Šimon Levitner a David Střeleček: Dome Zero – The Future that Never Quite Happened
8. 10. – 5. 11. 2015
opening: 7. 10. 2015
curated by: Jiří Thýn
The project Dome Zero with the subheading The Future that Never Quite Happened of Šimon Levitner and David Střeček was inspired by futuristic visions and the 1980s and 90s aesthetics. In Šimon Levitner´s case it is a collection of photographs of fragments of car grilles from the1980s and 1990s. In David Střeček´s case it is an object inspired by the same period. Both David Střeček and Šimon Levitner are aware that new reality comes into existence as a result of our previous experience and not out of nothing.
Both of them work with fragments of reality which they use to express new questions and meanings in a new context. Failed future and dead ends of science applied to everyday life, as they are present in the subtext of both the collections, at the same time remind us of dreams and unfulfilled visions of previous generations.
Memory keeps and uses information contained in our previous experience. It is a never ending process of self-awareness in the context of a given moment and society in the atmosphere of the period.
The ability to recall old memories in hindsight is purely subjective. In other words: memory always reduces the multifacetedness of reality to “only” a purely subjective interpretation.
Things that can be objectified are the context and atmosphere of a certain period which is closely connected to its ideals and visions of a future which penetrate all spheres of society (e.g. art, science, politics, aesthetics and design). The role of the design is to link the function and aesthetics effectively. Function and contents thus directly influence the final looks of a product. It may be just a slight overstatement to say that the aesthetics of a certain period brings about social ideals. By means of the past preserved in photographs of the fragments of car grilles´ design or in the object inspired by the aesthetics of the time we become aware of the present through which we can even take a look into our own future.
Jiří Thýn
The exhibition is held within Fotograf Festival #5 "Documentary Strategies".
Jeleni Gallery exhibition program is possible through kind support of Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic and Prague City Council
Media support: Artycok.tv, ArtMap and jlbjlt.net
