Jan Brož Works 24/7 Installation view from FOMO at Syntax, Lisbon

Jan Brož
24/7
Works
Kappa feat. Richard Nikl (2015)
Cardboard cuts assambled in a grid structure, spray paint.
Installation view from FOMO at Syntax, Lisbon.
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Kappa feat. Richard Nikl (2015)
Cardboard cuts assambled in a grid structure, spray paint.
Installation view from FOMO at Syntax, Lisbon.
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Shrimps (At The End of The Season) feat. Richard Nikl (2015)
Cardboard cuts assambled in a grid structure, spray paint,
plastic holders, the glass tubes clogged with the shredded docs.
Installation view from 7th Youth Salon, Zlín.
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Telepathy or Esperanto ? (2015)
A group exhibition I've organized for Futura, Prague.
Link to images and essay.
Flyer by Parallel Practice (w/ Michal Landa).
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RTM feat. Richard Nikl (2015)
Installation consists of KOPYTO modular system,
cardboards, vinyl prints, plexiglass, plumbing pipes,
customized watermill, water from a nearby canal,
EBS250 prints and a poster by Parallel Practice.
M enlightened by Mr. Martin Kohout.
Installation views from Typografie at Goethe Institut, Rotterdam.
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Upper Mechanism
of custom made watermill.
R
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Lower Mechanism
of custom made watermill.
Canal Water Flow
Circulating through all the four objects of RTM.
In collaboration between us a modular system made
of leftovers of printable adhesive vinyl coming from
advertisement business (incl. cardboard rolls, plastic
holders, cardboard packaging, false vinyl prints) was
designed as a part of ongoing project of re–thinking
the predefined hierarchy of the materials.
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Gargoyles feat. Richard Nikl (2014)
Cardboard cuts assambled in a grid structure, plastic
holders and the glass tube clogged with the leftovers
of the cardboard cuts.
Spine feat. Richard Nikl (2014)
Installation views from Millésime at New Pictures, Paris.
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Spine feat. Richard Nikl (2014)
Collaborative frottage with graphite on the archival
paper mounted on KOPYTO modular system.
Installation views from Millésime at New Pictures, Paris.
(backside)
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RNRNRN feat. Richard Nikl (2014)
Cardboard tubes and boxes, vinyl cuts and strip lights
KOPYTO [mould]
It can be conceived as a primitive sequence.
In this case, however, it is more of a compound
sequence symbolizing an invention. The compound
entropic sequence (1+n) contains moments of
misunderstanding. The sequence exists, but it is
not understood. It is a technical operation—sort of
a black box—waiting for its revelation in the future;
in the future that must be organized, in the future
that can adopt an exteriorized past. The idea of
mould redeeming the world is a deceptive idea.
The future contains no image. […]
Essay by Jiří Maha
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SSSSSS (2014)
Installation view at Fait Gallery MEM, Brno
Saga (2014)
Graphite/screen print on archival paper (220×120)
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Synergy (2013)
Graphite on archival paper (220×120)
Species / Stream (2014)
Graphite on archival paper (220×120)
SSSSSS was developed with curator Jan Zálešák.
It includes six drawings/screen prints: Saga, Sensuality,
Solidarity, Species, Stream, and Synergy, hung on
a scaled clotheshorse, white neon work Austerity
and the essay published as a book.
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Essay by Jan Zalešák
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Fait Gallery
How did it come about that we invest
desire, which is surely associated with
sensuality, instinct and spontaneity, in
the creation of an image of the self that
corresponds precisely to that which is
demanded from us as knowledge workers and cultural producers (or at least
corresponds to what we believe such
figures should look like …)? How did it
come about that we devote our lives,
completely voluntarily, to production,
not to say obsessive production? We
must never fail, we cannot compromise
on the demands we make of ourselves,
if to every invitation we reply compulsively: YES.
Look through Austerity (2014)
Neon, plexiglass (100×100)
in back: Saga / Sensuality
Graphite/screen print on
archival paper (220×120)
SSSSSS
A few years ago Jan Brož took a completely ordinary clotheshorse and, instead
of his long johns and t-shirts, hung his
drawings on it. This simple juxtaposition
set off a remarkable semantic short—
circuit. For sure, the encounter between
the clotheshorse and the drawings by no
means attains the immediate absurdity
of the surrealist chance meeting of an
umbrella and a sewing machine on a dissecting table (André Breton). Rather than
being uncanny this encounter is silly.
The drawings hang as limply as damp
laundry and the nagging questions arises
as to whether they are not in point of fact,
despite their undeniable craftsmanship,
simply items as ordinary as the clotheshorse from which they dangle.
