[spectre] Fwd: panel discussion Not for Sale / Sold Out, 16 Sept 2023, Olomouc/CZ

[Andreas Broeckmann]

-------- Weitergeleitete Nachricht --------
Betreff: 	Invitation to a panel discussion Not for Sale / Sold Out
Datum: 	Fri, 14 Jul 2023 15:31:46 +0000
Von: 	Frank Jakub <frank at muo.cz>

open panel discussion

Not for Sale / Sold Out. Artist-run initiatives of the 1990s in and 
beyond Central Europe

16 September 2023 at Olomouc Museum of Art

https://www.muo.cz/archiv-hermit--4468/


Flashback: Hermit 1992–1999

04 05 - 17 09 2023
Museum of Modern Art: Salon, Cabinet

At the beginning of the nineties it was a revelation. Since 1992, 
artists from Western Europe, the United States, Asia, Australia and 
Africa have been coming to the Baroque Cistercian monastery in Plasy in 
the Pilsen region for Hermit art symposia and festivals. The archive 
from these events, which includes publications, texts, photographs, 
sound recordings, videos and links to parallel activities in Europe, was 
received by the Olomouc Museum of Art in 2019 and is now presented in 
the new exhibition FLASHBACK: Hermit 1992-1999.

"Working with the archive allows for a specific way of storytelling. It 
builds on individuals that are not very telling on their own, but in 
context can be made into a plastic whole," says curator Jakub Frank. The 
exhibition from the Hermit Foundation archive and the Centre for 
Metamedia Plasy, which summarises the eight-year history of symposia, 
residencies, concerts and exhibitions at the Plasy Monastery, is based 
on a selection of these individuals - flashbacks, sudden, clear and 
powerful memories that evoke a sense of reliving a past experience. 
"This creates a mosaic that aims to convey the unity of place and time," 
adds Jakub Frank.

The archival part of the exhibition, presented in the exhibition hall 
Kabinet, presents Hermit through archival materials, photographs, video 
documents, sound recordings and original works that were created or 
exhibited in Plasy. "The photographic exhibition 9&9, which took place 
in Plasy in 1981 and became an inspiration for Hermit, also has its 
place here," explains Miloš Vojtěchovský, co-author of the exhibition 
and main organiser of the symposium.

The second part of the exhibition is in the Salon, where two works by 
artists who participated in the symposia in Plasy and are now preparing 
works that build on their work there will be presented in turn. The 
first is the interactive sound installation Trans(port)(l)ation by Dutch 
artists Mario van Horrik and Petra Dubach, which, among other things, 
sets to music the timetables of Olomoucs means of transport, and this 
will be followed in July by the audiovisual environment O-neighbourhood, 
which will be created during a performance by Petr Nikl and Ondřej Smeykal.

The events that took place between 1992-1999 in Plasy, West Bohemia, 
have not yet been comprehensively treated in a professional manner, and 
their impact is thus more on the level of professional consensus and 
contemporary sentiment. Nevertheless, they are an important testimony to 
the international artistic and non-institutional exhibition activity in 
the 1990s in the Czech Republic.

ROOTS, DEVELOPMENT AND DEMISE

Hermit was founded as an informal organisation in 1992 by Miloš 
Vojtěchovský and the Friends of Art Society Plasy. In the following 
years, under its banner, they organised nine symposia, residencies and 
exhibitions, which were attended by nearly five hundred artists from all 
over the world.

In 1996, Hermit received a grant from the Pro Helvetia Foundation, which 
enabled the establishment of the Centre for Metamedia Plasy - an 
institution that was intended to provide a base and focus in Plasy for 
artistic activities that were marginalised by traditional exhibition 
institutions, while serving as an important node in a network of 
similarly focused organisations in Europe and worldwide. The Hermit 
Foundation and the Centre for Metamedia aimed to contribute to the 
connection of contemporary Czech art to the international artistic 
context and to present contemporary forms of art across categories and 
genres. Visual art was quite naturally presented in the context of 
contemporary music and performing and scenic forms. The artistic 
realisations that emerged on the site were united by ephemerality and 
therefore respect for local history and architecture. It was the first 
time that new media and sound works or contemporary experimental music 
were presented in such a concentration. A key effect of Hermit was the 
informal network of relationships between artists, curators and 
theorists, as well as ordinary visitors, that emerged on the spot and 
from which the participants at the time still draw today.

The activities of Hermit and the Centre were discontinued in the early 
2000s due to the exhaustion of the organisers. This was also influenced 
by unsuccessful negotiations with the administration of the monastery 
and the Heritage Institute about the conditions of use of the premises.

PUBLICATIONS

The exhibition will be accompanied by a publication of the same name, 
presenting the atmosphere of the events that took place in Plasy and 
what remains of them today. Over forty authors have contributed to the 
publication and it contains expert and summarizing texts by art 
historians, as well as memories of artists and organizers and rich 
photographic documentation. The launch of Flashback: Hermit 1992-1999 is 
scheduled for Thursday 15 June and will be accompanied by a concert by 
Irena and Vojtěch Havel.

Machine translated

EXHIBITION CURATORS: Miloš Vojtěchovský, Jakub Frank