Jindřich Chalupecký Award
In total, 80 artists or groups have enlisted or been nominated for the award, which is the highest number in the history of the contest. The international jury has selected the following finalists: the artistic duo Vasil Artamonov and Alexey Klyuykov, Václav Magid, Jakub Matuška, Alice Nikitinová, and another pair of artists, David Böhm and Jiří Franta.
The competition is designated for young Czech artists up to 35 years. The winner will receive 50,000 Czech crowns for his/her artistic development, a six-week scholarship in New York, and 100,000 Czech crowns towards the realization of his/her exhibition, project or catalogue during 2010. Initiated by playwright Václav Havel, poet and artist Jiří Kolář, and artist Theodor Pištěk, the Jindřich Chalupecký Award was establsihed in May 1990. Its first winner was Vladimír Kokolia; many of its subsequent winners now rank among top Czech artists.
- The title of our exhibition is00:00:11.329
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- "Almost Nothing Is Complete".00:00:14.010
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- We exhibit here our drawing experiments,00:00:16.909
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- our performances focusing on drawing.00:00:21.121
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- In each of them,00:00:27.584
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- we choose a different profession00:00:30.592
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- and use it for drawing,00:00:33.592
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- or we choose an obstacle00:00:36.432
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- and try to draw despite of it.00:00:39.438
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- We have no control over the whole process,00:00:44.351
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- we're only interested in the result00:00:48.111
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- that is never perfect, of course.00:00:51.111
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- We're also interested in the process of creation.00:00:53.843
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- The videos are projected on canvases00:00:58.151
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- containing the drawings.00:01:01.587
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- For instance, there is a cello painting.00:01:04.830
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- We asked a cellist to play a piece for us.00:01:09.323
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- We fastened a pencil on her bow,00:01:13.721
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- so she drew the piece on a canvas while playing.00:01:16.683
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- In the back, you can see some drafts00:01:21.190
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- of drawings that we haven't realized yet.00:01:25.079
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- Some of them are not even feasible.00:01:28.877
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- We made them to show00:01:32.475
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- the wide range of options that drawing offers.00:01:34.975
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- These objects used to serve for casting molds.00:04:04.393
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- We had a photo showing them,00:04:12.356
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- so we went to an old factory00:04:16.299
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- to find them.00:04:19.531
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- Finally we found these particular objects00:04:22.404
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- that seemed to be quite expressive by themselves,00:04:27.407
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- as they came from that shabby old factory00:04:32.902
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- that reminded us so strongly of the 1990's00:04:36.418
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- and of the many mistakes of that time.00:04:39.651
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- I recently read an extract from a SF novel00:04:42.775
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- entitled "A Canticle for Leibovitz",00:04:46.477
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- or something like that.00:04:49.875
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- The story is set00:04:52.693
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- in a post-apocalyptic society00:04:55.193
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- where the remains of knowledge00:04:58.095
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- are kept by monks.00:05:01.095
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- A novice finds a draft of a mechanical device00:05:03.869
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- and tries to improve it00:05:08.021
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- by adding cherubs00:05:11.294
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- and golden leaves,00:05:14.961
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- without understanding its actual meaning.00:05:18.013
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- And our situation is similar.00:05:21.360
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- We found some objects00:05:24.400
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- but we don't know their exact purpose00:05:27.126
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- or how they were made.00:05:30.757
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- They're just colorful sculptures to us,00:05:35.036
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- it's pure formalism.00:05:38.924
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- I exhibit here an installation00:05:47.084
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- consisting of four paper dioramas00:05:53.071
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- and some texts.00:05:57.648
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- The texts tell stories00:06:00.304
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- about several artists.00:06:02.555
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- They are modern hagiographies00:06:05.507
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- about what an artist should look like,00:06:09.715
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- illustrated by the pictures.00:06:13.207
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- The main theme of this installation00:06:16.343
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- is the relationship00:06:24.271
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- between the artist and society,00:06:26.771
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- or the compatibility of the artist's life00:06:30.416
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- with the world he or she has to live in.00:06:34.981
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- I used this form simply because I like it,00:06:40.414
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- I like these realistic, colorful,00:06:46.210
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- child-like paintings.00:06:49.990
sad…