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13 Oct 2022 – 29 Jan 2023
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Tickets to all current exhibitions are also available on-line.
DOX Centre for Contemporary Art
Poupětova 1, Prague 7
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Exhibition is extended until 29 Jan 2023.
Vladimír Doležal (1946-2017) was a respected restorer of medieval wall and panel paintings and at the same time a virtually unknown painter - yet one of the most progressive of his generation. He was radical in his choice of materials, techniques, and subjects, but his radicalism was matched by subtlety and thoughtfulness - the thoughtfulness of every artistic act.
As not only a theoretical but above all a practical expert in the European artistic tradition, he deeply understood the meaning of the figurative image, which is a representation of archetypal phenomena of human existence. Doležal understood the centuries-old semantic charge of individual attitudes and gestures and was able to connect it with the reflection of the latest artistic currents of abstraction and concept. His major theme and literally working tool was the appropriation of various found objects and images. He deliberately did not choose reproductions of well-known works of art, such as those by Jiří Kolář, or themes that were in any way provocative. His material was posters, advertising flyers, scrap paper, pieces of boxes... the world in its banality and filth, but Doležal paid kind attention to it, his interventions added to it in his own way, and thus transformed it.
A specific area of his abstract work was his work with the line, and this on several levels.
In his often richly elaborate striped surfaces, he played out a wide range of meanings, from allusions to the layering lines of the horizon to a primal search for order outside of randomness.
For him, the line also symbolized a line of printed text. He worked with horizontally arranged lines in many of his author's books.
They have a special significance in his work - he was one of the few artists not only in the Czech Republic but also in the world who dealt with them consistently. He made interventions in books that already existed, often working on the border between the book and the sketchbook or object. The book brings time into his work. It is the intersection of static visuality and narrative dynamics. The artist and curator Jiří Hůla wrote about him:
Vladimír Doležal moves in an uncertain in-between space, between acceptance and rejection. He uncovers the mechanism of lies, half-truths and manipulations and, as if by the way, discovers beauty even where it shouldn't be.
Curators: Leoš Válka, Otto M. Urban, Michaela Šilpochová, Lucie Rohanová
Keep exploring
Franz Kafka's Drawings
Eminent Kafka scholar Andreas Kilcher will present drawings by Franz Kafka discovered in 2019 in the context of Kafka's biography and art history as well as his literary work and his impressive book, which has been translated into ten languages to date.
Franz Kafka and contemporary artists: Jan van Oost & Alexander Tinei
How does literature inspire contemporary artist to create their own work? How do language and text find their way into their work, and what other artistic genres does they enjoy combining? Otto M. Urban, curator of the KAFKAesque exhibition, will discuss with artist Jan van Oost and Alexander Tinei on board the airship Gulliver.
Point of View: Identity
Another instalment of the long-term project, which combines the format of an exhibition and a classroom and focuses on the theme of human identity. Who am I? What am I? The human form naturally takes centre stage; the body, its clothing, its behaviour. A person's identity and the different ways of looking at it.
Franz Kafka and contemporary artists: Mat Collishaw
How does literature inspire British artist Mat Collishaw's own creation? How do language and text find their way into his work, and what other artistic genres does he enjoy combining? Otto M. Urban, curator of the KAFKAesque exhibition, will discuss with the British artist on board the airship Gulliver.
Czech Hero
Satirical physical theater production Czech Hero by the theatre ensemble Farm in the Cave, which focuses on the contemporary and pressing topic of disinformation and political marketing. Movement, words, live music, dynamics, energy, exaggeration. All this in the DOX+ hall.
Czech Hero
Satirical physical theater production Czech Hero by the theatre ensemble Farm in the Cave, which focuses on the contemporary and pressing topic of disinformation and political marketing. Movement, words, live music, dynamics, energy, exaggeration. All this in the DOX+ hall.
Contemporary writer in Europe
How do contemporary authors perceive their position in a Europe that is being transformed under the increasing influence of populists and threatened by the Russian imperial war in Ukraine? What to write about, and how, when facing the diminishing ability of readers to focus on extended texts, as well as decreasing book sales?
Thin Skin
A performance by established circus acrobat Eliška Brtnická and her hypnotic production Thin Skin at the interface of movement installation and contemporary circus in the spaces of the DOX Centre.
Thin Skin
A performance by established circus acrobat Eliška Brtnická and her hypnotic production Thin Skin at the interface of movement installation and contemporary circus in the spaces of the DOX Centre.