Its excessive proportions elevate the
clotheshorse to the status of a phantasmal and yet highly visible object. If we
overlook its uncanniness we realise that
it makes very precise reference to that
which is concealed in the heart of this
exhibition, namely excess. An excess
motivated by desire. I’m not referring
here to the desire anchored in the libido,
or at least not in the libido as interpreted
sexually. The desire I have in mind
is deeply related to the needs of the
ego, to the need for communication and
repletion, to the need for confirmation
of the fact that the world outside will
return your gaze and say: YES.
Jan Brož / Jan Zálešák
Desire and Self—Creation
The gallery space, which is demarcated
at the entrance by a white curtain,
begs to be perceived as a stage. And
there’s nothing wrong with this. A stage
is where something is staged, a certain
message formulated. SSSSSS is an
exhibition that wishes to convey a message. In this respect it differs from a lot
of contemporary art. Intrinsic to the
message, the narrative, is a degree of pathos, and a risk that the actual contents
of the message will be unintelligible, or
even worse, boring. It’s better to keep
shtum and simply adopt a stance. After
all, at the end of the day that is what the
gallery space is best suited to. [...]
Cover of the book SSSSSS (2014)
Includes six chapters by Jan Zálešák.
Graphic design by Parallel Practice.
Published by Fait Gallery in Brno.
ISBN: 978-80-260-5844-1
Let us imagine 24/7 capitalism as
a current that erodes, gathers, and
carries everything with it. There is no
longer any autonomous space, no exterior. By current, I have in mind a stream
of water, some kind of liquid, though
this image is somewhat misleading.
A liquid can be easily directed, and
a current flows through some kind of
channel where we can control its direction and intensity (at least in most situations). As regards the situation in which
we find ourselves today, it is more
apposite to imagine a current of air.
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Stream (2014)
Graphite on archival paper (220×120)
Installation view from Uninvited Guest (2012)
at Center for Contemporary Art Futura, Prague
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Doubles (2012)
Installation; bent glass, screenprint, metal tripods
Alpha Shapes Omega (2012)
Slideshow of various lamp shades
DVD PAL, mute (2:24’)
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Doubles (2012)
Installation; bent glass, screenprint,
metal tripods
Installation view of Uninvited Guest
at Futura, Prague
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Overprints (2012)
Posters; screenprint (100×70)
Installation view at Futura, Prague
After KOLM (2011)
Photography, c—print (100×70)
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After KOLM (2011)
Photography, c-print (100×70)
Uninvited Guest (2010—2012)
Consists of the book, replicas of the bent
glass lamp shades, silkscreen posters,
various documentation.
The second part of the Uninvited Guest
project is both: the material development
as well as the synthesis of the previous
publication setting a theoretical & historical
base around the “brussels” lights from
the closed Rapotín glass—factory with
the previous exhibition (in Brno, 2011),
in order to visually comment on the
glass—bowls’ disappearance within the
90s economical transformation and their
re—discovery through the retrospective
tendencies in the field of interior design.
The expected step from Jan Brož would
be the creation of exemplary “relational
art”, focusing on the utopian aspect of the
bent bedroom bowls’ short production
in the conditions of the former factory in
collaboration with former employees. Rather,
the artist did a certain semantic “bend”
and submitted the production and the
manner of their installation to pondering the
actual status of the chandeliers in the terms
of their re—production and incorporation to
the artistic process. Thus these lamp shades
are not presented as the applied products,
but rather shown as an art—objects. This is
underlined by the change of the glass bowls’
colour schemes (black instead of white
background etc.) and hence made adversely
to their original purpose as a light unit.
However, despite the missing of KOLM
(carousel bender of bedroom bowls) — sold as
scrap metal – there came the new production
of imperfect and more complex chandeliers that
we still perceive as replicas, which is supported
by the patterns printed from the original
lightened screens. Besides these “replicas” we
find the real historical artifact in the exposition,
the factory glass workers labour union Flag.
The German version of the slogan “Glass
workers of the world, unite! Est. 1918.” on the
one side had been ripped out by the unknown
“activist” in the end of WWII. The Czech version
remained only while the first experiments
with glass bends at Rapotín were started by
the german engineer (Emil Schindler in 1949).
The Flag becomes a hardly—believed stage prop
next to the seemingly—real chandeliers. The
installation is completed by the video sequence
of various silhouettes of the black & white lamp
shapes. “Kidney—like” curved shapes are the
result of the decline of abstract art in 60s and
70s, and are nowadays recognizable once more.
The Uninvited Guest project points to how
the perception of certain visual language
radically changes over periods of time. It
delineates how subordinated we are to the
times, and how reality from today’s view
might be fictional versus how contemporary
fictions about the past can become real. The
process of abstracting/decontextualizating
this language reveals the significant contours
not only graphic but also ideologic.
