Václav Janoščík is important Czech theorist and curator who focuses on contemporary theory and philosophy of art and lectures at leading Czech academies and universities (e.g. Academy of Fine Arts,  Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design, Film and Television School of Academy of Performing Arts, Philosophical Faculty of Charles University; all in Prague). The contribution for Unleashing Screensaver exhibition is the result of encouragement he has given his students at Film and Television School of Academy of Performing Arts in Prague and at Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague.

 

Our world is permeated by constant pressure concerning our work, efficiency, consumerism and even our futures, particularly at art schools. It seems our very future, not only labor and desires, has been privatized and commodified. Our classes avoid overviewing the historical or current trends in contemporary art, rather allowing us to propose our own original point of departure. Covering speculative, postinternet and even postcontmporary, we try not to simply accept international trends but to use and bend them so they can speak in general and personal forms and ideas. The assignments resulting from our seminars take resort in this situation. Accelerating along the lines of alienating streams, we try to unravel what is ours; dreams and anxieties, art and imagination.

Václav Janoščík

 

Marie Helen Tite, Martin Lee & Matteo Bettini: Untitled

Driven by shifts in the production and consumption of media, as well as the mainstreaming of fetish facilitated by internet-based communities of practice, we have entered a post-narrative period in pornographic film. This has precipitated both a blurring of the boundaries between erotic and non-erotic genres and an elevation of act and object (e.g., ejaculate, urine, penetrative object , foodstuff, clothing) to the role of central protagonist in a sort of non-human narrative.

Drawing together material from disparate genres as well as original material, our work aims to establish a semiotic feedback that push a multiplicity of meanings. These function both to skew the metaphoric language of erotica, feminist & anti-feminist discourses and paraphilia and to establish a type of meta-narrative on the elevation of non-human act and object to central prominence.

^{Part of Unleashing Screensaver & Unleashing exhibitions
Apr 1 – May 31, 2018
concept & coordination: (c) merry
supported by PAF & Teachers College, Columbia University}