Syndicate: exhibition/programs update

[Jo Williams <mjw@terminal.cz>]

The 2nd phase "Lost and Found" to the on-going exhibition project DAWN OF
THE MAGICIANS? at the National Gallery in Prague's Center for Modern and
Contemporary Art recently opened. In conjunction with the exhibition, which
presents work in a variety of media, programs (lectures, performances, film
and video screenings, etc.) are held regularly.

Below you'll find the exhibition description/gallery guide. list of
exhibition artists & works, and program schedule for May 1997.

For further information about the project, contact Jo Williams or Milos
Vojtechovsky at the email address above, or at the Center for Contemporary
Art, Dukelskych hrdinu 47, 170 00 Praha 7, Czech Republic, tel (4202) 2430
1006 or 2430 1202, fax (4202) 2430 1056.

DESCRIPTION / GALLERY GUIDE
                                                                           D
awn of the Magicians? II.
                                                                            
      Lost and Found

                  "There is certainly a treasury of ill-appreciated truths
embedded in the endangered cultures of the modern world, designs that
have accumulated details over eons of idiosyncratic history, and we should
take steps to record it, and study it, before it
disappears, for, like dinosaur genomes, once it is gone, it will be
virtually impossible to recover."		Daniel C. Dennett							

The second phase of the exhibition project for the 4th floor of Veletrõnâ??
palâ?¡c develops several motifs introduced in the initial presentation of DAWN
OF THE MAGICIANS?, above all the themes of landscape, memory, and the human
body. "Lost and Found" includes works engaged with these themes by Czech and
foreign artists and presents them in allusion to the atmosphere of archives,
cabinets, and museum depositories. 
Approaching the end of the century we face the uncertainty of a set of
values and ideas which up until the 1960s were still flush with the promise
of optimism and progress: natureÃ?s inexhaustibility, genetic engineering,
technology as the solution to social ills, mastery of outer space. The
faithful pursuit of the New has undermined our relationship to nature and
tradition and brings about the need to chronicle what will be forever lost.
We have become aware that the compulsion to invent  is accompanied by
forgetfulness and loss.
Without memory, whether an individualÃ?s or a societyÃ?s, there is no
continuity or identity. It is important not only to store information, data,
and objects in libraries, archives, and museums, but also to re-discover and
re-interpret them. In these crucial tasks the artist plays a singular role.

Entering the exhibition from the right, western wing one walks through a
sound corridor by Eye Scratch (USA) and approaches the video installation by
Nan Hoover (USAöNL), which explores the phantom over-lappings of the body,
its image, movement, and shadow. The first room is dominated by the most
recent photographs by Cindy Sherman (USA), who has developed an original
approach to the self-portrait over the course of her career. Her
photographic assemblages of ³real" images of her own face and menacing
prosthetic masks create expression which fluctuates on the border between
horror and irony. On loan from an anthropology museum as a complement to
ShermanÃ?s work are plaster casts of faces representing a variety of human
races and facial expressions. The exhibition continues with large-scale
cibachromes by Andres Serrano (USA) of bodily fluids, primarily blood and
semen, which become disquieting, dreamlike landscapes. Graham Harwood (GB)
collected data and images from people in a high-security mental hospital to
create digital interactive body-scapes composed of societyÃ?s underside. In
the third room along the western wing, the 
works  of  the  artists  Rudolf  Dzurko (CZ), Pavel  Brâ?¡zda (CZ), Ji¿â??
>BartÂ?Ë?ek (CZ), and Frantiûek Skâ?¡la, Jr. (CZ) are presented. While the
expression is diverse, these artistsÃ? works all create a vision of the world
pervaded with individual and collective memory of a specific time and place.
Ji¿â?? BartÂ?Ë?ekÃ?s pictures are constructed from discarded trousseaus brought
back by his wifeÃ?s family from their native country. The crushed glass
pictures by Rudolf Dzurko imaginatively relate Romany narrative and symbols.
Brâ?¡zdaÃ?s painting combines myths of the land with an intuition of
civilization�s demise; while Sk�laâs diorama of a village cemetery treads
between an experience of solemnity and humor. This wing of the exhibition
closes with the Czech Surrealist GroupÃ?s exploration of magic eroticism in
their large collective installation (Jan Ã?vankmajer, Eva Ã?vankmajerovâ?¡,
Martin Stejskal, Karel Baron, Frantiûek Dryje, and others).

