Veronika Vlková / Daddy_rough_and _reduced_final_ok

The early work of Jiří Hilmar (*1937) was marked by the art trends of the time, especially the principles of Concretism^[1] (whose club^[2] he co-founded in Czechoslovakia in 1967), as well as by the activation of the viewer, the processuality of perception and the thematization of movement. Kinetic objects in the form of mechanical machines and objects working with light sources and shadow effects^[3] were followed by several years of the artist's thorough investigation of the phenomenon of mobile procedural perception in paper reliefs folded into optical structures. These mostly square formats of various sizes produced an optical illusion through the movement of the observer and the change of his or her position in relation to the work, thus transforming the visual qualities of the surface.

In the square, whose shape the artist saw as an ideal anonymous form^[4] referring to the ideas of Piet Mondrian, Kazimir Malevich or Victor Vasarely, he created structures in various systems according to mathematical principles and seriality from horizontally, vertically and diagonally arranged monochrome or multicolour strips of folded and, in many cases, also incised paper. The opto-kinetic principle was achieved by varying the height of the strips, their shape, the method and degree of their bending, the method of perforation, and also the shape and colour of the tempera used for individual fragments (most often circles and their sections). The variation of contrasts and intersections continued after his emigration to the Federal Republic of Germany in 1969, where he settled for more than 40 years.

The active involvement of the viewer was also part of the next cycle of works which were defined by a system of overlapping vertical strips or strings. In this new structural plan, in which one of the elements was always firmly attached to the base and the other hung freely above it, the works could again be set in motion, now literally, by the participation of the observer. Parallel to this, in the 1970s the artist created monochromes from layered tracing paper, fixed to canvas or wooden boards, most often also in square formats. The individual layers of transparent paper were only recognizable by their deliberate distortion with various types of creasing, perforation, rippling and gradations or variations of the repetitive regular patterns of the collaged fragments.

After moving to the Halfmannshof art colony in Gelsenkirchen in 1974, located in the heavily devastated landscape of the Ruhr area, Hilmar naturally moved towards environmental issues. In addition to paper, he began to incorporate into his reliefs natural materials such as jute, wax, kaolin and also wood, in the form of sticks and matchsticks. In the 1980s, when nature became an equal co-agent in his work, and creative intervention in natural processes started to prevail in his work, he turned permanently to a single material - wood. He partially dismantled the original autonomous shapes of branches and trunks and then reconstructed them by rejoining, tying or crossing them into new units of wooden objects and installations. He deliberately interfered in the originally round found fragments of trees in an invasive and openly completely contradictory square manner followed by a final gesture of re-rounding, in order to manifest the oneness of man and nature, which he sought in his work and life.

Literature:

HILMAR, Jiří, VÍCHOVÁ, Ilona, HIEKISCH-PICARD, Sepp. Jiří Hilmar/ Adagio. Praha, Museum Kampa – Nadace Jana a Medy Mládkových, 2015.

POHRIBNÝ, Arsen. Klub konkrétistů po dvaceti letech. In: Revue K, 1988–89, nos. 32–33.

“Optické reliéfy“ Jiřího Hilmara, Rozhlas, ČRo 3 – Vltava, Mozaika, 24 February 2011.

[1] The principles of Concretism were defined in interwar art by Theo van Doesburg, who first used and coined the term in 1930, and later in the 1930s by Max Bill, the main promoter of this art movement. De Stijl, the Bauhaus, and also the Russian avant-garde were followed in the 1950s by the activities of the Swiss neo-concretists led by Richard Paul Lohse, and partly by kinetic art in the Düsseldorf Zero movement, the GRAV group in Paris, the Gruppo N in Padua and the Gruppo T in Milan.

[2] Together with Tomáš Rajlich, Radoslav Kratina, Miroslav Vystrčil and the art theorist Arsén Pohribný he co-founded the KK/CC - The Concretists’ Club (9 May 1967 - ca. 1972), whose activities were followed by the new KK2 in 1997 and KK3 in 2007.

[3] In this context it is also worth mentioning hydro-kinetic objects from 1974.

[4] “Optické reliéfy“ Jiřího Hilmara, Rozhlas, ČRo 3 – Vltava, Mozaika, 24 February 2011.

Veronika Vlková / Daddy_rough_and _reduced_final_ok

19.10.2022 - 14.01.2023

Fait Gallery MEM, Ve Vaňkovce 2, Brno

Curator: Marie Štindlová

Opening: 19 October 2022, 7 pm

Mother and son are travelling on foot to Vienna. On the way they cook, wash, look, show each other things. Sometimes it's difficult, their hands are of stone. The steps are verses and the march is a prayer for healthy relationships. Without losing their humour, they are trying to shake off the layers of patriarchal sediment settled on their arms, hearts, family and landscape.

The title of the exhibition Daddy_rough_and_reduced_final_ok refers in its form and structure to the names of documents stored in the digital environment in a number of variants (rough/final, reduced/hd etc.). Video is therefore the central element of the exhibition. The thematization of the medium and its structure (its disruption) is reflected in the way the artist approaches it. She works with ruptures and distortions which she uses to create similar cracks in stereotypical notions of clearly defined gender roles. She explores them both gently and with a mischievous smile. At the same time, however, she looks with utter seriousness for ways of how to heal patriarchy and masculinity in our time.

The film shows the artist and her teenage son navigating a landscape associated with a family and historical trauma. By experiencing the landscape together and performing certain activities, they seek to heal it, as well as themselves. They encode a desire for renewal and transformation into ordinary gestures of survival and care. The process is complicated by the stone structures embedded in their bodies which make quick movements, fine motoric skills and mutual touching impossible. The pilgrims are hoping that with every kilometre they will leave behind a past that may no longer be part of them, that the stones on their hands will turn to clay and water and they will be able to knead them into different shapes: soft, pliable, yet firm.

Cooking their favourite food, mother and son feed the surrounding gorges. Flowers are guides, together with the son they tell the story of the search for his role. The stream bubbles up and washes away everything unnecessary.

Acknowledgement / Collaboration:

Photography: Maria Lopatyuk, Matěj Nytra, Katarina Kadijević

Sound: Jonatan Pastirčák, Tomáš Dvořák, Kateřina Koutná

Costumes: Kristýna Nytrová

Exhibition design: Martin Nytra

Kanikuly march: Lucie Králíková, Hana Kubešová