Hard Disk Pieces
In 2007, when Martin Špirec received VŠVU President’s Award for his Master Thesis, I thought it was something extraordinary. Back then, Špirec’s installation was punk, shoddy and sophisticated at the same time. All those things were infantile trivialities. It was clear only from the multitude and volume of things that Špirec is being serious.
All of his works I have seen since then were good; Špirec created a lot of them and all of them are of equal, high quality. But it was one particular artwork that struck me. It comprised of two white-cleaned blocks, sort of gallery plinths propped against the wall and slightly detached from each other. There was nothing on top them, but above the wider one, there was water valve on the wall. One needed to look between them to see clearly what is going on there, and exact proportions of blocks and the valve only confirmed the origin. Stuck dried up spaghetti, disgusting stains of tomato sauce, and a layer of dust and oil only stressed the known weakness of every household – the space between a kitchen unit and an oven.
But that’s long time ago; Špirec has, of course, changed his focus since then. Sci-fi, thermally insulated churches, automobiles made from washing sponges and kitchen still lifes were replaced by prehistory, author’s self-stylization into Australopithecus, mammoths and dinosaurs. But the principles of his work have remained the same. Cheap DIY aesthetics, appropriated objects and situations, fast, unbelievably funny ideas and self-irony. I recommend a close look at his website; you’ll definitely enjoy it.
The exhibition in Plusmínusnula gallery makes no exception in his work; it is equally good, if not even better. Pieces From Hard Disk is a series of objects where banality and low-cost DIY aesthetics meet highbrow art. They are impertinent and stupid-ish installations that were, however, made over the years. Pieces From Hard Disk are artworks that had been set aside though originally intended to be realized or, on the other hand, that have been finished for a few years now, but in either case, they never have been exhibited. I won’t try and neither interpret their deep meaning nor provide their factual description. I don’t believe it’s worth it – you just have to see them.
- The whole exhibition spreads temporally starting with initial ideas,00:00:09.309
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- those first things, up to this day.00:00:13.513
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- It is sort of a crosscut of things00:00:17.751
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- made over ten years.00:00:21.928
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- And it's called Pieces From Hard Disk because00:00:25.578
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- they're sort of sketches I have chosen and realised for this show.00:00:29.412
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- Each of the exhibited objects bears a simple, working title,00:00:33.545
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- at least for me, when I am in the studio,00:00:37.773
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- and I actually stuck to it.00:00:42.033
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- So you have here Speakers, Car, Tree and the Bird House.00:00:44.809
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- The story of the print of the car starts in 200500:00:48.785
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- when the photograph was taken.00:00:52.929
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- It's postproduction dates to 201000:00:57.074
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- when I added the snow column00:01:01.296
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- and now it is exhibited for the first time.00:01:05.341
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- Similar background applies to all of the exhibited artworks.00:01:09.380
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- There was always some idea involved,00:01:13.552
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- later a sketch was added only to be realised some time later.00:01:17.738
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- And I am glad I could choose them and realise them for this show.00:01:22.037
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- What pleases me the most00:01:26.561
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- are those two objects speakers.00:01:30.922
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- In the end, Braňo Matúš helped me finish them.00:01:34.025
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- This is the main point of the things exhibited;00:01:44.975
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- that each and every one of them carries a story with it.00:01:48.856
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- Either they could have been realised or they were waiting to be realised.00:01:53.779
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- That was the strongest thing about it for me.00:01:58.189
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- I think that it's already in the process of making those things00:02:11.980
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- that I have ideas how can it be associated with other things.00:02:15.883
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- But I am probably unable to answer that.00:02:20.207
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- I have a wider scale of things I do00:02:27.574
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- and when someone asks me something like that00:02:31.747
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- it evokes in me some kind of concretism00:02:35.895
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- that this is my work and that's all I do, nothing else.00:02:40.017
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- I don't know, it escapes me.00:02:44.434
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- I exhibited paintings recently and here you can find objects...00:02:47.392
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- I keep experimenting, actually.00:02:51.406
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- But since you asked me about a shift, I guess there is indeed some.00:02:54.255
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- There is certainly a connection between the objects00:02:58.621
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- and there is even a connection that it happens often00:03:02.914
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- that with this tree here which is quite a big thing to produce00:03:07.079
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- and it ends up often in some storage room00:03:11.113
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- and I lose interest in it eventually; it fades away.00:03:15.336
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- So, since those things accumulate,00:03:19.884
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- I am starting to recycle them,00:03:24.066
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- those older things that can reappear as a part of something newer00:03:28.108
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- which may be the case of the Bird House you can see here00:03:32.341
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- but the rest is new.00:03:36.743
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- Enough?00:03:39.633