Tomáš Vanek and Fritz Quasthoff: Synonyma. Index - tranzit collaboration 2007 April

Tomáš Vanek’s series of works all share the same title, Particip, derived from the idea of participation. The artist’s site-specific installations interact with the space and environment in which they are created. Many times, the works comes across as a play with perceptual processes, and with the viewer’s notion of how to recognize and identify an object, or a sound, as a whole.

In a series of works the artist uses a binaural method for sound recording, creating intensively realistic recordings, which is then presented as sound installations. In the exhibition at Index, three of these works are included. Particip no. 55/2 has been produced for Index and consists of the sound of the artist getting a hair-cut by a hairdresser’s in Stockholm. Particip no. 59, another work produced for the show, is a sound version of one of Czech poet Vladimir Burda’s experimental poems. It has been created in relation to a wall in Index’s exhibition space and uses the voice of co-exhibitor Fritz Quasthoff. The artist describes the work Particip no. 51/5 as a sound sculpture for one person, recorded in this person’s home and listened to only by this person. Thus this work is represented in the exhibition only in text.

Works spray-painted directly onto the surfaces of the exhibition space using templates represents another part of Tomáš Vanek’s oeuvre. Through these works, which have a formal resemblance to objects or light phenomena as reflexes or shadows, the artist adds an aspect to the exhibition space. An addendum, which consists of something that could have been there all the same, and that hence doesn’t create a fixed border between the work itself and the space in which it is situated. Particip no. 4/4, Particip no. 60 and Particip no. 61 becomes disturbances in the viewer’s understanding of the space, hinting at yet another, believed space, bordering to the one where the viewer find himself.

Minor disturbances also crop up in Particip no. 39, a collection in process, consisting of sentences describing a number of individuals experiences of everyday situations, for instance, “When an inspector gets on the tram my heart speeds up despite the fact that I have a valid ticket.” The work includes the artist’s e-mail address, in order for viewers to contribute to the collection. Tomáš Vanek lives and works in Prague, Czech Republic.

In connection to the show, Index publishes a text on the artist’s work by Lenka Vítková, artist and writer based in Prague.

Fritz Quasthoff works with a project without a defined time frame where Index’ exhibition space and activities serves as a starting point for his analyses. Fritz Quasthoff’s engagement consists of a series of interventions, oscillating between sculpture and design. For the exhibitions at Index he has produced a set of walls and objects, formally relating to interior- or architectural details. These will function as a changeable structure that will be used during spring’s presentations. Fritz Quasthoff is based in Stockholm; he graduated from the Royal Academy in Stockholm in 2005.

Synonyma, background and other programme

In 2007 Index and tranzit coordinates a parallel programme focusing exchange of ideas and production. This spring exhibitions will be staged in Stockholm, while Kajsa Dahlberg, who recently exhibited at Index, has been staying in Prague to conceptualise a new work commissioned by Index and tranzit. Two screenings will be arranged by Index at Kino Svetozor in Prague, showing films by Harun Farocki, 26 April, and Adrian Piper, 24 May, as a part of tranzit’s regular screening series. Spring programme at Index finishes with Monument to transformation, fragment #4, a project by Vít Havránek, tranzit, with Zbynek Baladran and Vangelis Vlahos, opening on 9 May.

For more information about tranzit, Prague, please see: www.tranzit.org

Thanks to Czech Airlines CSA.