Ele-mental gestures
The exhibition project called „Ele-mental gestures“ presents a duo of middle generation authors who significantly contributed to the Czech and Slovak art scene of the last decade.
It is a rendezvous of Milan Houser (1971) and Viktor Frešo (1974), two graduates of the Prague AVU, who share a common artwork platform. The authors base their work on post-conceptual stances and create a simple language of minimalistic forms and processes. They prefer to concentrate on a single brisk entree, one direct intervention or a primary shape and as the exhibitions name hints, it’s also about a kindred painting-sculpture dialog of elementary gestures and unequivocal forms.
Houser cultivates his thoughts through the medium of painting – he transport multi-pound acrylic masses onto the canvass, promoting the blind-frame image; he allows the gravity to drag the painting matter down or he lets the acrylate and nitrocellulose finish on the image surface. Frešo utilizes the properties and capabilities of materials (comatex, plastics, wooden logs, aluminum plinths). He creates inverted situations and series of non-functional objects (the red vertical on wheels; the cube of plastic windows; the black cuboid embedded in an aluminum framework and so on.)
The exhibition is dominated by a single uncompromising free gesture, a simple formidable shape, dispensing with the usually mandatory aesthetic overtures. This sort of a mental alignment and crafting of the material in the specific space of Meetfactory gallery brings about the required tension and an interesting dialog in the contemporary language of art.
- ELE-MENTAL GESTURES00:00:08.464
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- This exhibition presents two authors:00:00:13.409
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- the Czech painter Milan Houser00:00:19.118
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- and the Slovak author of objects and sculptures,00:00:22.643
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- Viktor Frešo. He's the taller one.00:00:27.582
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- They both have something in common.00:00:31.193
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- They have similar methods of expression00:00:42.173
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- based on a concise visual language,00:00:46.629
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- on the reduction of artistic forms and processes.00:00:51.091
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- Milan Houser focuses on painting,00:00:56.212
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- using a simple process of pouring paint,00:00:59.889
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- acrylic, or varnish on a surface.00:01:04.563
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- He creates fascinating geometric shapes.00:01:08.430
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- For me, a painting is about the material.00:01:13.014
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- It's the frame, the canvas,00:01:16.509
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- the material on the canvas00:01:20.009
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- that has some characteristics.00:01:23.439
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- That's what my paintings demonstrate.00:01:27.709
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- Viktor Frešo focuses on exploring00:01:31.824
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- the physical possibilities of materials,00:01:36.049
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- whether it's plastic, wood or aluminium.00:01:40.897
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- He discovers the poetic nature00:01:45.323
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- of non-functional objects.00:01:48.323
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- Can we start?00:01:53.978
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- To any Slovak artist it's a big deal00:01:56.524
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- to exhibit in Prague,00:02:00.024
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- like going to the West in the communist era.00:02:03.006
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- So I'm happy to present my works in Prague,00:02:06.835
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- at David Černý's MeetFactory,00:02:11.487
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- and to have met this great, wise artist.00:02:14.759
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- These are my most recent sculptures.00:02:18.673
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- Viktor and I have been friends since...00:02:24.142
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- well, since yesterday.00:02:28.092
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- I like Viktor as a character.00:02:31.145
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- At first I was confused and it seemed to me00:02:36.005
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- that he does a bit of everything00:02:39.852
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- but now I can see the reasons00:02:43.303
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- and start to like his works more and more.00:02:46.684
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- His work isn't so haphazard as I thought.00:02:51.793
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- There's a story behind it.00:02:55.991
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- I'll be happy to e-mail it to you.00:02:59.321
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- Oh, you're incredible! I want to date you!00:03:02.925
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- So you can feel it too?00:03:06.425
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- Let's pose for the camera.00:03:09.658
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- Camera, editing00:03:16.740
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- Which TV channel are you from? The Czech TV?00:03:25.327
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- Greetings to all of you!00:03:31.915