Poupetova 1, Prague 7, http://www.dox.cz
Volker März’ solo show consisted of hundreds of small sculptures. Each of them was linked with some kind of story or reference, crossing the realm of the everyday, the historical and the fantastic. He presented a positive, child-like view which often comes with more wisdom than empty intellectualism. Persons from the area of philosophy, literature, art and politics such as Walter Benjamin, Franz Kafka or Josef Beuys are presented in a human-like way, often with an alternative reading of their personal biography. From this point, this show was very democratic – figurative sculpture, complemented with narrative stories in text and video. The show gave a very warm feeling. Both the sculptures as well as the videos were kind of rough, not obscuring their hand-made-ness. While I was at first put off by the by the in-the-face ‘figurality’, I calmed down as I proceeded through the show and read through some of the stories: By the time I reached the top floor of the show Volker März’ has convinced me of his art and way of expression.
As with the “Where Is My Home?” show, I could clearly feel the direction which DOX wants to take – making exhibitions which will be accessible to a broader audience and will show that contemporary art can be fun rather than trying to explain contemporary art or educate the audience through a show. On one hand DOX focuses on local (Czech) artistic positions, on the other hand DOX brings in interesting established artists from abroad which can put together a meaningful show for a not-so-mature audience, while still staying equally interesting for the small Czech art world elite.