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I Don‘t Understand Graffiti
Public intervention, prints, various dimension
16.6. - 30.7. 2023
Nástupište 1/12, Topolčany, SK
Artist: Tomáš Moravanský
Curator: Jiří Ptáček
The author‘s expressed misunderstanding of graffiti can be considered completely irrelevant. It carries no more weight than the opinion of the next guy. It cannot even be said unequivocally to be true. Perhaps Tomáš Moravanský understands graffiti too well and that is why he expresses himself in this way. Even though he may tell you otherwise. After all, the exhibition got its title only after he firmly decided to place a set of reproductions of classic portraits in the environment of Platform 1-12.
Moravansky‘s picture gallery offers a range of possible readings, and the artist‘s aim is that each of them should, after a certain amount of time, come across an unfinished line or paragraph. It comes across as an art museum in an unexpected, probably wrong place, or a closed antique shop, probably also located where business doesn‘t flourish. It turns attention to the individuals depicted as members of the privileged classes and to the status role of art. It is a gesture of placing so-called „high art“ in an „underground“ context. But it can also lead us to explore the network of information contained within the presented configuration of images: their positions within the whole, or perhaps the distortions of individual images. Exploration of any of these levels, however, is unlikely to lead to a more satisfying understanding than an awareness of the spectrality of the appearance of this kind of art here, in this place, under these conditions. A species actually invasive, brought in from somewhere to cause disruption here. And try to imagine that it can only be (an attempt at) a joke.
Causing phantoms, i.e. phenomena that do not correspond to the assumptions of a given slice of reality, can be found both in the work of Tomáš Moravanský and in the performances of the INSTITUT INSTITUT collective, of which he is a part. They are reactions to the accretions of cultural stereotypes, which do not avoid everyday life, nor pop culture and art. Their performances are characterized by a movement between horror and comedy - so inherent in all B-grade production. This is also reflected in the audio recording, which Moravanský transferred to the speakers in the underpass, recording 24 hours of sounds from the same place. That alone would be enough to give us a slightly paranoid feeling that we are occasionally haunted by the ghosts of local teenagers. But Moravansky needs to go a bit over the top here as well, and so he has supplemented the recording with sound sequences that can either be laughed at or, on the contrary, run away from.
The realization of the project from public funds in the form of a scholarship was supported by the Art Support Fund.
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