Klara Plechsson

Curator: Artwise (1/11/2020)
The Artwall, Bubenské nábřeží
Pro Polky. Pro holky. Ulička hanby.
3 dny mezi natáčenim. Solidarita.
Dost malý štafle.

@strajk_kobiet @amnesty_international_polska
Photography: Hana Knizova @hana_knizova

The Artwall na Bubenském nábřeží je porpvé prodloužená až za roh, kde se právě proměnila v polskou uličku hanby. Ta jde PROTI ŠEDI svou červenorůžovou barvou, smíchanou z odstínů girl-power pink a krvavě rudé.
“Byly to divný tři dny, dost pršelo a já tam byla sama s těma heslama od OGNÓPOLSKI STRAJK KOBIET a Amnesty International Polska, ale i od jednotlivejch kamarádek Polek,” říká autorka Klára Plechsson.
“Nejde tomu jen tak přihlížet, ale vlastně musíme, proto mi přišla tahle tak trochu schovaná zeď nářků jako skutečnej otisk současný situace. Neni to žádnej projekt, jen svobodný vyjádření solidarity. Dík Ondřejovi z Artwise za důvěru – jeden den sme se náhodně potkali u zdi a další večer mi pomohl válečkovat základ nahoru dolu,” uzavírá. Jana Kománková

Artistic expression does not need to provide direct solutions in order to have a meaning. And no, I don’t think everyone is an artist and no, art can not really repair any social fracture – but it can create moments. Think awareness, discomfort, beauty? I knew there is another world vibrating quietly underneath every surface, I always had a strong calling to create a little crack into that hidden layers. Eventually, I found this one underground – in Prague underground.

Thanks to arch. Aňa Švarc and DPP (Prague Public Transit Co.), several spaces within the subway opened their sites to contemporary art. My creative concept U-mění was selected through a public open call for an artistic lease, granting me a glass-kiosk space at METRO Náměstí Republiky / Exit Masarykovo nádraží.

U-mění emerged from my questions on phenomenology of urban space: Are our cities slowly losing their memory? Places become interchangeable? Streets stop speaking? The branding, consumption, visual noise and polished surfaces designed for everything else than genuine human experience. Public space has always functioned as a place of exchange, ritual, conflict, sharing and collective memory. Every staircase quietly records traces of the people like a subconscious of the city itself. I wonder if and how art affects this process.

MATERIAL / MEDIUM  The city is a fixed structure but also a living organism – like an unstable field of psychology, memory, symbols, conflict and collective imagination. It becomes both material and medium. I was always interested in context as much as content – how meaning changes depending on where something appears, who unexpectedly encounters it, and what atmosphere already exists within a place. It just fascinates me. That’s why I love skateboarding, too! It transforms ordinary into subjective and unpredictable. It is a reinterpretation of the city – through imagination and risk. That staircase has another meaning now, in so many layers of both psychological and physical experience.

ART / ACTIVISM My understanding of socially engaged art does not place ethics above aesthetics. Activists often carry courage and critical thinking, yet the forms they use can easily become rigid, overly didactic or aesthetically lifeless. To me tension and form are equally important – because art loses its force once it becomes pure propaganda. Artistic expression has always been intertwined with social life. This connection should never erase the individuality of the artist, but reveal art’s reflective ability to exist simultaneously – as a personal experience and a collective mirror.

NOW / THEN – There is something deeply human about pop-up spaces. It exists only for a short moment. Between appearance and disappearance. A temporary intervention can sometimes feel more alive than a permanent monumental work. It comes from intuition and carries a special urgency. It mirrors the instability of the city itself. Constantly changing, rebuilding, forgetting, remembering. As we humans do.

NR7/422 – It never got a proper name, stayed NR7/422, the original designation of the premises, label attached to the keys. And the space itself was a part of the artwork. Its transparent glass walls dissolved the distance between art and ordinary life. There was no real entrance, no institutional barrier, no gallery fee, no silence expected from the viewer. No distance. People encountered it accidentally, in motion, without preparation – that very special unpredictability became essential to the project itself. The city observed the exhibition while the exhibition simultaneously observed the city! I love the symbolic of it. Nothing could fully hide inside the space and everything went into direct confrontation with everyday reality since the first installing inside: distraction, indifference, coincidence, exhaustion, curiosity. Reflections layered themselves over the artworks together with commercials and vernissages with random strangers.

PUBLIC / PERSONAL – I spent years struggling to put my own work on display (or IG), I never spoke about my “personal art projects” and feared showing my inner thoughts – so I must have found myself exposed inside this transparent public space. The collision between something deeply personal and “everyone watching” became one of the most important aspects of this entire project for me.

THEM / ME The U-MĚNÍ became U MĚ/NÍ. The name of this project was meant to say U-changes (U like underground) and the idea was to change the environment. And it became the opposite. The meaning  to “at myself, at hers” – like be my guest, in my head, at my alter ego’s place. First motivation was the environment, city, public, others – and me being the producer, the curator. After a year, the glass walls stopped being windows and started behaving like mirrors. Instead of changing the around, the project turned inward and confronted me with myself.

