Dílna Mikulov 1/3

The exhibition Dílna Mikulov 1/3 presents the first decade of activity and continuity of the Mikulov Art Symposium “dílna”, which has provided a platform for creation, encounters and association among artists continuously from 1994 to the present. The symposium owes its founding to sculptor Nikos Armutidis, who, as curator of the first edition, invited to Mikulov friends from the circle of the art group Tvrdohlaví, photographer Jindřich Štreit and painter Libor Lípa, co-founder of the symposium and initiator of the later editions.

The Mikulov Art Symposium is exceptional for its continuity. Three decades of its existence have created the conditions for a collection currently comprising more than five hundred artworks across a broad spectrum of visual disciplines and creative approaches. In our country, it is one of the largest collections of contemporary visual art, inviting not only the presentation of individual works but also a retrospective survey of selected phases and milestones in the development and direction of Czech art from the 1990s to the present.

The first decade of the symposium includes a selection of works from 1994 to 2005, opening the way to seek common denominators among the chosen artists, to point out their differing and shared positions, creative phases, and original influences and inspirations. An important variable is also the place of the symposium itself, the town of Mikulov. The genius loci and the dialogue with the place offer inspiring potential and impulse.

In the first decade, the symposium was attended mainly by artists belonging to the generation of the 1950s and 1960s. Among the participants at that time were members of the group Tvrdohlaví – Stanislav Diviš, Petr Nikl and Jaroslav Róna –, who, in their grotesque and darkly humorous, absurd view of the world, build on the Czech tradition of the grotesque. Absurdity and grotesqueness also characterize the surrealist and conceptual paintings of Viktor Pivovarov. Parody, exaggeration and paraphrase appear in the art of postmodernism, represented by Tomáš Císařovský, Libor Lípa, Antonín Střížek and Laco Teren. The influence of pop art and its distinctive variants entered the paintings of Milan Kunc and the sculptures of Jiří Sobotka. The work of Christian Macketanz oscillates on the boundary between modernism and postmodernism.

Spontaneity and expressionist intensity pervade the paintings of Otto Plachta. Nikos Armutidis breaks free from the established rules of figurative art with his work. A response to expressionism came from New Objectivity, whose objective depiction of reality links the work of Erika Bornová and Ivana Lomová. Jindřich Štreit, as a chronicler and at the same time a reporter in documentary photography, recorded the everyday life of ordinary people and its raw reality. Bohuslav Woody Vašulka developed digital experiments and the possibilities of electronic video media in his work. Jeff Chiplis chose a different kind of experiment: his neon installations influence the urban landscape and shape public spaces, roads and streets. The capture of a simple, elementary geometric and formally pure form then characterizes the work of Eva Eisler.

The Mikulov Art Symposium “dílna” is defined by the participation and representation of leading figures of contemporary Czech visual art, not only in the first decade. Its uniqueness lies in several areas: the categories of place (Mikulov and its castle) and time (long duration), but also the establishment of a coherent collection, the sharing of experience, personal and professional ties between artists, free and unrestricted creative possibilities and, last but not least, the enthusiasm that accompanies creative work and meetings across all editions of the symposium.

Curators: Barbora Půtová, Ondřej Chrobák, Petr Ingerle

Graphic design: Lukáš Kijonka