ARTIST STATEMENT

Written by Jan Zálešák

Through their practice, Jan Brož and Richard Nikl dust off the words “work”, “craft” and “performance”, which do not enjoy a good reputation in our artistic environment. We do not like geeks; for us, diligence smacks of conformity and insufficient critical distance. Indeed, we fondly recall Mladen Stilinović, who elevated idleness to a supreme creative act. The two artists’ works are thus all the more deserving of attention. While they accept the neoliberal doctrine, represented in the cultural sphere by the refrain “Publish or perish!”, they are extremely sensitive to the material conditions in which the current (artistic) production cycle operates. The two artists’ intensive collaboration which began last year is close to the present current of thought in accelerationism. They do not place themselves a priori in opposition to the realities of late capitalism; rather, they let themselves be devoured by it, so that “sources of the new style” will be emerge in its entrails.

The basis of their objects and installations is a modular system formed from tubes of cardboard and PVC, plastic tape and the waste that is created during the production of a large-format advertisement. They thus update the aesthetics of artistic tinkering and their predilection for DIY, typical of the Czech “inconspicuous tendency” of the start of the millennium. In contrast to their predecessors, however, they do not use this approach to define themselves vis-à-vis the large shiny objects of Western artistic practice. They do not start from a position of cultural specificity, but rather one of universalism. A basic axiom of their work is Crisis. Crisis is the great unifier, Crisis bestows universal validity upon their experience as well as our own, and it is from the bowels and undigested remnants of Crisis that the art of Jan Brož and Richard Nikl emerges.

Written by Jan Zálešák

BIOGRAPHY