At the left entrance to the eastern wing we first encounter works by Peter
Campus (USA) ranging from video installations, to photo projections, to
digital photographs in black-and-white and color. In CampusÃ? work the
mediation of technology revitalizes objects and creatures of the landscape
finding within them the human form and the imaginary world of personal
memories. The drawings by Frantiûek Drtikol (CZ), placed in dialogue with
CampusÃ? work, unite the landscape and female body into an organic whole. The
theme of the landscape is further articulated in the works which draw one
further along the eastern wing. The site-specific installation by Ji¿â??
P¿â??hoda (CZ) evokes a halted moment under the depths of the sea. The
installation of blooming apple branches by Barbara Benish (USA-CZ) enlivens
the sterile space of the museum with its reference to the Celtic myth of
Avalon. Gerco de Ruijter (NL) used a camera attached to a kite to capture a
mesmerizing birdÃ?s-eye view of the land. Daniel Fisher (SR) explores the
theme of the garden and brings together painting and photography, the
interior of the forest and the body. The installation by Atilla Csšrgš
(Hungary) uses a revolving, illuminated mechanism as a metaphor for the
earth�s hemisphere; Pavel Kop¿iva (CZ) projects animated meteorological
data. Josef Vâ?¡chal (CZ), in his sketches and woodcuts of the Ã?umava
landscape, presents the mythic world of the primeval forest as confronted
with the expansion of civilization. The world of artifacts and the theme of
memory underlies the installations by Otis Laubert (SR), Arnold Dreyblatt
(USA), Tomâ?¡Ã» Ruller (CZ),Vladimâ??r Kokolia (CZ), and Petr Nikl (CZ).
LaubertÃ?s installation, a type of archeological still life, is an ironic
mementum of the present as seen from the perspective of the distant future.
"The Great Archive" by Arnold Dreyblatt transforms the personal data
catalogued in the book WhoÃ?s Who in Central and Eastern Europe 1933 into an
inaccessible hypertext. Vladimâ??r Kokolia employs museum display techniques
for his installation of discarded letters, messages, and notes of unknown
writers and recipients. Objects and toys come to (new) life in Petr NiklÃ?s
magical, work-in-progress theater; whereas Tom�û Ruller unites the profane
and alchemistic in one chain of transformations in his installation "Lost
and Found". The videotape by Ji¿â?? David (CZ) is an intimate reminiscence
upon the personal past. Installed in the space uniting the two exhibition
wings, the (nearly) endless drawing by Dalibor Chatrnà (CZ) traces the
bodyÃ?s motion and syntax as along a flowing current of time.

Curators: Jaroslav Andel and Milos Vojtechovsky

EXHIBITION ARTISTS & WORKS
Ji¿â?? BartÂ?nâ??k (1946, Teplice) visual artist, living and working in òstâ?? nad
Labem and MaleÂ?ov
Trousseau, sown picture installation, 1996

Barbara Benish (1958, Newport Beach) visual artist, living and working in
Prague and Suûice.
Avalon, installation, 1997

Pavel Brâ?¡zda (1926, Brno) visual artist, living and working in Prague
5 Minutes Before the End of the World, oil on wood board, 1946 -1966

Peter Campus (1937, New York), photographer and multi-media artist, living
and working in New York
digital photographs, photo projections, video, 1987-1996

Dalibor Chatrnà (1926, Brno) visual artist, living and working in Brno
Irreproducible, pencil on paper, 1987

Atilla Czšrgš (1965, Budapest)  visual artist, living and working in Budapest
Hemisphere, kinetic-light installation, 1996

Ji¿â?? David (1956, Rumburk) visual artist, living and working in Prague
Family, videotape, 1994

Gerco de Ruijter (1971, Delft)  multi-media artist, living and working  in Delft
Untitled, photographs and video, 1995-1996

Tenessee Rice Dixon & Jim Gasperini (USA)  multi-media artists, living and
working in New York
Scrutiny in the Great Round, interaktivnâ?? CD-rom / interactive CD-rom, 1995

Arnold Dreyblatt (1953, New York)  composer and multi-media artist, living
and working in Berlin and New York
The Great Archive, installation, 1993

Frantiûek Drtikol (1881, P¿â??bram -1961, Praha)  photographer and painter
Untitled Series, pencil on paper, 1917-1918

Rudolf Dzurko (1941, Pavlovice na Slovensku)  self-taught visual artist,
living and working in Prague
Picture Series, crushed glass, 1975 -1996

Eye Scratch © (1971, Cologne) multi-media artist, living and working in
Prague and New York
U-ha, sound installation, 1997

