Sebastian Stumpf (1980 Würzburg) and Vojtěch Fröhlich (1985 Prague) share several characteristics. The essential ones include a conceptual approach to their artworks, a liking for photography and video as well as an interest in the city environment and its specific places. The extraordinary ones include a physical disposition due to their sports activities ranging from climbing to free movement across the city or space regardless of walls and other obstacles. These characteristics make the two artists special individuals both on the Czech and German art scene. This was also the initial motive for their common Prague exhibition.
Rather than using their physical condition to demonstrate the body and its agility, the two artists freely move in space to open up themes related to the function and use of the given place as well as to our mentality. They employ movement in space and action as a method to reveal the absurdities that have become part of our normality.
However, the fact that they work in similar ways does not mean they produce identical results. The exhibition at Drdova Gallery only proves that. To Sebastian Stumpf, the method of spatial exploration is based on stubborn repetition resulting in a recording of the action with precisely composed scenes. To Vojtěch Fröhlich, movement in space is a generator of feelings and moods whose meaning consists in interconnecting places that otherwise cannot be connected. The result may be a video, a photograph as well as a spatial installation, with the latter mediating the poetic aspect of these activities.
Rostislav Koryčánek
