Sun Phases
Staring at the Sun
Do you know the story of an eagle who was staring at the sun until he got blind?
Or have you heard about the myth of a man who managed to fly, but he got so into it that he flew too high and finally fell down? Don’t we actually know all of these stories? Yes, we do. So why don’t we tell them once again? Over and over again.
Since ever, sun was the ultimate symbol of rationalism. The key to understand the world within a framework that was legitimized by the heritage of western philosophy. The ultimate light of understanding and being enlightened. The missing element of the traditional symbol of the sun is somewhat the rationality of high technology, which becomes a crucial part of our life nowadays. In the opposition to the luminous solar sphere, we commonly place the moon that introduces us to the notion of experience, movement and emotions. So if we have hi-tech, cold and mannish ratio on one pole, the other one will be occupied by energized, feminine experior. And somewhere in-between there is a thought trapped in an artistic gesture.
The way we construct our thoughts is deceptive. We try to follow an anachronic, rational structure instead of simply letting them flow through our head, trying to remain playful and unarticulated, unpronounced as fish jumping over the restless stream of consciousness. It is not easy to catch ones though. In his well known novel Golem, Gustav Meyrink would put it this way: thoughts are like trouts in the river that we are trying to catch. However, thoughts are sneaky and perfidious, willingly placing themselves under the influence of violent emblems and symbols.
Why do I actually recall these massive concepts? Well, in order to emphasize the urge prevalent in the works of Adéla Součková, revealing the artist’s strive to reinterpret these very fundamental archetypes. She longs to return to the old symbols, thoroughly analyzing how do they change within the production of visual culture and how will they come into use in her particular aesthetic language.
Piotr Sikora
- In my work I deal with updating different traditional symbolisms.00:00:51.366
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- It's kind of intellectual and intuitive work.00:00:57.295
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- I became fascinated by the symbolic relation between00:01:05.444
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- the Internet or computers in general and the sun.00:01:13.371
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- This relation exists without any doubt,00:01:19.189
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- it has always been perceived as a rational system which00:01:21.180
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- shines and absorbs everything around.00:01:25.306
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- The exhibition includes work on rice paper shown in the display cases00:01:30.287
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- and a performance I made with Františka.00:01:36.227
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- We made it together with Františka Loubat.00:01:40.379
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- Let's suppose...00:01:43.297
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- There are two layers, the rice papers present00:01:46.916
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- my feelings and my associations referring to00:01:49.604
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- a classic, almost secondary school task of artificial and natural.00:01:56.245
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- We wanted to create an experience or a feeling00:02:03.631
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- and in this aquarium in the Baumann's Gallery00:02:09.511
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- we used few sequences I made when filming the sun,00:02:13.806
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- we joined it with music composed by Michal Cáb00:02:21.131
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- and then we drew it together on the wall with charcoal.00:02:28.092
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- And together we made this glass transparent.00:02:38.392
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- One of us was cleaning the glass on a stepladder00:02:44.431
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- and the other one was drawing.00:02:47.022
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- When I speak about the performances with Adéla,00:03:20.942
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- as we have already done several of them together,00:03:23.662
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- we usually discuss various ideas how to make it,00:03:26.559
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- but I wouldn't say we go into it profoundly,00:03:31.416
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- it's rather we separately interpret it somehow and00:03:34.258
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- and then we discuss it.00:03:36.727
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- We brainstorm pictures or current issues and00:03:38.421
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- if it resonates with each other,00:03:42.264
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- we start to put it into a whole.00:03:45.338
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- Then we discuss if it makes any sense to us00:03:47.987
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- and it is interesting we always find something in it.00:03:52.616
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- I don't want to say what it means to me00:03:56.087
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- but I of course do attach importance to it.00:04:00.013
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- This is really fascinating about it,00:04:02.640
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- something occurs to you through spontaneity and associations,00:04:04.443
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- then you make it specific and00:04:08.764
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- from my point of view you get into an intensity of the presence00:04:11.245
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- which can bear symbolic qualities.00:04:17.188
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- It comes just like that.00:04:19.806
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- That's what we work with and we develop it.00:04:22.744
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- Michal! Michal!00:06:02.175
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- That was Michal Cáb who made the music.00:06:14.495
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- When assigning it to him I told him it should be like this.00:06:18.284
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- And now he locked himself up in there.00:06:25.246