Barbora Fastrová
In My Country... - Jun 12 - Jul 11, 2015
Recently a friend told me that lately she was feeling confused because she was struggling, wondering if the universe or world we live in is a safe place. Is it a place that cares, a place that looks out for our best interests and cradles us? I was bewildered by this question, because I have always thought that the world is indifferent to us.This is the kind of world we live in, is it not? I don’t feel cradled.
Fastrova’s exhibition In My Country, developed for Fotograf Gallery, ignites my lingering feelings, as with her prehistoric crabs, much like something I might have found walking around the artificial lagoon, clutching on to the detritus and leftovers of iPhones and tablets, partially destroyed yet still identifiable. We have separated ourselves from the world. Nature and animals are used like any other production model. When humankind has either been uploaded to artificial intelligence or destroyed itself, this is what will be left – symbols of what we considered progress.
Fastrova’s large metal plates with partially leftover song lyrics intensify this impression, until the artist points out that the letters can be moved around like magnets or refrigerator, and that visitors have changed them throughout the exhibition. Her animated video of an airplane plummeting downwards also does not end in disaster, but instead morphs into a seal when it hits the ground, winking mischievously. Perhaps, despite our attempts at prediction and defeated cynicism, history has not already been written for us. Niklas Luhmann wrote that art has the ability to produce anticipatory signals in social evolution because of its ability to break with the past, to create discontinuity. Fastrova’s focus on connecting folktales and half-truthed myths with contemporary issues is at its apex in In My Country, showing us that the most important thing about a story is that we can still contribute to the ending.
#28 cultura / natura
Content
- ––– Project
- Disruptors of Social Stomach
- ––– Profiles
- Barbora Fastrová
- Ferdinand Bučina
- Josef Václav Staněk
- Peter Bartoš
- Asunción Molinos Gordo
- Michal Kern
- Bill McDowell
- Martin and Osa Johnson
- Petr Košárek
- Lukáš Kubec
- Adam Vačkář
- Pavel Sterec
- Simone Nieweg
- Jakub Skokan & Martin Tůma
- Claudiu Cobilanschi
- From the Ralsko Project
- ––– Interview
- Philippe Descola interviewed by Mariana Serranová
- ––– Discoveries
- Tricia Gahagan
- Jason Larkin
- Beatrix Reinhardt
- ––– Theory
- Modes of Seeing, Modes of Figuration
- Epilogue: The Spectrum of Possibilities
- ––– Events
- Obituary: Adam Holý
- 47the Edition of Arles Photography Festival
- Fotofestival Zingst
- ––– Fotograf Gallery
- Jan Nálevka
- Tereza Kabůrková
- ––– Reviews
- Miloš Spurný: The Czech-Moravian Highlands
- And the mysterious magic of the photographer's work does not consist in the red glow of the darkroom,
- Documentary in the Expanded Field
- Geoffrey Batchen: Emanations/ The Art of the Cameraless Photograph
- Josef Sudek as a Mannerist
- Elemental - Folk Art, Folk Politics
Archive
- #35 living with humans
- #34 archaeology of euphoria
- #33 investigation
- #32 Non-work
- #31 Body
- #30 Eye In The Sky
- #29 Contemplation
- #28 Cultura / Natura
- #27 Cars
- #26 Documentary Strategies
- #25 Popular Music
- #24 Seeing Is Believing
- #23 Artificial Worlds
- #22 Image and Text
- #21 On Photography
- #20 Public Art
- #19 Film
- #18 80'
- #17 Amateur Photography
- #16 Photography and Painting
- #15 Prague
- #14 Commerce
- #13 Family
- #12 Reconstruction
- #11 Performance
- #10 Eroticon
- #9 Architecture
- #8 Landscape
- #7 New Staged Photography
- #6 The Recycle Image
- #5 Borders Of Documentary
- #4 Intimacy
- #3 Transforming Of Symbol
- #2 Collective Authorship
- #1 Face