BY THE WAY
Svätopluk Mikyta likes to work with found pictures from old books and magazines. By manipulating politically charged images, Mikyta reveals and explores their aesthetic strategies and seductiveness. For this show, Mikyta has made use of Polaroid photography and his leather suitcase, bought in a flea market in Stuttgart in 1995.
- I always try to react on the space I am in.00:00:13.422
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- When I was preparing myself for my stay in New York, it was my first time,00:00:21.243
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- I asked my friends for the necessary information.00:00:26.932
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- They told me that the city was very busy00:00:36.954
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- and that there was no time to create something.00:00:39.880
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- I thought that Polaroid would be suitable for the documentation of my stay there.00:00:44.041
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- It is something like drawing.00:00:53.947
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- Here you can see the series from Polaroid I did there.00:01:00.333
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- The old leather suitcase is also a part of the exhibition.00:01:05.798
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- I didn´t make it readable for a viewer.00:01:10.562
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- I just put it here.00:01:15.358
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- It may look strange.00:01:17.031
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- Anybody may ask why it is here, why it is in the pictures.00:01:18.989
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- It is a part of the photos, my stay and my journey.00:01:25.456
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- This is my suitcase I use when I travel round Central Europe.00:01:35.517
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- I use it for my clothes, even now there is my clothes.00:01:50.820
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- I bought it in a flee market in Stuttgart in 199500:01:56.703
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- when I was studying there.00:02:01.316
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- I liked it very much when I saw it, and00:02:04.758
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- I told myself that I would take it once to New York.00:02:08.299
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- Going to New York was my goal.00:02:12.023
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- I reached my dream in spring 2009.00:02:16.691
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- The suitcase represents a model in my photos00:02:21.922
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- in a similar way like people take photos of them00:02:24.555
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- when they are on holiday.00:02:37.280
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- In my case, it is not me who stands in the pictures, but my suitcase.00:02:40.238
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- In fact, it is about a fulfilled dream of my suitcase.00:02:42.989
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- This video like the photos don´t make me a photographer.00:02:47.734
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- Neither the video is considered to be a videoart.00:03:01.083
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- It is just a medium that I use to express my feelings.00:03:14.382
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- It may be inspired by a few English classes I had00:03:20.981
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- before I went to New York.00:03:28.800
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- In the video I am spelling a poem by Pavol Országh Hviezdoslav.00:03:49.727
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- I think it is clear.00:03:59.244
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- It is about my feeling in New York, about my attachment and temptations.00:04:02.724
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- I felt it was a great city and I wanted to stay there.00:04:08.380
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- I could feel my attachment.00:04:11.626
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- I was there when there was an event in ICP.00:04:13.819
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- It is called "Open Studios".00:04:17.716
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- Each artist opens his studio for public.00:04:22.012
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- It is very popular. It is usually crowdy.00:04:31.356
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- I know about this, I brought my things there.00:04:39.778
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- I met there a curator who lives there.00:04:54.075
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- He was interested in my things.00:05:00.748
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- He suggested to make another exhibition.00:05:04.008
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- It was very quickly organized.00:05:08.671
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- He managed to organize it in the gallery PS 122.00:05:10.830
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- It was a one-day exhibition.00:05:24.468
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- Silvina Arismendi was a co-curator.00:05:28.432
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- I presented there not only my drawings on our history,00:05:35.218
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- but also my diary records.00:05:44.832
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- I didn´t make such a mix so far.00:05:49.965
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- In the end, I thought why not.00:05:55.159
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- I was in a different surroundings.00:05:58.604