This project is based on the photographic series “Le Mouvement” by Étienne-Jules Marey, dating from the late 19th century. The series analyzes human movement by means of the photographic image. Motion is depicted as a schema eliminating any objects or spatial elements that are usually the targets of the photographic apparatus. The central point is that, in the picture, the figure is draped in black clothes, and white marks used for further motion analysis. The aim is to find the body in the space again. To do so, the focus is paradoxically placed on its absence. The authors use the language of science to weaken the rational, transferring the focus from its results to its means.
The exhibition at Školská 28 is a free continuation and development of the previous project, which worked directly with the gallery space. The space is "doubled" in the displayed photographs, which do not, however, mirror the space, but rather freely interpret it. Even the gallery itself, by means of small installations, is "shifted" in the direction of the photographs. As with the space, so the photographs in turn are used as "props" in the video, which they organically animate.
Dana Machajová (1986) and Barbora Švarcová (1985) are artists living in Prague, and they have worked together on this project several times before. Both are students at the Center for Audiovisual Studies at FAMU. Machajová often creates video installations. For the last two years, she has been dealing with the subject of symmetry (spatial, but also as a metaphor used in image making), balancing between two extremes. "Gender and queer art" issues also come up in Machajová's work.
Barbora Švarcová originally studied esthetics at the Philosophical Faculty of Charles University, and her preoccupation with the reception of art works led her to audiovisual studies. An important concern in her work is human perception, which she tries to give form or deconstruct through artistic means. She works with the viewers' expectations and is interested in how the viewer places themself with relation to the work.
