ARTIST STATEMENT

The pieces of works of Richard Loskot reveal intently various physical, mental and symbolic attribute of the time-space reality. To express his ideas, he is using several current technologies, which are not only used as tools – the unveiled technical aspect of his work becomes the new fully-fl edged semantic level. The range of Loskot´s production includes sound installations, different simulations of natural phenomena – whether the biological growth or sound and light space conditions, and the reflection of the achievement of civilization, as radio communication or earthly way of time measurement, seemingly indisputable. In spite of this technological orientation, Richard Loskot´s installations may surprise by their aesthetic intuition and premeditated work with the particular space, its impact on the senses is somewhere between sci-fi and thoughtful metaphysics. 

BIOGRAPHY

(De)Mythologizing the Art World

Richard Loskot’s portfolio opens up with two short films Breathing (2003) and Path (2005) and a comic moving sound object Float (2006) dealing with the theme of engaged art. Though there are no more films, videos and works containing the element of engaged art in his later works, these primarily prove the young artist’s skill in employing various media while outlining the basic features of his creative approach; stage-managed atmosphere and use of technologies which is both open and detached.

After his introduction to electronics, Loskot comes up with a more sophisticated interconnection of diverse elements. Located within a junction exchange station, Zoological Garden (2006) represents an interconnection of systems of small components overgrowing one of the walls and creating a single object. For his installation The System (2007), which represents an elaboration of the “electro-Zoo”, he received the Exit Award in an art school student competition. He has placed his moving installation Mechanical Growth (2007) in a greenhouse; a glass booth of the 36 Gallery at the Flora exhibition site in Olomouc. By means of strings, ribbons, motors and a computer, he simulated the constantly repeating growth of straws. This artwork already represents the artist’s notion of natural technology. With his fine electronics, he has also entered the public space. In his works Primeval Forest and Vogel (Open 2007), he has created interactive electronic complements in the treetops.

Just before starting to use the gallery space for his experimental atmospheric stage-managed installations, Loskot attracted attention with his simple installation Sky Europe (2009); a hand-made receiver randomly receiving fragments of dialogues between control towers and pilots of airplanes flying several kilometres above the gallery. In this simple way, the visitors of Gallery 207 were exposed to an inappropriate communication situation while the artist had to face their questions regarding authorship and artistic invention.

Parallelly with his realizations for the theatre; he has co-operated e.g. with Michal Pěchouček on the theatre performance The Sabre (2010) and other art shows and festivals (Designblok, Next Wave, PAF, The Art of Urban Intervention, Summer Film School); he has also worked on solo exhibitions. He conceives the gallery space as a scene for various natural processes which he, at first glance, “merely” demonstrates to the spectators; these include transformations of light in the course of the day in his installation Asynchronisation (2010) or the sound space composition Action of Invisibility (2010) in which he makes use of the differing intensity of radio waves in the gallery building.

Later, however, he dares to interpret essential physical processes transcending both the gallery and everydayness; the movement of the Sun and the change of the temperature of light during the day in The Point of Things (2011). His work Simple Thing (2012) represents a simple introduction to the principle of optics while his installation in the neological synagogue in Žilina (2012) deals with the vertical circulation of light and rhythmical time. In his work Logging the Present (2012) made for the international Remake exhibition, he alludes to the works by significant Polish author of concrete poetry Stanisław Dróżdż (1939–2009). Loskot’s remake of his work Untitled (Clocks) from 1978 represents a hyperbolical presentation of various models of time measurement while the fascinated spectator becomes part of the image which only has an impermanent form.

Richard Loskot belongs to the generation of media artists (such as Michal Cáb, Michal Kindernay, Stanislav Abrhám) who, by means of a concentrated focus on technologies, their deconstruction and frequently direct criticism, are mapping the environment and the systems they have created or become part of themselves. Due to that, they can easily arrive at a creative description as well as criticism of art production and even contemporary society. Technology, though essential and exposed, does not represent the main aspect of their artworks. These deal with themes that transcend us. That definitely is a positive discovery regarding the state and vitality of this very art scene and, in the end, the local media art as such.

Barbora Šedivá