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House of Art
TUES–SUN 10:00–18:00

Matasová, Adéla / Each of us has at some time wanted to touch existence

2019

video, duration 63 seconds

purchased 2020 with the support of the Czech Ministry of Culture

Adéla Matasová often works with numbers and numerical series, which she not only develops in the form of mathematical progressions and relations, but also frequently imbues with kinetic qualities. The numbers may be placed on the surface of polished steel objects that can be set in mechanical motion, or (as in the case of this video) they may take the form of digital signs integrating themselves with a different visual element. Here Matasová integrates a mathematical sign with an anthropomorphic gesture of a human hand. The conceptual centre-point of the video is the “touch” of the fingertip and the number 1, which can be read as a moment of absolute knowledge, contact with existence itself. The numerical series then proliferate first in the shape of a pyramid, before they coalesce into strips, ultimately filling up the entire field of the image until the surface becomes completely obscured; this may represent chaos, excess, and unconscious disharmony.


MATASOVÁ ADÉLA

(1940, Prague) Painter, sculptor, graphic artist, creator of objects and installations. She studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague (1958–1964). She has exhibited solo since 1971 and in group exhibitions since 1969; her work has also frequently been exhibited abroad, including international projects in Germany, Britain, Belgium, and particularly in the USA. Since 1990 she has taught at the Prague Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design (as a member of the spatial art studio specializing in textiles and alternative techniques). In 2000 she was a visiting teacher at the University of Colorado in Boulder. In 2004–2005 she was the Vice-Rector of the Josef Škvorecký Academy, and in 2005–2012 she taught in Plzeň, at the West Bohemian University’s Faculty of Art and Design, where she co-founded the spatial and intermedia art studio. Adéla Matasová’s work has always been rooted in a conceptual approach. After the Velvet Revolution of 1989, she responded to newly emerging artistic directions in her approach to space, repetition and intermediality. Her installations from the 1990s are situated in monumental spaces and various types of architecture, such as the stone walls of medieval castles, stables, city halls and similar interiors, but also in exterior spaces. Her favourite material is metal, particularly thin polished sheet metal that acts as a mirror. She often uses sheet metal to make periscope-type structures. Besides her large-scale sculptural works and spatial installations, Matasová is also known for her suspended kinetic objects driven by electrical motors or software; here again frequent features are mirroring effects, elements of surprise and variability in materials.
digitally altered photograph, paper 1000 × 1500 mm, purchased 2020 with the support of the Czech Ministry of Culture
2000–2001

Matasová, Adéla / Fictitious projects

mixed technique, cloth, mechanical motion, 200 × 200 cm, purchased in 2020 with the support of the Czech Ministry of Culture
2001–2005

Matasová, Adéla / Interspaces

mixed technique, steel, digital motion, mirror steel, numerals, 50 × 50 × 25 cm, purchased 2020 with the support of the Czech Ministry
2014

Matasová, Adéla / The infinity of numbers

Axentowicz, Theodor / Girl in a fur

Axentowicz, Theodor / Girl in a fur

undated
Balabán, Daniel / Concrete (Below a Slag-Heap)

Balabán, Daniel / Concrete (Below a Slag-Heap)

1983
Balabán, Daniel / Old Eroticism

Balabán, Daniel / Old Eroticism

1996
Bartoš, Břetislav / Wallachian Madonna

Bartoš, Břetislav / Wallachian Madonna

1921
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