JIŘÍ FRANTA AND ONDŘEJ HOMOLA / A BLIND MASTER AND A LIMPING MONK

The events that are present in Tomáš Bárta's paintings take place between two spaces and the partition between them. These pictures inevitably set a "backward course" through the history of European painting, all the way back to Leon Battista Alberti’s reflections on the construction of pictorial space which he incorporated into his seminal work De pictura (1435). However, instead of a well-organised renaissance arrangement, Bárta offers us more ambiguous spatial relations and a spectral illusion of the objects inhabiting his paintings, as if architecture produced its own ghosts.

JIŘÍ FRANTA AND ONDŘEJ HOMOLA / A BLIND MASTER AND A LIMPING MONK

13.05.2015 - 14.08.2015

Fait Gallery Preview
Dominican Square 10, Brno
13. 5. - 14. 8. 2015
Opening: 12. 5. 2015 at 6pm

A BLIND MASTER AND A LIMPING MONK

What might connect the artistic work of Jiří Franta and Ondřej Homola? How has a blind master met a limping monk, so they can, as in the medieval poem, argue who is stronger and who is living better? The prosaic connection might be a shared interest in the medium of drawing, which is one of many media forms used by Homola, and a sole conceptual basis for Franta. At the same time both of them are characterised by the need for collective work, that provides the background of shared work and the aura of alliance. Community ... and this brings us to the approach, that is defining for this exhibition. Society works with simple identifications, for example strong - weak, clever - stupid, beautiful - ugly, etc., which relies on the appeal of strong and contradictory features. However for (official) interpretations of art these attributes are useless, we base on the most precise, exact or "highly sensitive" formulations, on knowledge and context. Nevertheless in our perception and evaluation of art (even if only in private) we still use the simple identification terms. Jiří Franta and Ondrej Homola put this straightforwardness, which we normally expect rather from sport commentators than as part of an art project, at the front as the response to all those polite dances, which we know from the art business. The position of weakness and strength can be found in the traditional attributes of weapons, sports equipment, but also in more abstract positions that can be read in the materiality of drawings and installation makeovers in the architecture of the gallery. The radical tone of that reply, however, they soothe by humor and exaggeration. Much like if you were to hit the table with your fist and then you laugh at it.

Text: Marika Kupková

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