city woods
19. 10. 2011 16:00–19:00
Spejs / Praha 2
Praha 2
Openings
city woods
Praha 2
Exhibitions
People
Date
19. 10. 2011 - 10. 12. 2011
ENDED
Institution
Venue
Záhřebská 23, 120 00 Praha 2
city woods
The latest exhibition in SPEJS, the third in succession, is the result of a collective concept conceived by three students: Lenka Vacková and Filip Dvořák from the Painting Studio at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague (headed by Jiří Černický and Marek Meduna) and Ondřej Kopecký from the Graphics 2 Studio at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague (headed by Vladimír Kokolia). The concept rests on the contrast between urban office space and the tranquil environment of countryside woodlands, introducing an element familiar to anyone who has visited Czech forests – the hunting hide – into the austerely functional space of the brightly lit premises of the SPEJS passage. The raised hunting hide is an architectural element constructed from timber, i.e. material that is identical to that produced by the trees that surround these hides; for forest animals they thus constitute a familiar feature of their environment. For visitors walking through the passage, which has the ambience of a highly technological space, the wooden hide constitutes a foreign element, immediately attracting their attention. Other found objects distributed around the premises of the passage also evoke the forest environment and serve to add to the impression of incongruity between the introduced objects and their new setting. Another surprise awaits those brave enough to climb the five (or is that six?) rungs of the ladder up to the top of the hide: instead of a view of the actual surroundings, the window – in fact replaced by a monitor - provides a view of woodland. A continuous loop of video showing the view filmed from an actual hunting hide standing in a forest is screened on the monitor: we see a sunlit forest clearing, as well as receiving other typical sensory stimuli from the surrounding forest, such as the twittering of birds, the buzzing of flies, etc. The film includes intentional disruptions designed to return viewers to reality, reminding them that they’re merely watching a film. Fiction and reality, natural and urban environments, banality and functionality: these are the contrasts on which the poetic theme of this installation is built.
The latest exhibition in SPEJS, the third in succession, is the result of a collective concept conceived by three students: Lenka Vacková and Filip Dvořák from the Painting Studio at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague (headed by Jiří Černický and Marek Meduna) and Ondřej Kopecký from the Graphics 2 Studio at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague (headed by Vladimír Kokolia). The concept rests on the contrast between urban office space and the tranquil environment of countryside woodlands, introducing an element familiar to anyone who has visited Czech forests – the hunting hide – into the austerely functional space of the brightly lit premises of the SPEJS passage. The raised hunting hide is an architectural element constructed from timber, i.e. material that is identical to that produced by the trees that surround these hides; for forest animals they thus constitute a familiar feature of their environment. For visitors walking through the passage, which has the ambience of a highly technological space, the wooden hide constitutes a foreign element, immediately attracting their attention. Other found objects distributed around the premises of the passage also evoke the forest environment and serve to add to the impression of incongruity between the introduced objects and their new setting. Another surprise awaits those brave enough to climb the five (or is that six?) rungs of the ladder up to the top of the hide: instead of a view of the actual surroundings, the window – in fact replaced by a monitor - provides a view of woodland. A continuous loop of video showing the view filmed from an actual hunting hide standing in a forest is screened on the monitor: we see a sunlit forest clearing, as well as receiving other typical sensory stimuli from the surrounding forest, such as the twittering of birds, the buzzing of flies, etc. The film includes intentional disruptions designed to return viewers to reality, reminding them that they’re merely watching a film. Fiction and reality, natural and urban environments, banality and functionality: these are the contrasts on which the poetic theme of this installation is built.
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