CLOSING UP – A week before moving to Paris, few days before returning the keys to DPP, I painted on one side: “Everything is temporary. This too.” and “You are talking a lot, but you are not saying anything.” Decided to make something last-minute myself, with the actual raw vitrine itself. I wrote and drew onto the walls, painted over them. Deep intimacy and absurdity – the final direct contact with the space itself. With the city of Prague. Afterwards, I cleaned the glass surfaces. Ending it, the name was supposed to express the closing. But the cinematic CLOSE-UP means detail, psychological proximity. Appearing superclose to the surface was my ultimate gesture.

I wanted Matyáš on the poster,
just a true punk in a real suit,

just an idea of how to present
a skateboard film festival.

Had no idea it’d become
this kind of memo(riam).
Rest in peace, Matyáš.

And I had no idea how much this would FORM me:

personally, professionally, mentally and spiritually.

Learnt my lessons hard way by producing the
ISFF in Prague – and today I wrap it up finally.

For years, I stayed far away from creating anything of my own.
Too scared to believe in my ideas and to trust my creative self.

But only because of all that can I can see my “WHY” again.

Why do I love film?

–

Big letter to little Klára

First of all hi! I think you are really cute!

But wear all the boy clothes you want, you will end up in heels and lingerie later.

You will f-around a bit until that and watch all of the bike to snb to skate videos
and that’s OK. Listening to White Album soundtrack while I am writing this, haha.

One day you will see a film. Unbeleafable 3D, in cinéma in Biarritz.

(Yes, you will live in Biarritz, baby.)

You saw Yeah Right! and the UNKLE music vid but this will be something else,

you will be forever influenced by that. You should tell Ty once! @tyevans

One day, you will meet @rodneymullen and guys from LA – Fabrice @fab_le_m
will stay in touch forever.

But first you will get masters of Bones Brigade and Waiting for lightning from
@jacobrosenberg and packages like Cherry copy from @williamstrobeck and
if you think it’s cool, you will also posses stacks of @redbull. And Jägermeister
and little fun collabs with cool people like @lifeisporno and clothing @vans and  @horsefeathers.eu, then lovebrands to you.
You will come up with a category for GoPro edits, cause “anyone can go filming”
and you will ask @fomei to make a special stand borrowing gear on the spot so
everyone can try. You will try so hard to bring your vision of this festival to life.
And you will make it. The big door of Veletržní palác will open and you will get
to sit on a morning TV show with @maximhabanec and the jury will be @karkys
@matejhomola and David Chvátal @rabbs. Look at the main visual, you did a

photoshoot with @danvojtech and @Eli, in Štvanice @mysticskatepark. Dan
will do prints for an exhibition and @basny will throw Game of skate right there.
People will skate inside the National Gallery! And the workshops and talks – like
@kubokrizo and @MatejNovak.

You will give away too many tickets for free and end up in minus and you will want to die.

Everytime you will pass by in Holešovice, you will feel the bitterness of the non-success.
For a decade. (You will live in Prague 7, too.) You will feel useless and stupid and just bad.

Nobody will lift you up, you won’t share this pain.
You will only hide and then focus on “real work”.
But that pain actually shaped you and taught you a lot.

2013: Do not think it is normal to end up in a hospital
after a production. Not cool. Stay sane. And healthy.

2014: Do not ever start a project without having fully approved budget.
Nobody will help you. Only you are responsible. Never not pay the crew.

2015: You will taste the flow of – as you call it – real jobs, making money
and big sets and you will get caught in the industry energy. In between
projects magically find time to do no budgets, you never stop trying that.
Oh and: you now have a baby. You wanted to have one and you got the
best one possible. And no, @shaunwhite didn’t marry you.

2018: Seriously, grow up already. Did you just get an award at KVIFF for
your first try and you feel ashamed? What is wrong with you, Kláro?
You got back to the prod. office and only told @katjaroesch on a cig break?

2019: People come and go
some really don’t care
and – people die.

2026: After a few years in Paris (Yes, you will live in Paris!) –
I promise all of this will feel lighter! make a sense of it.

You will be an adult, nobody will punish you for
watching TV ads for hours or for painting a wall.

You kept that tee saying “I f* snowboarders only”
– but please note: you will become a 100% skier.
(And I know you can’t imagine now, but you will
go uphill a lot and you will actually like that.)
No, you will not be forever hard on yourself.
You will find a new self-compassion to reframe it.

Being EP in your junior years had nothing to do
with the concept you have developed. All the visuals
and everything on the program was kind of innovative.
You will understand it was never a creative fail.

And you will have to accept your other creations too.
NOT “just playing around”, NO “nothing”.
All of the drawings, paintings, clothes, ohlala!
Not *extra-curricular* as you say, this is a part of YOU.

I don’t care how patetic you think this is, Kláro,
I personally overcame a lot of crazy shit for you!!
Diagnosis, black holes, I never gave up on you.
I am the older you, so read what I had to write.
Actually I am so OLD, it is getting hard now to
find you a husband who can still kickflip!

Love you,

coming soon…