JIŘÍ THÝN / THE TWO ENDS OF A DISTANCE – THE PICTURES THAT HAVE NEVER HAPPENED

While loosely following in the wake of the previous exhibition, the second part of this overview of the Fait Gallery collection represents, in a certain sense, its opposite. In contrast to the previous instalment, which primarily represented abstract art from the second half of the 20th century, with a focus on geometry and structure, Czech modernism and its resonance and evident influences in contemporary Czech painting, this exhibition directs its attention towards art that places greater emphasis on depicting the real world. Contradicting the artists working in the spirit of geometric abstraction, presenting more universal subject matter, these works are inspired by reality, depicting it more or less explicitly while bringing to the forefront an appreciation of the human figure and its depiction.

It is precisely this fascination with the human body and physicality, manifested either directly or metaphorically through fragments, tools, and situations inextricably intertwined with it, that forms the framework of the exhibition. As such, the exhibition features a number of works reflecting themes such as sport, while at the same time exploring a certain existential decadence as well as aspects of humour within the context of this fascination with the human condition.

Chronologically, we loosely move on to works created predominantly after the year 2000, which is also evidenced by the wider representation of the medium of installation, an example of which is the large-scale work Deep in Enemy Territory by the Rafani Group, one of the group's most extensive projects. The installation fulfils an integral part of the exhibition and, as was already mentioned, comments on a complex psychological situation through the relationship between visual art and the symbolism of sport.

The exhibition follows a predefined selective framework, yet it does not aspire to present an indisputable message regarding a specific issue or topic, a fact that is understandable given its nature. It does, however, seek to showcase the fruits of Fait Gallery and Igor Fait's extensive collecting activities over the past 15 years, to present a series of high-quality works by both Czech and foreign artists, to allow them to come into their own in their individuality and, at the same time, to present the sphere in which these individualities coexist and support each other within a compact whole.

Ondřej Kotrč

Represented artists:

Vasil Artamonov & Alexej Klyuykov, Alžběta Bačíková, Ondřej Basjuk, Nina Beier, Marie Blabolilová, Josef Bolf, Radek Brousil, Jan Brož, Michel Comte, Milena Dopitová, Markéta Filipová, Jiří Franta & David Böhm, Jan Gemrot, Martin Gerboc, Michal Gogora, Damien Hirst, Katarína Hládeková & Ondřej Homola, Katarína Hládeková & Jiří Kovanda, Jakub Hošek, František Hudeček, Matyáš Chochola, Krištof Kintera, Eva Kmentová, Vendula Knopová, Vladimír Kokolia, Jiří Kolář, Eva Koťátková, Ondřej Kotrč, Alena Kotzmannová, Denisa Krausová, Nika Kupyrova, Alicja Kwade, Martin Lukáč, Kamila Maliňáková, Pavla Malinová, Pavel Matyska, Marek Meduna, Jan Merta, Svätopluk Mikyta, Kamila Musilová, Jan Nálevka & Václav Stratil, Pavla Naďová, Petr Nikl, Michal Pěchouček, Ivan Pinkava, Jan Poupě, Skupina Rafani, Tomáš Roubal, Lucia Sceranková, Pavla Sceranková, František Skála, Matěj Smetana, Václav Stratil, Tomáš Svoboda, Robert Šalanda, Adriena Šimotová, Jiří Topínka, Lubomír Typlt, unconductive trash, Kateřina Vincourová, Lenka Vítková

The exhibition Selection from the Fait Gallery Collection II is a sales exhibition and is the last exhibition of Fait Gallery in its current space at Ve Vaňkovce 2.

JIŘÍ THÝN / THE TWO ENDS OF A DISTANCE – THE PICTURES THAT HAVE NEVER HAPPENED

28.03.2015 - 21.05.2015

Fait Gallery MEM
Božetěchova Street 1 (entrance from Metodějova Strret), Brno
28. 3. - 21. 5. 2015
Opening: 26. 3. 2015 at 7pm
Curator: Jiří Ptáček

About the Study, Nonnarrative Photography, Gesture and Poetry

About The Study. The photographer Jiří Thýn held three exhibitions in 2011-2012, called Basic Studies. The term study could have been understood in the way of its conventional use by artists - such as a survey or preliminary preparation. However, we use Basic Studies in various fields of scientific knowledge to gain the first set of relevant data, which is used as a basis for further work. One way or another, by these exhibitions Thýn initiated a phase of work, where it has been noted in advance, that it actually precedes something. The manifestation of the importance of subsequent, yet not completed step, referred to the inherent unpent of seemingly definitive exhibition shape and emphasised the importance of continuity. In 2014 Thýn again felt the need to return to the format of the study and the first of two solo exhibitions of that year called Basic Studies / Nonnarrative Photography.

The Nonnarrative Photography. Thýn found the concept of nonnarrative photography after a few years of exploring the influence of technical procedures to the construction and operation of the photographic depiction. Quite naturally he got close to the avantgarde photography of the 20th century and the theme of abstraction in photography. He was intrigued by the problematic use of this term in the case of medium, the essence of which is always a capture of light leaning into material reality in a specific timeframe. Instead of abstraction as such he proposed to deal with photohraphy, where the boundaries of a story and narration are being tested.

The radius of nonnarrative photography has gradually expanded through all Basic Studies and other Thýn´s exhibitions. Based on this there are also Two Ends of A Distancein both variants: a Prague one from the French Institute and a Brno one, with the subtitle The Pictures That Have Never Happened. During this continuous process, there was a significant, though still almost unnoticed turnover in Thýn´s creative approach.

About The Gesture. First, however let´s briefly stop by the gesture and the two, one quickly succeeding another, exhibitions Basic Studies / Nonnarrative Photography and Consciousness As A Fundamental Attribute I, II in 2014. Thýn showed photographs of magazine reproductions cut through by a few lumped cuts with a scalpel. That brings into the show a physical gesture and a relation between an image and a body. Actually these gestures did not have a nature of unaware, unconditioned movement. In the text Thýn presented the background of these interventions as a result of a wide spectrum of conditionality:

"Precondition of shape, precondition of lie, precondition of emptiness, precondition of space, precondition of desire, precondition of dependence, precondition of emotions, precondition of time, precondition of beginning, precondition of end, precondition of form, precondition of beauty... "

By the long list of presumptions Thýn tried to emphasise the multiplicity of active subjects in being with the image, covered by the consciousness as a whole. Cutting into the photos was their physical "reading" and also factual and semantic flexion. The importance of generalisation / abstraction (as the particular goal and a specific result) can not be – at the nonnarrative photography - questioned.

About The Poetry. The Two Ends of A Distanceis not a study, but one of the syntheses, which continuously build a kind of island of the application. Thýn again intervenes in magazine and newspaper photos, this time by a wider range of methods and materials. Although these are story pictures (scenes), he again eliminates their informative value. A word is dragged into the situation, in which its theoretical basis is articulated as a poem. This fits best to Thýn´s main intention of creating a lyrical transmutation of the epic theme.

The Pictures That Have Never Happened. In his new photographs Jiří Thýn proceeds from specific to general. By his intervention he transforms a particular person in a specific situation into a figure rooted to its place and space of the picture. The testimony of emotion is transferred to the expression of emotion. He proceeds in accordance with the "presumptions" of shape, form, beauty, etc. Instead of analysing the photographic language for which his earlier work was valued, he focuses to the symbolic manifestation of the hypnotic power of pictures, which rises in the irreducible synergy of cultural memory, instincts and unconscious archetypal patterns. Thus the subtitle of the exhibition could be paraphrased as "pictures that have not happened, although they exist."

Jiří Ptáček

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