Czech Republic

Pavel Mrkus

The Fall

The cosmic gravitational force pulls all matter toward the center of the Earth. Water from above searches for cracks and openings in the top layers of hard rock, and flows through crevasses over the surface. The energy of falling water is constant, independent of time, the environment, aesthetics, or human-oriented time scales that contain an individual life. Gravity’s proof is the existence of cosmic mechanisms as an elemental power that holds everything together, a concentrational force with the precise equilibrium of clockwork. An adequate supply of falling matter - in this case water - is the only variable in the calculations of the power generated, and quickly changing conditions for the existence of life. The energy of collapse is a paradox.

The artwork “The Fall” brings an explicit model of confrontation to hydro power in its raw and abstract form. The work will consist of multi-channel video installations assembled from footage taken during an expedition in Iceland. The images will pass through post-production that involves an animated time-lapse effect and exposure correction. Another part of the installation will consist of the multi-channel sound that comes from these takes, but which is modulated according to the speed of each channel. The installation will be adapted to LCD monitors arranged in a concentrated space. Other spaces might find it ideal to present it as a set of multiscreen large-scale projections with distinctive multichannel sound in a separate darkened room.

Pavel Mrkus, October 2015

Pavel Mrkus MgA, Doc. (b 1970, Mělník) is an audiovisual artist who makes use of digital moving images and sound often in relation to specific space. He graduated from the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague. His interest in Religious Studies together with experience of four years teaching position at Toyama City Institute of Glass Art in Japan lead him to unique mixture of cultural paradigms within his work. After showing at 50th Venice Biennial in 2003 he participated in many group and solo shows around world. Together with Daniel Hanzlik they established Time-Based Media studio at Faculty of Art and Design at J. E. Purkyne University in Usti nad Labem. He was awarded a Personality of the Year 2012 for his exhibition Next Planet in The Brno House of Arts.

"With a non-conflictual stubbornness, the artist seeks out and applies elements of cyberspace spirituality to artistic projects. He subconsciously compares this spirituality to the principles of transcendence in the analog world. Similar to how Eastern religious systems have become the philosophical point of reference for the work of the early Conceptualists, in many ways they represent, permeated as they are with traditional Christian spirituality, a landing point for the cosmic odyssey of this Czech artist." (Michal Koleček)

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Iceland: Leirhnjúkur lava fields near Krafla. Photo: Pavel Mrkus, 2015.

Iceland: Leirhnjúkur lava fields near Krafla. Photo: Pavel Mrkus, 2015.

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This expedition through Iceland will lead participants to various locations in South, East and North of Iceland where the untapped sources of renewable energy – water, steam, and wind – as well as the impacts of hydro- and geothermal power plants on the landscape and on local micro-economies, can be observed. …

An opening at Školská 28 Gallery

An opening at Školská 28 Gallery

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Matěj Spurný, photo: Dagmar Šubrtová

Matěj Spurný, photo: Dagmar Šubrtová

Frontiers of Solitude Symposium

The international symposium Frontiers of Solitude, organized as part of the eponymous art project site will offer a comparison of the opinions, experiences, and points of view of artists, curators, and invited guests on the theme of transitions in the landscape in which we currrently live and of which we are a part. …

Ex Post Gallery, Robert Vlasák, Julia Martin, photo: Tomáš Hrůza

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Pavel Mrkus, The Fall, foto Aleš Loziak

Pavel Mrkus, The Fall, foto Aleš Loziak

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instalace Fotograf Gallery, photo: Tomáš Hrůza,

instalace Fotograf Gallery, photo: Tomáš Hrůza,

Pavel Mrkus: Fall videostill

Pavel Mrkus: Fall videostill