Daniel Fischer (1950, Bratislava) visual artist, living and working in
Bratislava
Heart of Reality, installation, 1996

Graham Harwood (London)  multi-media artist, living and working in London
Rehearsal of Memory, interactive CD-rom, 1996

Nan Hoover (1931, New York City)  video artist, living and working in
Amsterdam and DŸsseldorf
>Movement in Either Direction, video projection, 1996

Joan Jonas (1936, New York)  video, performance, and multi-media artist,
living and working in New York.
Volcano Saga, multi-media installation, 1985-1997

Petr Nikl (1960, Zlâ??n)  visual and multi-media artist, living and working in
Prague
Flipâs Sightseeing Flying Machine,  performance-installation, 1997

Vladimâ??r Kokolia (1956, Brno)  visual artist, living and working in Prague
and VeverskŽ Knâ??nice
Archive, found texts 1977 -1986
In the Middle of a Field, oil on canvas, 1992 

Pavel Kop¿iva (1968, Duchcov) multi-media artist, living and working in Prague
Triad, video installation, 1996

Otis Laubert (1946, Valaska, Slovensko) visual artist, living and working in
Bratislava
Pseudofossil, mixed media, 1988

Petr Nikl (1960, Zlâ??n)  visual and multi-media artist, living and working in
Prague
Flipâs Sightseeing Flying Machine,  performance-installation, 1997

Ji¿â?? P¿â??hoda (1966, Jihlava) sculptor and multi-media artist, living and
working in Prague
Take 02 (The Flood), installation, 1996

Tom�û Ruller (1956, Brno)  visual artist and performer, living and working
in Brno
Lost and Found, mixed media work-in-process, 1997

Andres Serrano (1950, New York City)  visual artist, photographer, living
and working in New York
Body Liquids Series, cibachrome, 1987-1990

Cindy Sherman (1954, New Jersey) visual artist, living and working in New York
Untitled Series, cibachrome, 1994 -1996 

Frantiûek Sk�la jr. (1956, Praha)  visual artist, living and working in Prague
Orchard, mixed-media, 1986

Vladimâ??r Ã?koda (1942, Praha) sculptor, living and working in Paris
Badria, kinetic-light installation, 1995

Surrealist group 
Magic Eroticism,collective installation, 1996

Josef Vâ?¡chal (1884, MilaveÂ? -1969, StudeË?any) painter, graphic artist, writer
Drawing and Print Series from the Ã?umava mountains, 1928-1930


EXHIBITION PROGRAMS
Accompanying Programs for May 1997

PETR NIKL ö  performance-installation
"Flipâs Sightseeing Flying Machine" . . . an endless chain of improvisations
. . .
Hours of Operation for May
Sunday, May 4 at 4:00 pm 	Seventh Flight: T h e  W i n d y  P s a l m
				score no. 318 "The Pelicans Break Through . . . "
Sunday, May 11 at 4:00 pm	Eighth Flight: W h i t e  N o c t u r n e s
				score no. 319 "Heading Towards Mother . . . "
Tuesday, May 13 at 4:30 pm	Ninth Flight: M u s i c  o f  t h e  B e l l o w s
				score no. 320 "Flutter in the Tide . . ."
Tuesday, May 27 at 4:30 pm	Tenth Flight: P r e l u d e
				score no. 321: "My Heart Murmured . . . "
Saturday, May 31 at 4:00 pm	Eleventh Flight: M u s i c  o f  t h e  M o t h s
				score no. 322 "Behind the Comet . . . "
Held on the 4th floor balcony within the exhibition Dawn of the Magicians?

Thursday, May 15 at 7:00 pm
MARTIN éIHçK ö lecture (in Czech) & video projections
"The City in Avant-Garde Films of the 1960s"
The theme of the landscape of the city and its inhabitant, who is also its
reader and co-creator, is explore in a wide variety of avant-garde films ö
>from those much like raw documentary footage, to those purely artistic, to
the personal confessions of filmmakers searching for their place in the
crowd (P.E. Goldmanâs "Pestilent City" and Wim Wenders "Silver City").
Held on the 4th floor within the exhibition Dawn of the Magicians?

Thursday, May 29 at 7:00 pm
LUBOMêR éERMçK ö performance
"How to Give Birth to a Dragon"
Dance and movement with a cosmic cage by Simon Charvâ?¡tovu is accompanied by
a recitation of Martin Sou�ekâs poetry and by chamber music.
Held on the 4th floor within the exhibition Dawn of the Magicians?