calendario eventi  :: 

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30/10/2013

Vaclav Stratil

amt_project, Bratislava

This extensive and long term set follows the author’s obsessive interest in a self portrait. vaclav stratil visits photo studios, where he gets photographed, positioning himself into various poses and expressions, using very simple props. it is in fact a private performance, when the artist comes to the technical photographer, used to only taking passport photos, at best portraying little kids, or newlyweds. stratil exploits these standard circumstances and does so ad absurdum. stratil thus turns this not just a bit surprised passport photographer into a bizarre author and the witness to his grotesque metamorphoses. monastic patient also has a long term diary character.

It is about the persistent author’s obsession with himself, which has however been able to generate countless variations to the same theme. stratil is a performer, he achieves maximum effectivity in minimum expression variations. we are looking at a quixotic hero, or a hero of a dadaistic drama, determined and adamant at the same time. his props and expressions can mock, but not necessarily, the portrait as we know it from the renaissance paintings, but also from various other periods. i see an analogy with van gogh, the japanese morimura, or with the russian, vlad monroe. the difference between the two latter ones is fundamental. stratil is a rebel, who doesn’t waste time with formal honing and doesn’t even take the artistic strategies seriously.

He improvises with help of clothes pegs, paperclips, scrubbing brushes, artistic and other household goods, that he gets hold of. the standard method of the passport photography stays the same. vaclav stratil doesn’t give much thought to the narrative quality or circumstantiality of his portraits. the more we feel, that these photographs are spontanious, urgent and purposeful.

31st october at 19.00

amt _ project
Stetinova, 1 Bratislava Slovak Republic
only by appointment.

stampa

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