translation Brian Vondrak 5 results

Brian Vondrak

Bromová is often associated with the transformation of the perception of female identity in the art of the 1990s in Central and Eastern Europe. She is interested in women’s sexualized position in society. In her ritualized performances of recent years, on the other hand, she emphasizes the archetypal healing power of femininity, fertility, relationships, and collectivity.
What is shared, what is private and what are the possibilities of self-presentation in contemporary screen based culture? Adopting conventions of a YouTube vlog, Magdalena’s teenage diary entries surface raw and seemingly unedited. Stored in a number of disused mobile phones; songs, gifs, low-fi images and movies weave into and trail off in unfinished stories, anecdotes, soundbites and faces from childhood, where experience of mental illness is quickly interrupted by pop lyrics.
In the video They Read, he gradually and casually introduces several intergenerational pairs. Fathers, mothers, sons, and daughters speak about their origins and ability to speak their “native” languages. Members of the younger generation admit, in fluent, natural Czech or Slovak, that they’re not so confident when speaking the language of their parents – that it’s the “kitchen” dialect of the second generation of immigrants. And it’s these linguistic shifts that the artist sees as a symbol of the rift that appears between him and his parents.