AL-ALI & MORAVEC | OPEN CALL
Project title: Tomáš Moravec & Matej Al-Ali – Open Call
Location: Gallery Weltecho, Chemnitz, Germany
Year: 2013
Curator: Petr Dub
Client: Gallery Weltecho
Open Call is inspired by globally recognizable format of institutional calls for the creation of artworks or exhibitions „custom made“ for the commissioner. The projects builds on the thematic unit of the Gallery Weltecho for 2013 sub-titled Pfadfinder, but simultaneously it points out the problematic interface of contemporary international art and partial loss of authorial freedom within the rules of artistic operation. However, the conceptual answer in this case does not lie in institutional critique or, on the contrary, reflexive self-defence in the form of benevolent loose cooperation of a curator with artists – friends.
The authors´ videos and objects are manifestations of „basic research“. The „applied“ is left exclusively to the viewers. They themselves go beyond the drill of site specific cooperation and for the first time work together on a broader cycle of works that could be transferred into various galleries. The result of this constellation is not the constant negotiation of authors with gallery situation but defragmented installation paraphrasing main principles of scouting or, better, its idealistic background. The authors test legitimacy of graphic use of iconographic concepts (watch, flag, rope, etc.) and capacity of manipulation of a viewer through optical illusion. In an effort to escape from the curators‘ dictate they test the fragile border between ideals, ideology and demagogy. They practice diplomacy whose aim is not to push one´s own interests but rather the search for something that we may call collective sharing of authenticity. (Petr Dub)