Brno Museum Night 2021 in House of Arts Brno

HOUSE OF ARTS BRNO

18:00—24:00 Jaromír Novotný: Other Things held Constant
Curator: Marika Svobodová
The exhibition of the paintings of Jaromír Novotný will present a selection from the contemporary and earlier creations by the artist. Through minute shifts in abstract monochrome painting his cycles capture a number of themes with the common denominator of examining the fundamental phenomena of a painting. An elementary study of the surface, paint, space, shape, gesture or outline rendered with austere means of painting and non-painting in Novotný’s works carries, simultaneously, an aspect of physicality and an almost existential statement. The intuitive, organic incrementation of the painting by adding or inserting pieces of canvas by sewing, together with the visible seams and pleats, reveals a work in the process of making with its haptic properties and imperfections, thus evoking a physical experience. Reduction, transparency and colour as other important components of paintings lead our attention towards our own way of seeing and an ability to perceive and learn about the world through our senses. Novotný’s oeuvre is loosely connected with cognition theory, specifically with the philosophy of Merleau-Ponty called the phenomenology of perception (corporeity). According to this philosophy the world and things are revealed to us ‘by themselves’ and we perceive them via our senses, through our own body.

18:00—24:00 Anna Hulačová: Eating Planet
Curator: Marika Svobodová
The exhibition will showcase the latest works by the sculptor Anna Hulačová, who traditionally approaches her projects as complex installations for the specific exhibition space. For the Procházka Room of the Brno House of Arts she created a group of loosely composed concrete figurative sculptures thematising the motif of collaboration between man and technology, in particular agricultural and various other machines. Compared to her previous work where she was mainly concerned with the subject of collectivisation in relatively recent Czech history, in this case she examines the relationship at a more general level, balancing the utopian vision of a harmonious co-existence of nature and industry with the current situation of a world on the brink of dystopia. References to cultural history, be it ancient tradition, folklore motifs, art brut or inter-war modernism, particularly works by Otto Gutfreund and Ladislav Zívr, constitute the artist’s favourite repertory and form the reference points which enable us to reflect upon our present time. Hulačová's figurative sculptural work, emphasising the properties of the material employed, whether it is concrete, wood or wax, is an example that a traditional sculptural format can speak the language of contemporary art and express through it topical social issues.

18:00—24:00 Bohuslava Olešová: A Thirst For The Infinite
​​​​​​Curator: Jana Vránová
The work of Bohuslava Olešová, embracing paintings, spatial installations, site-specific projects and actions is multi-faceted and highly creative, yet compact. It contains several positions which are interrelated and are based on ideologically consistent artistic principles. Olešová creates loose sequences of cycles. The nature of the visual means applied is not just aesthetically significant, but is indicative of the determinants that delimit and impact human life, which we have to abide by and respect. She uses painting as a vehicle to penetrate the very essence of life and the actions that we are part of, she studies the relationships between life on earth, the energies and the position of man in cosmos, man as a unique individuality dependent on the space and time in which one exists. Her work grows from intersecting ideas and beliefs regarding the meaning and values of human life, and knowledge from various scientific disciplines. It can be equally perceived as a meditation on the position of man in the contemporary world and the universe.Painting is a reflection of the artist’s opinions and convictions concerning the meaning and values of human life, while her philosophical and literary contexts suggest a simile related to experiences and cognition, and an imprint of the subconscious.
Works by Bohuslava Olešová radiate an energy that the artist considers one of the prime movers affecting human life. The colourful palette of her paintings and drawings often has both a visual impact and, perhaps more importantly, symbolic significance.

18:00—21:00 Self-service educational sheets on the history of the House of Arts Brno
only in Czech

18:00—19:00 Commented tour of the current exhibitions
only in Czech

HOUSE OF THE LORDS OF KUNŠTÁT

18:00—24:00 RE_PREZENTATION 2021
Exhibition of master's degree works of the FFA / Organizer: Faculty of Fine Arts – Brno University of Technology
Curators: Svätopluk Mikyta, Luděk Rathouský
Representation is a concept of the theory of signs. Put simply, it is a relation between two entities - the one that represents, i.e. the representing one, and the one that is represented. It is common to see works of art as signs the meanings of which are subject to an interpretation. If the works of art did not represent anything, it would not be possible to interpret them, they would be about nothing, they would be empty, uninteresting. The starting point for our participation in this year's exhibition of the FFA graduates is the fact that it is a well-established exhibition of all degree works originated in the given year on the premises of the Faculty. We do not have an ambition to evaluate individual works or regroup them into new categories and give them a thematic coverage. The range of individual departments represented by their studio affiliation and by diversity of their approaches with an emphasis on freedom of expression also predicts the freedom of presentation of these last study works.

18:00—21:00 Self-service educational sheet on the object Gonflable by Hans Kupelwieser

18:00—24:00 The program for the exhibition RE_PREZENTATION 2021

VAŠULKA KITCHEN BRNO

18:00-24:00 Current exhibition

A new selection of Woody Vasulka's digital prints from his 1977-2003 Lucifer Commission series, in which the artist recorded scans of computer circuit boards found in various stages of destruction in a warehouse in the backyard of his Santa Fe home. The hardware prints can be read as diagrams depicting the hidden and autonomous workings of the machines that fascinated the Vasulkas both.

The Vasulkas' unique audio-visual installation, Light Revisited - Noisfields, will also be on view again after an extended period of time. The video-environment, created by projecting pulsating circles formed by electronic signals onto the walls of the room, is Woody's 3D transformation of the 1974 collaborative video Noisefields. Noisefields records the birth of a video-image from an electronic signal, it is electronic visual music and a sounding image at the same time.

The electronic image consists of two parts - a circle in the centre and a background filling the rest of the screen. The two components of the image constantly pulse in sync with the sound generated by the activity of the electronic device. One of the parts always displays pulsating colour and the other the rough, unstructured material of the video - the 'video noise'.

18:00-24:00 Presentation of outputs from international online workshops

VECTOR SYNTHESIS led by Derek Holzer - participants explored the relationship between sound and image. The result is projections of digital artworks created with contemporary computer graphics, but also with contemporary laser imaging techniques. The workshop was inspired by the artwork of artists such as Mary Ellen Bute, Nam June Paik, Stein and Woody Vasulka, and Gary Hill.

DATA ORCHESTRA led by Jiří Suchánek - the workshop introduced participants to the principles of sonification and their use in their work, creating their own datasets and then algorithms converting selected datasets into sound structures in Max/msp environments. During Brno Museum Night, sound performances by participants will be presented.

18:00—24:00 Interactive mobile application by Petr Svárovský and KKRD Boys for Brno