Tereza Darmovzalová: Future Lovers
May 10 – June 10, 2018
opening: May 9, 2018
curated by: Gabriela Kotiková
Gabriela Kotiková: At the current exhibition in the Jelení Gallery you treat the private architectonic garden space, which a person forms through a commission to an architect. You put this commission, which is personal in a way (although influenced by various factors), in contrast with current manifests, which in this association become absurd and distant to the living experience. Does the architectonic space of a private garden represent for you specific visions of individual people on which we can reference the current way of thinking?
Tereza Darmovzalová: The aim of Future lovers is to act as an observer. My intention was to capture both levels in a parallel monologue. The actual video is the final product of several-month long meetings and communication with landscape architects who differ in their approaches to designing personal space such as the family garden. The 3D models that are the leitmotivs of the entire work are actual designs for families and couples, which were or will be carried out and this model is an ideal vision for them about where they will spend their free time after work, or where they will work. They make their decisions based on their momentary requirements not taking into account the eventuality of a social-political transformation, which, on the contrary, is represented by the selected manifests from the recent years. Post-futuristic, xeno-feminist, as well as accelerationalist manifests occupy the position of a spokesperson who presents a claim for social change without certain reflection of ego, which manifests the most in the building of one’s private space. The actual installation even tries to disrupt the perception of the gallery space and symbolically transform a white cube to the space of a model that I supplement with my prints based on the work of architects with structures in a 3D module.
GK: To what extent can the mentioned manifests help to achieve a deeper transformation of society and to what extent can these model propositions be applied to the real living reality?
TD: In his Manifest to the 21st century Rasheed Araeen calls for an end to the games and for a start of problem solving of the critical issues in our world. He invites artists to come out of their studios and participate in creating social imagination, which is capable of confronting these issues. But what if we want to confront them and while looking for the right instruments we forget about their urgency? One of the possible reasons that the leitmotiv of my recent works has been personal space, which I describe, using the presence of plants that surround people, is my own experience. I grew up in a family of university educated agriculturalists who did not make a living from production but from management and farm supervision. I remember a time period when the only discussions in our house were about the correct planting and sowing processes but we never actually grew anything. What if the translation of an artist’s imagination to ordinary life is simply unrealistic? What if we are moving on two levels that are parallel and will never meet?
GK: Can you tell me something about the exhibition title Future Lovers?
TD: Let's forget your life
Forget your problems
Administration, bills, and loans
Come with me
Tereza Darmovzalová is a student of the Studio of Intermedia III headed by Tomáš Vaněk at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague. She uses drawing, photography, video and installation in her work. She previously studied art theory at the university in Olomouc where she worked closely with PAF (presentation of animated film). She studied photography for several years at Scholastica with Alexandr Vajd and Jiří Thýn.
This exhibition originated in cooperation with Artyčok.TV.
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
