Much as in previous years, one of the two parts of the Main Program will be a presentation of photography from a selected country – the Special Guest of the festival. In 2009 this will be the Czech Republic – a country where many artists who have found their permanent place as classics of world photography have lived and worked. The history of Czech photography has already seen a wealth of literature and large exhibitions aiming to show the development of the photographic medium in the country. This is why – unlike the presentation of Polish photography in 2008 – this year’s program will focus on selected figures, artists who have already gained international recognition, and on an attempt to diagnose the current Czech photography scene. A phenomenon that will receive more attention this year than it has to date is how photography functions in the sphere of contemporary art. The Special Guest exhibit will thus be made up of four individual exhibitions, two collective exhibitions, and a rich educational program: documentary film screenings, meetings with curators and artists, presentations of photography books and much more.
INDIVIDUAL EXHIBITIONS
Viktor Kolář - Retrospective
Curator: Tomáš Pospěch
Viktor Kolář is among the most interesting representatives of Czech documentary photography; he has also lectured for many years at the Czech Republic’s FAMU. For over two decades, the main subject of his photography has been Ostrava – the photographer’s hometown. Though Viktor Kolář’s work has been shown both in the United States (Chicago, San Francisco, Portland), and in many European cities (Berlin, Athens, Amsterdam), his output has never been summed up in a retrospective exhibition. It is precisely this kind of exhibition that will be done specially for Photomonth in Krakow in 2009. It will, in fact, be the exhibition that inaugurates Photomonth 2009.
Read full description of the exhibition >>>Miroslav Tichý – Style options
Curator: Pavel Vančát
An exhibition of works by one of the most controversial living Czech artists. After completing the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, Tichý chose the life of a loner. In the late 50s he abandoned painting, to take up photography in the 60s. Using self-made, primitive equipment, he captured figures of women he came across in the public space of the city. He glued the resulting prints onto a paper background, hand-decorated with drawn frames, and then decorated the photographs themselves with pencil. He thus created one-of-a-kind pictures that cross beyond conventional photography, a combination of drawing and photography. Tichý’s work shows a poetic and dreamlike vision of feminine beauty in an extraordinary manner. Since 2006, his works have been presented in Paris, Berlin, London, New York and Vancouver, but this is their first appearance in Poland.
An exhibition prepared in cooperation with Dominik Art Projects.Jiři David – Touch My Head
Curator: Martin Dostal
Jiři David (b.1956) is counted among the most interesting figures in contemporary Czech art. He is a multifaceted artist, a painter, photographer, and installation and video artist. As a founder of the ‘Tvrdohlavi’ group, he made a significant contribution to Czech art’s assimilation of aspects of post-modern culture. He is a lecturer at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, and he lives and works in the same city. The Photomonth in Krakow exhibition will show a selection of his most important photographic pieces, including those that have never before been displayed.
An exhibition prepared in cooperation with Dominik Art Projects.Cora Piantoni - The Stokers
This exhibition is composed of Cora Piantoni’s photographic portraits of famous Czech artists, including Jiři Kovanda, Viktor Kolař, and Vera Jirousova. The series was started in 2007, and also features texts that come from Piantoni’s research into the daily lives of artists in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic. Her photographs shows them as stokers – the socialist authorities forced Czech intellectuals to carry out this profession. As a kind of degradation, it was a tool of repression. For Piantoni, the image of the stoker is a metaphor for the artistic ‘stoking’ of intellectual exploration.
Read full description of the exhibition >>>COLLECTIVE EXHIBITIONS
Any-instant-whatever
Curator: Karel Cisar
A collective exhibition specially prepared for the space of the Bunkier Sztuki in Krakow, presenting a group of the most important artists of the young and middle generations who use photography as the central medium in their work. The issues that link the works on display are the sequence and the series. The presentation will include photographs from the 70s up till those by contemporary artists, such as Vaclav Stratil, Jiri Kovanda, L. Jasansky and M. Polak, Marketa Othova, Jan Mancuska, Zbynek Baladran and Michal Pechoucek. Special attention has been paid to diversity of media and forms of expression – from black-and-white documentary photography, through archival photography, installations and slide shows to video forms.
Read full description of the exhibition >>>Aktualizacja.CZ
Curators: Sylva Francová, David Korecký
This collective exhibition is a multimedia presentation of young Czech photography whose format links it with the presentation of young Polish photography displayed during the Photomonth in Krakow Festival of 2008. Two screens will show interactive presentations of portfolios of more recognized artists, who serve as an inspiration for the younger generation. The exhibition will be accompanied by a web-page in three languages: Polish, Czech and English, featuring the works presented.
Read full description of the exhibition >>>EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM
The history of Czech photography is long and abounds in interesting phenomena, which is why there is no way of fitting a representative list of names into the selection for the festival’s main exhibitions. Thus, the organizers have decided to create a program of educational events, which will serve as an essential expansion of the exhibition program.
The educational program will include a wide selection of books devoted to Czech photography (mainly those from the leading Czech publishing houses: Kant and Torst); we will also be setting up multimedia stations, where you can watch films on the key figures in Czech photography.
The festival will also be hosting numerous meetings with and lectures by specialists; as well as screenings of over a dozen films devoted to the most outstanding figures in the history of Czech photography. The emphasis in the educational program will be placed on the subject of the Czech avant-garde.
Click image to enlarge.
Viktor Kolar, Ostrava, 1979
Viktor Kolar, Ostrava, 1980
Miroslav Tichý, Untitled, undated. © M. Tichý
Jiři David - Roman Polański, from the series Hidden Image, 1991-1995
Courtesy of Artist and Dominik Art Projects
Courtesy of Artist and Dominik Art Projects
Kateřina Držková, from the series Viewpoints, 2006, digital print
Michaela Thelenová, Měsíc, from the series Krajiny / Landscapes, 2005, digital print, 45 x 60 cm
Jiří Kovanda, On an escalator ... turning around, I
look into the eyes of the person standing behind me
September 3, 1977, Václavské náměstí, Prague
Courtesy of Kontakt. Die Kunstsammlung der Erste
Bank-Gruppe; gb agency, Paris.
look into the eyes of the person standing behind me
September 3, 1977, Václavské náměstí, Prague
Courtesy of Kontakt. Die Kunstsammlung der Erste
Bank-Gruppe; gb agency, Paris.
Ján Mančuška, The Other (I asked my wife to blacken all parts of my body I cannot see), installation, 2007
Courtesy of Galerie Meyer Riegger, Karlsruhe, Andrew Kreps Gallery, New York
Courtesy of Galerie Meyer Riegger, Karlsruhe, Andrew Kreps Gallery, New York
