Radnická 4, Brno, http://galerie-tic.cz/
Given the awkward in-between-holidays and weekend time, the gallery was closed, even though Friday was a regular working day. A kind receptionist had pity with me and opened the doors, but she did not know how to turn on the videos and the remote was probably locked up yet in another room. So in the end, I probably just saw half of what I should have seen. Well, at least some impression. Each of the rooms/galleries featured a different exhibition. Given the fact I saw it only partially, I don’t feel in a position to write about it in detail, so please read the following with this in mind.
On the ground floor the whole room was filled up with an installation by Oldřich Morys. The visitors had to enter through a narrow small corridor, passing by lightboxes with line drawings. At the end of the corridor, one lightbox was left empty, revealing the content of the hidden room: A sculpture-assemblage of daily-use objects and construction materials, meticulously balanced on top of each other: A piano, books, wooden pieces, etc. I enjoyed the relationship between the drawings in the lightboxes (which turned out to be something like sketches of the sculpture) and the theatricality of the narrow corridor one had to walk through, creating a physical experience. The concluding view into the installation presented a view of a very fragile constellation, creating a feeling of curiosity and expectation.
On the first floor, there was a duo-show of Jan Pfeiffer and Radek Brousil titled “Stavební Práce” (Construction Works). The setup was minimal. There was a tripod-like structure with a large sheet of white paper hanging from it and two video projections. There was also a sculpture of a stone coming out of a wall, probably referring to the ‘foundation stones’ placed in buildings. Out of the two videos I managed to see one, a static-yet-shaky shot of a construction site where foundations of a building were being laid. From these two elements I managed to guess the idea also confirmed in the handout text that this show was about construction and laying foundations, in a real as well as metaphorical sense, as the foundations of one’s life, society, etc. The foundation as a signifier referring to the source, or root of our actions and the state of the world. My feelings about this show stayed ambiguous and I think it’s hard to make a conclusion without seeing the other video. The white paper hung in the other part of the room remains likewise a mystery.
In another room there was a group show arranged by Petr Kratký and Jan Zdvořák. On the whole, it was difficult to judge, as I only saw it without the video component. The centerpiece was a large installation assembled from park benches, which seemed to be forming a kind of ‘stage’ for the absent video. A single photograph in a ‘fake’ lightbox (plugged into a socket visually only) was in another room. The third room featured an assemblage of different materials and objects, somehow reminding me of what I saw in Oldřich Morys’ show on the floor below, but without exhibiting the same sense of connection and necessity (in Oldřich Morys’ installation, taking out even one piece would make the whole collapse.) The handout mentioned something about this exhibition being a ‘reinterpretation’ or ‘re-installation’ of another show, but that did not help much to understand more.
Overall TIC Gallery space seems to be a nice non-profit venue where artists can try out their ideas. The result sometimes works and sometimes not, but that is expected in the case of experiments like these – without failure there cannot be success.