Synopsis by Michal Novotný
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The Cover of the book Uninvited Guest (2011)
Includes essays by J. Zálešák, J. Wollner and me.
Graphic design in collaboration with Mütanta.
Published by Ausdruck Books in Prague.
ISBN: 978-80-87108-25-3
The Flag (1918, German claim ripped out 1945)
Embroidery, fabric, pike
Borrowed from the deposite of Regional
Museum of Šumperk.
The Course of Autumn (2012)
White neon, plexiglass (100×100)
Installation view At The End Of The Universe
at Berlinskej Model, Prague
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2
Abracadabra (2011—future)
Series of drawings (49×35)
Abracadabra is an open series of drawings, intended to develop continuously.
Each of the drawings has its own micro
narrative. Although they do not neccesarily
form a sequential narrative, the works as
a whole take part in an ongoing commentary and discourse. Many compositions
in the series rely on an accurate transfer
of shape and size (similar to photogram)
by drawing. Other pieces include the manipulation and subsequent redistribution
of existing cultural products (for example
Dove of Peace by Pablo Picasso from
1961) or simple ideological transcript (as
in Words as the Worlds or Despite All the
Bad Politics).
While working on this series I realized the
possibilities of drawing as a direct medium
— the intention is recorded through hand
directly onto the surface of the paper.
1
2
3
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When Words Become Worlds
Abracadabra
Lorem Ipsum
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5
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7
8
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5
6
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On Distribution (2011)
Xerox, 16pgs booklet (A5)
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Despite All the Bad Politics
Diagonal Dove
Gala
Blind Map
Envelopes
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11
9
12
On Distribution 2 (2013)
Xerox, 16pgs booklet (A5)
9 Composition of Cash
10—13 Skypecall #1—4
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13
Jan Brož
03/1988
Studies:
Since 2013 PhD researcher @ UMPRUM Prague
with a thesis Parallel Practice examining the relations
between contemporary art and graphic design.
2007—2013 Academy of Fine Arts in Prague
(Graduated @ Vladimír Skrepl & Jiří Kovanda's)
2012 The Cooper Union, School od Art, New York
2010 Hochschule für Gestaltung, Karlsruhe
10/2013 Founded experimental graphic studio
Parallel Practice (PP) with designer Michal Landa.
Selected Solos:
11/2014 P–I–P–E–D, Triangle Arts, New York
Curated by Laurel Ptak.
08/2014 RNRNRN (w/ Richard Nikl), AM180, Prague
Started to collaborate w/ Nikl. Curated by Jiří Maha.
03/2014 SSSSSS, Fait Gallery MEM, Brno
Curated by Jan Zálešák (book).
01/2013 Uninvited Guest, Futura, Prague
Curated by Michal Novotný (book).
02/2012 The Halo, HIT Gallery, Bratislava
Curated by Jaro Varga & Dora Kendera (booklet).
Selected Groupies:
05/2015 FOMO, Syntax, Lisbon
Curated by Markéta Stará.
01/2015 Typografie, Goethe Institut, Rotterdam
Curated by Michal Novotný.
12/2014 Millésime, New Pictures, Paris
Curated by Haydée Marin–Lopez.
06/2014 26th Biennale of Graphic Design,
Moravian Gallery, Brno (book)
05/2014 Things, DesignCloud, Chicago
Curated by Michal Novotný.
03/2014 Wondering Paths, Revolvér, Lisboa
Curated by Markéta Stará.
10/2012 Discovery of the Slowness, Tranzit, Bratislava
Curated by Jaro Varga & Dora Kendera.
Misc:
04/2015 Telepathy or Esperanto ?, Futura, Prague
Organized groupie (booklet)
12/2014 Second Nature,
(w/ Pavel Sterec, Michal Landa (PP) and Jan Horčík)
Book was published by UMPRUM in Prague.
Parallel Practice feat. Pavel Sterec:
The Future Will Be Boring If CV Is Too Long (2013)
Contribution to the book Is The Future Boring ?
Edited by Jaro Varga & Dora Kendera
Published by Galeria HIT, Bratislava
(3D illustration on a double side)
Residencies:
09/2014—11/2014 Triangle Arts Association, New York
09/2013—09/2014 Tonlab Atelier, Prague
Contact:
(+420) 736 432 875
[email protected]
www.janbroz.cz
On reputation economy thus the capitalization
of good names proven by the links with other good
names might become such a boring phenomenon that
inevitably leads us to ask a question: Nowadays does
any art exist outside of a CV (?). Our unstructured
biographies are textured on the athletic prosthesis.
Studio:
Straciatella
U smaltovny 13,
Prague (7)
Please email me for more information or projects.
This portfolio has been updated on 05/2015.
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