Iron Smirk: Action Art 1976-81
Lumír Hladík
March 15 — April 1, 2018
Curated by Veronika Ivanova and Matthew Kyba
Lumír Hladík
March 15 — April 1, 2018
Curated by Veronika Ivanova and Matthew Kyba
When the act of unsanctioned creativity is categorized as treason against the state, every movement, every moment, every instance of art becomes a dangerous form of rebellion. Within the overbearing communist Czechoslovakia (Czech Republic since 1993) during the late 1970’s and early 1980’s, artist Lumír Hladík was an integral catalyst for “action art,” a term used to denote public and private performance artwork. These happenings range from the critical to the absurd, but all represented a type of artistic freedom that was suppressed under the Communist dictatorship at that time. Hladík's early action art includes shades of earth art, art concerned with failure, existential issues, and institutional critique. Without any need to criticize any governing body or political regime directly, Hladík sought to challenge authority through general gestures of intervention. Hladík’s practice has consisted of making conscious the element of time (mortality) through deliberately philosophically posed questions that have no answer. In "I Reduced the Diameter of the Earth," (1977) Hladík dug a small hole into the ground, thus technically making our planet’s diameter slightly smaller. Although this gesture is comically ineffective (in regards to the intended result) the work concerns much larger themes of human impact, self-aggrandizement practiced by governing institutions, and even the overall futility of humanity’s praised progress. In 1980, Hladík, after a two-year period of not seeing the sea, decided to (not see it again). “The sea always was, for us Czechoslovakian citizens, a special place. In a geographical sense; the country is landlocked, and... in a political sense; the sea became a symbol of freedom.” Blindfolded and led to the water’s edge by a friend, he looked at a mirror that faced the sea for an hour, and then left. Does he view the sea, if just in a mirror’s image? As a Czech citizen in the midst of an oppressive regime, Hladík dissented while submitting; going towards the precipice of freedom (or the mirage) while not accessing it. Himself and other like-minded artists such as Jiří Kovanda made artwork that was almost imperceptible; pieces that existed underneath the surface that were conceptual in nature and barely visible in form. The action / interventions were personal asseverations, testimony and manifestos, their own bodies acting as Martin Luther’s Six Errors nailed to Church doors. The effectiveness of their ability to change dominant thinking lies in their ability to remain unseen from the watchful Big-Brother eyes. So, although Hladík’s practice may seem slight, his interventions acted as substantial philosophical questions that investigated what freethinking and free art can be.
MATTHEW KYBA
MATTHEW KYBA