Residency of Trojan Tactics (TT) art collective
TT collective operated on a ground of a large former commercial store, currently INI Project and AM180 gallery, during a month of July and August 2020 as a 'Toulouse - Prague - Berlin - Tiraspol - Seoul Cultural Embassy’. Additionally to a mediated international exchange and a laboratory concept of the gallery space, an aim of the residency was to create a shared office for interaction. Among many, several topics were most palpable.
Thanks to large showcases a main exhibition area was a living stage for artistic practices that extended beyond traditional gallery formats, diagrams of activities reflected upon a constantly changing environments of a main street right in front of the gallery, and windows became surfaces for communication. Interests of all actors were mutual, outside actions came to be sources for discussions and graphic materials, inside artistic happenings were introduced to public with a tranquility for an acknowledged exchange. Space served as a factory for art production, a workshop for welding, a laboratory for castings of epoxide, a hub for social interactions, a virtual office and a documentation centre. Our goal was to create an open studio based on a <<3rd Space>>, a sociological term describing a space "in-between", nor public or private, where visitors are not tied down to the area financially, politically, legally, or otherwise and are free to come and go as they please. The venue was opened to everyone with whom particles of a shared reality could be investigated with a possibility of a progression into a common understanding.
In the midst of a world pandemic, rituals and routines were most questioned. Collective TT functioned on daily securities of a coffee consumption and rather small production steps in a line of succession. Micro and macro environments were observed and interpreted in imaginary relations and art works were fabricated with a knowledge of temporality.
At the beginning a chaotic place with occupied working tables, at the end an exhibition and three public events. Achievements are always hard to judge, what remains is a precarious artist work, satirical language, maps of bike rides, new contacts and much more.
Outcomes:
“Bublina” publication Viktor Vejvoda & Thermal House
This publication contents diagrams and observations of my surroundings. Phenomena I live in or think about. A booklet was created during a residency of Trojan Tactics in INI Project gallery, July 2020. Published on recycled printer with a folding unit.
“Corona Cocktail” exhibition & Trojan Tactics open studio, 9th July, 2020
Corona Cocktail reflected upon a current global crises and brought together artworks, which presented different layers of a pandemic experience. Artists from various corners of a world shared personal expressions and collected materials of our physical and online realities. Exhibition questioned new behaviours and pointed out structural problems we face.
Participating artists: Melanie Garland, Gemini Kim & Jaemin Paik & Cholhee Han, Ki Hyun Park, Sébastien Mazauric, Jakub Valenta, Viktor Vejvoda.
“reverse mantra” & Trojan Tactics open studio, 29th July, 2020
reverse mantra project presented a release party of a holographic vinyl designed by Gabriela Těthalová. Name refers to sound and repetition ― «mantra» as a song or a poem and a meditative state of mind in a painting process, «reverse» ties to a point where an order is disrupted to create something new and unpredictable. Single track was composed by Pia Achternkamp based on mutual improvised sessions.
Trojan Tactics open studio presented Samizdat Publishing outputs, Indoor Laser▧Graphite Constellation and Cardamom Street Coffee Bar, 12cm Deep.
“Kim Gemini and his friends” at AM 180 gallery, 14th August, 2020
Presentation of “Bublina” publication by Viktor Vejvoda & Thermal House
Introduction to Tessellation.space, an online application created by Sébastien Mazauric and Jakub Valenta. A tessellation is a space covering technique using combinatory shapes aka tiling. Unlike simple tessellation systems, tessellation.space allows its users to create rules for combinations, hence providing the instant creation of a large amount of patterns using a very limited graphical input. Beside its playfulness and numerous design applications, the ideas leading to its creation bring a different point of view to city planning or even human relations, offering a more organic vision for connections in times of tragically absurd polarisations.
Residency was financially supported by the Czech Ministry of Culture, the State Cultural Fund and a grant from the City of Prague.
Photos: Lenka Glisníková, Adéla Waldhauserová