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December 1st, 2008
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Anti-biennial antics

This time, an extended Tina B. aims for public engagement
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By Tony Ozuna
For The Prague Post
October 8th, 2008 issue

COURTESY PHOTO
Some of the strongest pieces are showing at the Italian Cultural Institute.
Tina B. 3


at various locations Ends Oct. 15, 2008. See individual gallery listings for opening hours.

This is the third edition of the contemporary art festival Tina B., with emerging artists and curators invited from around the world (though mostly from Europe) to exhibit their work at several locations throughout the city.
One part of the festival began in the summer, a billboard text/art project called “Emerging Wor(l)ds,” which continues through October. For this, street-level billboards became platforms or canvases for artists to present messages, statements and general interventions that address global, social and political issues.
For instance, Robert Šalanda’s billboard showing boiled potatoes on a plate is accompanied by the text (in Czech), “When life gives you potatoes, make potato salad!” From Kirsimaria Toronen Ripatti’s series “Easy Lessons in Western Thinking,” one billboard reads (in English), “I’m Lovin’ It.”
The project creates a truly public art gallery, largely because the “Emerging Wor(l)ds” billboards often blend in so seamlessly with commercial billboards nearby. For those who aren’t inclined to travel all over Prague to seek out these art billboards, photos of all 51 of them (shown in context beside other billboards) are on view at Galerie Kritiků (Jungmannova 31, Prague 1–New Town).
The billboard project fits in nicely with this year’s theme, “Forms of Engagement,” with other exhibitions and special events also exploring the role and influence of art in wider cultural, social and political spheres.
During the festival’s “main event,” from Sept. 25 through Oct. 15, the exhibition sites include Galerie Kritiků , the Italian Cultural Institute (Šporkova 14/Vlašská 34, Prague 1–Malá Strana), the main stairways and corridors of the Laterna Magika Theater (Národní 4, Prague 1–New Town), ČKD Electrotechnika (Kolbenova 936/5e, Prague 9–Vysočany), and a large, dilapidated building across the street from the National Gallery’s Veletržní palác (Dukelských hrdinů 28, Prague 7–Holešovice).
The Italian Cultural Institute exhibition may be the best. The section “Darkness Is Noon,” curated by Rosanna Musumeci, features state-of-the-art, site-specific audio and video installations by mostly Italian artists. There are areas in this section installed in pitch-dark for maximum audio or visual effect, while other pieces in the Baroque chapel and works near the windows and in the courtyard of the former monastery utilize natural light to full effect.
Noteworthy pieces set in the dark include Connection, a glowing brain in a glass box on a pedestal, by Alexandros Yiorkadjis. There are a dozen headphones suspended in a circle around the brain, each playing a different channel so that visitors can listen to opera, prayers recited in Latin, Gregorian chants and more.
In the light, noteworthy is “50% Over” by Veronica Montanino, a collage/mural made of decals. Stuck on the walls and Baroque columns of the Italian Cultural Institute’s courtyard, the decals combine black silhouettes and colorful bubbles, through which the artist retells the history of human imagination and invention, from mythical gods, folk myths, monsters and aliens to modern TV culture and bubble-party raves.
During the festival’s “Special Events Week” (Oct. 9–13), there are also a number of public events at other sites (check the Web site Tina-b.eu for details). Tina B. is taking special inspiration this year from the 40th anniversary of the 1968 Prague Spring and subsequent Soviet-led invasion, with related projects that include the “Vysočany Congress,” organized by the esteemed Russian curator Viktor Misiano.
For this, Russian artists and local artists, intellectuals and the public will stage a performance reconstructing the events of the “Extraordinary Congress of the Communist Party” held in the ČKD Electrotechnika factory one day after the Aug. 21, 1968, Warsaw Pact invasion. This performance will draw upon audio and video archives and interviews (filmed by the artists) made while researching the original events.
Tina B. is organized by Vernon Galerie, with the support of the Culture Ministry and the city of Prague. It has the ambition and growing status to match the city’s other major international art gatherings, the Prague Biennale and the International Triennial of Contemporary Art, even though from its very beginnings the Tina B. organizers have emphatically stressed that “This Is Not Another Biennial” — from which Tina B. takes its name.
At the same time, Tina B. is still having growing pains, mainly problems with having some exhibitions up and running by the official opening dates. This could be especially frustrating for short-term visitors to Prague. In such cases, not even a chance encounter with Toronen Ripatti’s “Easy Lessons in Western Thinking” billboard that reads “Life Will Get Better” would offer much solace.
Tony Ozuna can be reached at
features@praguepost.com

Tony Ozuna can be reached at features@praguepost.com


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