Jáchym Myslivec: Without a Title at the Moment
11. 11. – 4. 12. 2022
opening: 10. 11. 2022 from 6 pm
curator: Gabriela Kotiková
Jáchym, at the Faculty of Art and Design in Ústí nad Labem you started studying in Pavel Baňka's studio, but you finished your studies with Lukáš Jasanský. Could you briefly describe how the approach of these two teachers differed?
Yes, I studied with both Pavel Baňka and Lukáš Jasanský, but each of them at a completely different stage of my photography studies. So the pedagogical guidance was also different. With Pavel Baňka I was learning my way around during my bachelor's studies. With Lukáš Jasanský I was already doing my masters.
In what way has this study enriched you the most?
It has definitely complicated the world, photography and art.
You are now working at the Faculty of Art and Design, so you have a better insight into the workings of the department. What do you see as the greatest value for students here? Does the school offer sufficient facilities in terms of technical support?
I work at the faculty as a darkroom administrator. I think the facilities are adequate, but the demand of what students want from the school is changing.
It may seem to some that today's ever-improving technology makes it possible for someone without a degree in this field to produce photographs at a fairly professional level. Is this really the case?
Technically, studying photography in university can be even like being thrown a curveball.
What would you say to people who think that there are so many photos and visuals around us these days that it's getting harder to add more ...
I would tell them they are right... But I think it is up to us where we direct our attention and where we don‘t.
In the past, you have created, for example, an interesting series of photographs called Cabinet, representing something like a fictive collection and book of a researcher of "photographic rocks". In it you worked with the principles of different kinds of images and photographic technologies. For example, you used various photographic emulsions, cyanotype or the Van Dyke technique. The collection also contained photosensitive rocks, including a nine-thousand-foot borehole of photographic sediment. What exactly is this photographic sediment and how was it created?
This collection was created as a small reflection on how many images I produced during the time of my studies. I had nine semesters under my belt at the time, so I took a few photographs from each class. I then transformed these into a sediment of photographic experience that was inspired by the soil profile, or soil probe.
The photographic collection exhibited at the Jelení Gallery responds to the difficult situation that a person who has just graduated from art school and started a family can find himself in. I was interested in how you yourself characterized this experience when you said that one finds oneself in a certain clear and closed space of the apartment and the necessary rhythm of care. I myself remember that sometimes the home becomes partly such a prison - for example, if the children are ill and one spends a lot of time at home, somewhat against one's will...
A particular space and a particular rhythm may seem quite idyllic at first glance, but inside we are close to what you call a prison. A simple space, rhythm and day, and yet it is very easy to get lost. Within the Untitled For Now series, I am also thematizing a state of experience that can be reached by multiple paths.
The collection thematically follows the line of Can't Build on Uncertain Foundations, where, as you yourself characterized, the experiences of life after studies, building a home and a family, were intertwined with the absurdity of some of the endeavours we encounter in the environment around us... I find it interesting how such an ordinary environment around us can be seen through a lens that gives a different dimension to the whole situation...
When I create a collection, I usually look for and enhance some emotion or experience in the environment around me. Most of the images are pre-tracked or partially staged.
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, GESTOR – The Union for the Protection of Authorship
Partners: Kostka stav
Media partners: ArtMap, jlbjlt.net, Náš REGION
and Mladý svět and UMA: You Make Art
