To understand the context of Jakub Jansa's work, it is worth mentioning his former experience of professional athletics, thanks to which he had to learn to work with physical and mental self-control - the motives that are appearing in his later artistic work. Jansas' creative approach is also characterized by a collaboration with many other figures (not only) of Czech art, and he also appears in various cultural roles, such as exhibition architect, curator or academic teacher.

He has studied in a legendary Federíco Díaz ‘s Supermedia studio (which no longer exists) at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague.

His last extensive project The Club of Opportunities was launched in Prague, and the next chapters were presented, for example, at the Athens Biennale, Greece (2018), at CEAAC in Strasbourg, France (2018), at PAF Pioneer Works in New York, USA (2018) and at HEK, Basel, Swiss (2019). For the past two years he have been the head of the studio of Temporary Arts at Film Faculty at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. He curated a series of exhibitions for the Czech Centre in New York (2016-17) and initiated collective project at Ausstellungsraum Klingental, Basel (2015-17). He currently runs a performance studio with a French artist Julie Béna at FAVU, Faculty of fine arts in Brno.

After several projects dealing with the topics of instant social relations, manipulation and self-development, Jansa’s current ongoing project Club of Opportunities reflects on the strategies of dark-side influencers, and poses questions of hierarchical relationships and authority. The Club (ongoing, 6 episodes) takes the form of a real-time epic by capturing the voices of engaging storytellers. It features the perspective of generally unassuming entities, such as a celery root, by giving them personality and voice. This complex story, developed through videos and multimedia installations, creates the universe of The Club. It draws from everyday culture in today‘s globalized world.

As a whole, the narrative grows organically and is reminiscent of a typical TV series. Each episode (i.e. exhibition) introduces new characters and plot twists. Each exhibition creates an environment with hidden inner dramaturgy, bringing the viewer into a playful field, full of straightforward emotions, absurd connections, subversive moves, and with the end running into the gentle mist. Unlike in films, I do not rely only on the one-dimensionality of screens. Instead, the narrative is gradually revealed through video, various objects, and ongoing live action.

Prior to Club of Opportunities, Jansa drew the most attention to his dissertation Spiritual Fitness (2016 -), where he used communication strategies and clichés of motivational tutorials for better personal productivity, balancing on the border between the self-ironic stylization of a guru of a parareligious sect and a sophisticated cult of personality and its own creative branding. Spiritual Fitness as a complex project in a number of exhibition forms or a narrative told by the avatar of a spiritual sorcerer who offers instant solutions to everything should be seen as a message about life in an environment where even religion exists as a product.

Jansas' interest in manipulation has shifted from Spiritual Fitness to the subliminal instrument in the Club of Opportunities, which is available to celery or commentator Kamil Nábělek, and easily distracted by an inattentive viewer. However, both series remain based on a sophisticated approach to (non)gallery presentation and transfer of individual elements and meanings, whether it be the corporate world (minimalist shelves or start-up aesthetics of the John Reed fitness center at the Britannica Bootcamp exhibition (Strasbourg, 2018)) with identity in the digital society of late capitalism.

Jakub Jansa has collaborated on Club with cinematographers Kryštof Hlůže and Kryštof Melka, philosopher Kamil Nábělek, performers Jan Kostiha, Patrik Petr and Ester Geislerová. The second episode “April showers bring May flowers” created together with artist and fashion designer Karolína Juříková.

Text by Tina Poliačková, Art&Antique 06/19