:04:36.704
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- It is the case of Tomáš Rafa - documentary film from Kiev with the scenes we might not see00:04:44.055
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- anywhere else, they are stuck in the slit between something that media accept00:04:52.812
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- and something that could be seen only in our direct experience.00:04:59.280
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- He represents the subjective point of view.00:05:03.165
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- It is very interesting when we start to compare it and we may realize00:05:05.920
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- the way we touch the social reality.00:05:13.707