Ján Mančuška
17 Jan - 14 Mar 2015
JÁN MANČUŠKA
The Big Mirror
17 January - 14 March 2015
In The Big Mirror we focus on the gallery‘s long-time co-operation with the great artist and our close friend Jan Mančuška. A series of very open self-portraits by the artist, who passed away in 2011, are the main focus of the exhibition. We aim to introduce Jan Mančuška not only as an artist, but also as a person, through several works, some of them never publicly shown before. A recurrent theme in these pieces, the mirror, becomes a symbol of our perception of the artist, while simultaneously reflecting the viewer. The exhibition is a locus of transient moments and discontinuities, much like a biography. Fragments of words and sentences describe personal physical perceptions of the artist during a performance, or trace the body in motion. Thin steel wires span the rooms of the gallery, bearing words milled out of aluminium, for instance: HEAD EYE EAR WHITE SHIRT HAND FOOT. A fragmentary narration of a human body in motion. These snapshots of movement become a three-dimensional, immersive object. Writing replaces the image, it becomes a surrogate system of notation, activated only by the viewer‘s presence. A three-dimensional sequence of words arises, which creates a cognitive image.
Across from the hanging words, a mirror is installed, its three parts spanning the entire length of the wall. The Big Mirror III, the eponym of the exhibition, also incorporates the viewer into the artwork. The ostensible void of the mirror‘s surface is filled with information, for with the viewer‘s every shift in position and movement, a new reflected image is generated. The exhibition space becomes pictorial space, the viewer a pictorial element. He is cast into a state of involuntary self-reflection – observing and being observed. Each mirrored step appears to be an ephemeral snapshot, already erased with the next step. A permanently shifting picture.
From Wall to Wall, a video projection of a text fragment, which extends into the exhibition space in words milled out of metal (again hung from a steel wire) states the following:
I stand in a room with my back to the wall. I start moving and walk towards the wall opposite me. A thousand moments filled with the activities of my body the sweep of an arm or the shifting of a leg muscle as I walk escape my attention. My hands are in my pockets. My eyes are fixed on the grey carpet. I notice that I cannot distinguish one step from the next. I feel a bit cold. I reduce the movement of my legs. With my forehead I just about touch the wall. I stand alone in the room.
The text describes the physical and mental perception of a person walking through a room. The installation connects two rooms, its text indicating the direction for the viewer to read and move in. Consequently, the text manifests the performed action as a three-dimensional object. Again, written words perform the function of visualisation, in this case, the visualisation of an action.
A photograph shows Jan Mančuška‘s head, wearing a white visor. The visor is positioned above the artist‘s eyes, apparently shielding them, and it is perforated with holes in the shape of words. Chiaroscuro lighting from an unknown source in the upper right corner illuminates the image. The artist‘s eyes are turned towards the light. The visor is lit directly, rays pass through its apertures onto Mančuška‘s face, visibly and prominently forming the words no, nowhere, nobody, nor, never, not, neither, none, nothing.
From A to B: a film camera on a tripod is set up in the landscape of a park. It is a classical composition of meadow, horizon, the sky behind tree crowns. Jan Mančuška stands behind the camera. A moment later, he leaves this position and walks out of the scene. Then the landscape starts to bob back and forwards, and in the next moment it recedes from the camera, step by step. Only now does it become apparent that what we see is a reflection. With each further step the artist takes, the landscape behind the mirror enlarges. What we previously recognised as a possible reality is now the reflection of a reality. The reflected image becomes a snapshot in time, which rapidly vanishes with each new movement. Again and again, new pictures spring up. The camera is analogous to the viewer as the artist plays with its perception.
Maria Tanbourgi
Translation: Zoe Miller
The Big Mirror
17 January - 14 March 2015
In The Big Mirror we focus on the gallery‘s long-time co-operation with the great artist and our close friend Jan Mančuška. A series of very open self-portraits by the artist, who passed away in 2011, are the main focus of the exhibition. We aim to introduce Jan Mančuška not only as an artist, but also as a person, through several works, some of them never publicly shown before. A recurrent theme in these pieces, the mirror, becomes a symbol of our perception of the artist, while simultaneously reflecting the viewer. The exhibition is a locus of transient moments and discontinuities, much like a biography. Fragments of words and sentences describe personal physical perceptions of the artist during a performance, or trace the body in motion. Thin steel wires span the rooms of the gallery, bearing words milled out of aluminium, for instance: HEAD EYE EAR WHITE SHIRT HAND FOOT. A fragmentary narration of a human body in motion. These snapshots of movement become a three-dimensional, immersive object. Writing replaces the image, it becomes a surrogate system of notation, activated only by the viewer‘s presence. A three-dimensional sequence of words arises, which creates a cognitive image.
Across from the hanging words, a mirror is installed, its three parts spanning the entire length of the wall. The Big Mirror III, the eponym of the exhibition, also incorporates the viewer into the artwork. The ostensible void of the mirror‘s surface is filled with information, for with the viewer‘s every shift in position and movement, a new reflected image is generated. The exhibition space becomes pictorial space, the viewer a pictorial element. He is cast into a state of involuntary self-reflection – observing and being observed. Each mirrored step appears to be an ephemeral snapshot, already erased with the next step. A permanently shifting picture.
From Wall to Wall, a video projection of a text fragment, which extends into the exhibition space in words milled out of metal (again hung from a steel wire) states the following:
I stand in a room with my back to the wall. I start moving and walk towards the wall opposite me. A thousand moments filled with the activities of my body the sweep of an arm or the shifting of a leg muscle as I walk escape my attention. My hands are in my pockets. My eyes are fixed on the grey carpet. I notice that I cannot distinguish one step from the next. I feel a bit cold. I reduce the movement of my legs. With my forehead I just about touch the wall. I stand alone in the room.
The text describes the physical and mental perception of a person walking through a room. The installation connects two rooms, its text indicating the direction for the viewer to read and move in. Consequently, the text manifests the performed action as a three-dimensional object. Again, written words perform the function of visualisation, in this case, the visualisation of an action.
A photograph shows Jan Mančuška‘s head, wearing a white visor. The visor is positioned above the artist‘s eyes, apparently shielding them, and it is perforated with holes in the shape of words. Chiaroscuro lighting from an unknown source in the upper right corner illuminates the image. The artist‘s eyes are turned towards the light. The visor is lit directly, rays pass through its apertures onto Mančuška‘s face, visibly and prominently forming the words no, nowhere, nobody, nor, never, not, neither, none, nothing.
From A to B: a film camera on a tripod is set up in the landscape of a park. It is a classical composition of meadow, horizon, the sky behind tree crowns. Jan Mančuška stands behind the camera. A moment later, he leaves this position and walks out of the scene. Then the landscape starts to bob back and forwards, and in the next moment it recedes from the camera, step by step. Only now does it become apparent that what we see is a reflection. With each further step the artist takes, the landscape behind the mirror enlarges. What we previously recognised as a possible reality is now the reflection of a reality. The reflected image becomes a snapshot in time, which rapidly vanishes with each new movement. Again and again, new pictures spring up. The camera is analogous to the viewer as the artist plays with its perception.
Maria Tanbourgi
Translation: Zoe Miller