Date: 29.06.2023 — 06.08.2023
Beginning: 18:00

opening: 29. 6. 2023, 6 pm
opening hours: Thu-Sun: 15:00 – 20:00
closed on Thursday 6 July (bank holiday)

WARNING: FLASHING LIGHTS, may cause seizures in people with light sensitivity.

curator: Nela Klajbanová

František Fekete’s solo exhibition Queers*Mystics*Ravers presents a new video in the form of a structural moving collage. An archive of the author’s drawings becomes the building material for a stroboscopic animation that portrays the metamorphosing figures of ravers, mystics and queers.

František Fekete has a long-standing interest in themes related to the invention of identity and a search for the position and role of the artist in today’s world. He often makes use of principles of self-portraiture, which he explores through both video and drawing. At the Queers*Mystics*Ravers exhibition, he transports us to experience the processes and collective experiences of rave culture. The variable portrayals of the individual characters reflects experiences of the queer scene, the rave scene, and mysticism, and refers to the disjointedness that is present during anchoring in identity and the conscious internal and corporeal process of the rave experience.

Queerness as a non-normative and transformative invention and manifestation of human identity, the rave as a liminal bodily experience, and mysticism as consciousness of a reality that is constantly transforming. Every character is different, but they are all variations on the same material. They stand in one place yet undergo constant transmutations of form.

The video makes use of an archive of 114 drawings depicting metamorphosing queers, mystics, and ravers, divided into four sections according to a simple principle. These sections then create the individual frames of the resultant video. The arrangement of the individual parts into collages and their order in time is determined by a randomly generated mathematical structure. Each part of the collage has a particular mark assigned to it, and the screenplay of the video is a structure of several thousand marks and their chronology. The archive of original drawings accompanied by a flicker effect thus has certain attributes of structural film.

The drawings often represent spontaneous and swift depictions of bodily and spiritual experiences embodied into simple, often fantastical characters whose form is determined by the drawing process itself, creating introspective emotional self-portraits.

The image serves Fekete as a means for learning about oneself, and it is also present in his previous works. In the exhibition, he uses the image as a self-portrait in relation to the metamorphoses of the characters. The stroboscopic and deconstructive character of the video is inspired by time spent in clubs, where we become ravers, but also queers and mystics. It shows the constant invention of oneself through the Other and mediates the sensuality connected to dance culture and expanded consciousness. The visuals are accompanied by music by Omar El Sadek a.k.a. Qow, and was created especially for the exhibition.

Rhythmic booming emanates from the speakers, time has no ending or beginning. The characters move as a single collective body, the process has no visible narrative. The characters connect sensually to one another, their ego dissolves into indefiniteness. Together, they create a variable form with the determination to escape the daily operation of their minds and bodies.

 

František Fekete (*1993, Košice) is active as an artist, curator, and cultural worker. In 2020, he graduated with a masters degree from the Center for Audiovisual Studies at FAMU in Prague. He also participated in an exchange at Aalto University in Helsinki and the graphic design and new media studio at the Academy of Art, Architecture and Design in Prague. As a visual artist, he mostly reflects the theme and process of the invention of identity through the production and manifestation of images. His work includes video, photography, collages, drawings, and installations. His solo projects include exhibitions at Sam83 gallery (2021) and the Prague City Gallery (2018), and he has also participated in numerous group exhibitions. Since 2020, he has worked as a production manager and curator at tranzit.cz. From 2016 to 2022, he was one of the curators of the 35m2 gallery. He has also collaborated with other art institutions, such as the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague (2019–2020), GAMU (2019), and the Brno House of Arts (2017).

 

Soundtrack: Qow (Omar El Sadek)
Mastering: Oliver Torr
Production: Anna Davidová, Sára Märc
Architecture: Kateřina Radakulan
Installation and technical support: Mikoláš Balcar, Jakub Slanina
Graphic design: Nela Klímová
Photography: Jan Kolský

The project was financially supported by the City of Prague, the State Cultural Fund, and the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic.