TOMÁŠ MORAVANSKÝ

WE DON'T CARE (JE NÁM TO UKRADNUTÉ)

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Public announcement series at Važec, Slovakia, 2020

11.6. - 27.6. 2021
The Art of Appreciating, Modern Gallery AVU, Prague, CZ

Artist: Tomáš Moravanský

This intervention in public space took the form of an announcement series, and it was created during the 12-day-long symposium DOM (12th – 23rd August 2020) in the town of Važec in Slovakia.

The interventions included a local radio announcement of an open contest for the most interesting short story or poem with a set subject: We Don‘t Care. For the announcement series, I wrote a text, sent it to the local municipal authority, and let the administrative personnel read it, just as they read common announcements for the entire town on a daily basis except on Sundays (such as obituaries or information about the local market).

The video can be seen as a satirical report on the passivity of citizens, but at the time its message was intended as an institutional critique in the form of an ironic mockumentary on the nature of the symposium itself - to which the author was invited. The intervention can be understood as a pragmatic use of the language of narcissistic self-deprecation and grammatical humour as a tool to create critical reflection, both of which the author has typically employed in his work in the past.

Note: On the second-last day, the radio plays my composition “Vata” before the announcement, which was granted to the public radio repertoire by me.

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