Interregnum
The work of students of the New Media Studio of the Academy of Fine Arts, Prague
December 19, 2018 – January 13, 2019
opening: December 18, 2018 from 6 PM
authors of the video: autoři videa: Kryštof Brůha, Eva Hřebíková, Magdaléna Kašparová, Philipp Kolychev, Šimon Levitner, Johana Novotná, Mišo Ormos, Jaromír Pesr, Jakub Rajnoch, Tomáš Svoboda, Klára Švandová, Danil Tcytkin, Karolína Vojáčková, Linda Vondrová
curator: Tomáš Svoboda
the exhibition takes place in the FCCA Library in the first floor
Before, by, at, between…
The best way to make use of an interregnum is education. It is the most suitable time for learning from mistakes and failures of the old “regime” (meaning the regime of image or political organisation but also the communication regime) as well as trying out the theses formulated by the theory of future social order. Thinkers coming from the whole world (and not just from the Euro-American context any more) and Czech curators keep coming up with ever more precise – sometimes rather poetic, at other times out utterly straightforward or scientifically furnished – analyses of problems, discrepancies and crises in the contemporary societies. The majority of them agree that should we fail to do something right now the prognosis of the days to come won’t be to our liking. The only guarantees of the coming regime are turning out to be precisely those characteristics we need the least. And in the same fashion, it applies to politics, country’s climate situation as well as to the contemporary art. The art itself is a form of neverending autopoiesis with all that makes it what it is, including politics and self-management, but also the classically defined manual skills or intellectual capital. That’s why the (visual arts) education is once again a hot issue; namely, it is a sign of self-reflection of the very essence (meaning? form? position?) of art. The only thing that counts is to be there when it happens, whatever it involves, whereas a distance is all the more an unsubstantiated luxury.
The advantage of an interregnum is the same as its disadvantage: it is not clear who has the power to make decisions, there are no set rules and the solidarity among people (but with regard to the inhuman actors of our reality) needs to be cultivated while destroying the harmful bonds established in the past.
Maybe it is the new media that could help us point to what we have forgotten about us. Because an analysis of their mediality could highlight the painful points of reality; the history of newness would then point to the present time. „New“ is as hard to define as „contemporary“; not just because one lacks the luxury of distance but also because the concepts embody the value judgments.
If we add then the definition of reality as an interregnum, meaning something clearly determined by its indeterminacy and uncertainty, we get quite a solid ground to start from. The point is not that we know that we don’t know – of course, we know, for example, with certainty that the good times are over – the main question is how should we keep on working.
It is the new media in their historicized definition of a phenomenon that has uncovered fully the fact that “the content of media is less important than the impact of each medium at social, psychological and sensory levels” (McLuhan, Horrocks). It means they can be the voice coming from the world beyond the times that believed in progress and had the future almost within reach.
The students of New Media studio of the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague thus tried to find their own definition of new media and to articulate their own expectations and desires to shape them.
Anežka Bartlová
(transl. Palo Fabuš)
The program of the Jeleni Gallery is possible through kind support of Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic, Prague City Council, State Fund of Culture of the Czech Republic, City District Prague 7
Media support: ArtMap, jlbjlt.net and UMA: You Make Art
