Dominik Lang has been involved in exhibition design for a long time. However, unlike other artists, his approach differs in the degree to which he emphasizes the creative aspects of the profession. The result often oscillates between exhibition design and autonomous installation while he himself admits that he deliberately violates this boundary. For this reason, he prefers the term "author of the exhibition's artistic design" or "author of the spatial design".
For him an exhibition is a "living, testing ground". His work is always based on the context of a given place, discovering, naming and reassessing its spatial possibilities as well as its social, historical or institutional contexts. The performative aspect is of essential importance for him: not only does he think about the movement of the visitors, but he often creates social situations for them or makes use of their interactive participation. These practices are already evident in the themes that interested him at the beginning of his art career, primarily the critical examination of the institutional conditions of art exhibiting and a dialogue with the history of sculpture, especially with the legacy of the generation of the 1960s.
The year 2015 was a turning-point for Dominik Lang since for the first time he decided to conceive his exhibition design as a distinctive sculptural gesture (Silver Lining, National Gallery in Prague). The exhibition was based on a monumental installation made of plaster, which was simultaneously used to present works by other artists. He visually unified the exposition, but also took the opportunity to create his own work based on a semi-fictional story about Jindřich Chalupecký, which was supposed to explain (and perhaps even legitimise) the chosen approach. Although the artist also works on exhibitions of art from other historical periods, in which he also uses distinctive scenographic elements, we may witness another significant shift in the exhibitions in which he deals with the art of the 1960s.
His recent exhibition designs, such as the long-term exhibition 7+1: A Collector´s Flat in 8smička in Humpolec (2019–2020), the exhibition Eva Kmentová in Dům umění města Brna (2023), the long-term exhibition in the National Gallery in Prague (Trade Fair Palace) entitled 1939–2021: The End of the Black and White Era (2023) or the permanent exhibition in the newly reconstructed studio of Věra and Vladimír Janoušek in Prague-Košíře (2023), have drawn the attention of the public and have provoked contradictory responses. Contrary to previous practice, Lang also interprets the exhibited works directly through the installation itself.
In the above-mentioned exhibition designs Lang always elaborates in a sophisticated way motifs from the exhibited works, quoting or evoking the art practices of the artists in question. In the spirit of institutional critique, he does not forget to point out to the visitors that they do not find themselves in a neutral environment, but that the exhibition is an intersection of ideological, social and political influences. It often reveals the "guts" of the exhibition fundus and thus highlights the hidden infrastructure of the entire institution. In line with his previous art work, he also "furnishes" the exhibitions in question with props referring to the living space: he creates beds, windows, tables, chairs that are either fully functional or serve as scenes (stages) for the presentation of exhibits or to illustrate the atmosphere.
Another important aspect of Lang's exhibition designs is the choreography of the visitors' movement. He literally animates them by setting up walking direction, creating deliberate obstacles, but also by encouraging them to move in certain ways. He also creates social situations in which he makes the visitors face unusual moments. We may also notice direct references to the job of an exhibition designer in the form of "discarded" models of the exhibition fundus or "forgotten" installation trolleys. Naturally, there are also references to sculpture as a medium, especially in the use of plaster, which directly quotes the aesthetics of the 1960s. The most controversial is his principle of "blurring the boundaries" between the exhibited objects and the installation, where the works are "embedded" in a paneling made of the same material and at first sight the exhibition fundus looks like a work of art, so it is not quite clear where the work of art ends and the exhibition design begins.
Some of the works are also treated as illustrations of an educational spatial "encyclopaedia" and the different ways of their presentation are evaluative. It seems as if Lang appropriated the works and treated them as material. In some cases, the art works find themselves in situations that go against their intended meaning and their authors would probably not agree with such an installation. By disturbing the aura of some of the works, he raises disturbing questions concerning the unquestionable authority of the artists in question or the clarity of the legacy of modernist sculpture for today.
Due to the chosen methods he manages to evoke an atmosphere in which the viewer sees the essence of the exhibited works. He aims at sensual perception and provides visitors with a kind of pre-understanding. In all his above mentioned installations he creates a meaningful whole through which he interprets the art works. Therefore, I believe that these works can also be seen from the position of curating, or the artist-as-curator problematics, based on the contemporary practice where contemporary artists express themselves through curatorial work.
However, we must always ask again and again whether the works exhibited in this way acquire a substantially new interpretation or whether they are rather a prop in Lang's installation, or whether a hybrid new form is being created. So far, Dominik Lang's latest realizations represent a borderline approach in Czech art, which questions the very definition of the artist-exhibition designer and the artist-curator.
Terezie Nekvindová
The interview took place in the studio of Věra and Vladimír Janoušek and also includes footage from Eva Kmentová´s exhibition in Dům umění města Brna.
