Karolína Kohoutková – I kdybys vyhořel, plápolal jsi
Duration of the exhibition: 29.8. — 30. 8. 2019
Opening hours: 4 – 6 p.m.
We cordially invite you to the opening of Karolína Kohoutková exhibition I kdybys vyhořel, plápolal jsi, which is the result of a three-month residency stay within the project K.A.I.R. Košice Artist in Residence. In her project, the author elaborates on several layers on the topic of education, education system, and its conditions. The questions are directly directed to the artists who, in addition to their artistic practice, are teachers in secondary art schools. The result is an audio recording of the testimony of three artists – teachers who work in Košice, and it creates a complete picture of how they perceive their position, their creative input, their sense of meaningfulness, erudition, prestige, and self-evaluation.
She puts the experience of the teachers in contrast with the imperfect and socially flat virtual world. Together with her daughter, they tried through the commercial game The Sims to model as many copies of educators as they know them from real life. The digital game is connected with the reality of the artists through the performative part of the project. Specifically chosen clothing, as well as the real performance, refers to the admiration of the generation of players to the commercial world and at the same time, it provides space for the expressing emotions.
Karolína Kohoutková (1974) is a Czech artist and pedagogue from Brno, whose beginnings of the work have been influenced by studies at the Secondary Textile School. Since then she has been working with soft materials, perceiving its plasticity in connection with the human body and topics of innate and cultural identity. After several years of modist practice, she began to study at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Brno, where she later was an assistant at the Body Design Studio. The return to an educational institution meant for her rediscovering of the intellectual space and the space for experimentation. She dealt with topics where social aspects, experimental design, and performative approaches were applied. In 2008 she was nominated for the Essl Art Award and slowly began to specialize in fashion topics examining them as a specific multi-layered social phenomenon. At the faculty, she introduced a course that links art with fashion and currently is curating young fashion designers who exceeded their department for the Umakart Gallery. After her daughter was born, together with her colleagues, she founded the Photography Studio Divý Tvor. Although their studio is focused on portrait photography, its creativity creates an inspiring and educational environment.
The residency is supported using public funding by Slovak Arts Council. The residency within the project K.A.I.R. Košice Artist in Residence is also supported by Visegrad Fund and Creative Industry Košice a mesto Košice.