Jiří Kovanda gegen den Rest der Welt

12.03.2015 – 08.05.2015 / 19:00 – 00:00
With Jiří Kovanda

Opening: March 11th 2015, 7 pm
Artist’s talk: March 11th 2015, 6 pm

Jiří Kovanda, one of the internationally best known contemporary artists from the Czech Republic, is represented simultaneously in Berlin with two institutional solo exhibitions this Spring: The Czech Centre Berlin presents its exhibition Jiří Kovanda vs Rest of the World from March 11th while the daadgalerie will open the exhibition MOOM on April 17th presenting newly developed works by Kovanda.

Curated by Guillaume Désanges and François Piron, the exhibition Jiří Kovanda vs Rest of the World was first shown in September 2006 at the Parisian gallery gb agency. Following further venues such as the De Appel Arts Centre in Amsterdam, the Centre d’art Passerelle in Brest, the Valence School of Fine Arts, the Centre d’Art Santa Monica in Barcelona and the City Gallery Prague the exhibition is now presented in Berlin for the first time.
In addition to documentations of Kovanda’s earlier actions from the 1970s, new site-specific works as well as an extensive collection of rough reproductions taken from print media, advertising and art will be shown. Among these reference images, intuitively compiled by the curators, there are many works by former guests of the DAAD Artists-in-Berlin-Program, such as Marina Abramović, Lawrence Weiner, Marie Cool Fabio Balducci, Milan Knížák, Dan Graham, Douglas Gordon, Ben Vautier, Dennis Oppenheim or Braco Dimitrijević.

Jiří Kovanda (born 1953 in Prague) became known internationally primarily for his early interventions in public space. These were equally discreet and poetic actions during which he stood, for example, with outstretched arms on Wenceslas Square or turned around on the escalator to fix his gaze upon the person behind him. In other works he arranged simple materials at selected locations in the city. In the 1980s and 1990s Kovanda focused primarily on collages and assemblages, whilst in recent years an increasing number of situational actions and installations are being realized. Kovanda was represented in numerous solo and group exhibitions, including MWW Wrocław (2013), 30th São Paulo Biennial (2012), Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía Madrid (2012), Vienna Secession (2010), CGAC, Santiago de Compostela (2008), documenta 12, Kassel (2007), Tate Modern, London (2007).

Jiří Kovanda is a guest of the DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Program during 2015.