BOUNDARIES: BIOGRAPHY
The Ladislav Sutnar Faculty of Design and Art at the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen is organizing the 11th edition of the International Photography Symposium: „Boundaries“, which includes exhibitions at the Ladislav Sutnar Gallery and the GAFA and Entrée galleries.
As the subtitle Boundaries: biography suggests, the themes of this year's event are stories and meta-stories, identification and alter egos, reality and fiction, reconstruction and deconstruction, process and time.
The title Boundaries reflects the original intention of the project: to make visible and reflect on the formal and conceptual identity of photography by creating a dynamic collective of artists, photographers and students. Since its inception in 2012, the project has fostered a personal approach and created an inclusive community sharing expertise.
The project was founded by Vojtěch Aubrecht, the current Dean of the Ladislav Sutnar Faculty of Design and Art. Since 2018, the curator of each edition has been Jan Van Woensel, curator of the Ladislav Sutnar Gallery.
SYMPOSIUM PROGRAMME
Wednesday, 30 November
Ladislav Sutnar Gallery
14:00 | Guided tour of the exhibition Boundaries: biography with Peter Pflügler, Oxiea Villamonte, Ross Sawyers, Zuzana-Markéta Macková and Mariia Ralemska
Thursday, 1 December
Multilab, Ladislav Sutnar Faculty of Design and Art
10:45 - 11:00 | Opening speach by curator Jan Van Woensel
11:00 - 11:30 | Michael Mersinis
11:30 - 12:00 | Mariia Ralemska
12:00 - 12:30 | Peter Pflügler
12:30 - 13:00 | break
13:00 - 13:30 | Stefan Vanthuyne
13:30 - 14:00 | Oxiea Villamonte
14:00 - 14:30 | Ross Sawyers
14:30 - 15:00 | Zuzana-Markéta Macková, Max*ine Vajt (online)
15:30 | Vernissage: Marie Plná, „Impostor“, Entrée Gallery
17:00 | Vernissage: Rozalie Skalová, „Anywhere You Need“, GAFA Gallery
18:00 | Vernissage: „Boundaries: biography“, Ladislav Sutnar Gallery
Friday, December 2
Ladislav Sutnar Faculty of Design and Art
On Friday, students of the Ladislav Sutnar Faculty of Design and Art can take the opportunity to consult their portfolios or participate in a workshop by one of the international guests.
EXHIBITIONS
Impostor | Marie Plná
Place: Entrée Gallery (Univerzitní 28, Pilsen)
Date: 23 November – 23 December
Vernissage: 1 December, 15:30
Since the beginning of her studies at university, Marie Plná's work has been documentary and biographical, often covering relationships and mental health. The title Impostor is a reference to an inner sense of not knowing what an individual is doing, which direction they are going in, and why they are receiving attention for something that is out of their control. The exhibition captures the photographer's daily life from 2019 to the present, from chaos to moments of complete calm.
Anywhere you need | Rozálie Skalová
Location: GAFA Gallery (Presslova 14, Pilsen)
Date: 3 November – 4 December
Vernissage: 1 December, 17:00
The exhibition Anywhere you need depicts the life of a man, musician and tramp who lives in a home on four wheels and can have everything that is important to him anywhere he needs it. The collection of photographs is accompanied by a pictorial publication. Her story speaks of the fact that everything we need to live is given to us by life itself, the world will take care of us wherever we are.
Boundaries: biography
Place: Ladislav Sutnar Gallery (Riegrova 11, Pilsen)
Date: 16 November – 23 December.
VIP Vernissage: 1 December, 18:00
Artists:
Zuzana-Markéta Macková & Max*ineVajt (CZ)
Michael Mersinis (GR)
Peter Pflügler (AT/NL)
Mariia Ralemska (UA)
Ross Sawyers (USA)
Stefan Vanthuyne (BE)
Oxiea Villamonte (USA/NL)
Nowadays, biographies of all kinds of personalities are appearing not only on the shelves of bookstores and cinema screens, and the public is increasingly interested in complex profiles of particularly negative characters, war criminals or mass murderers. And while biographers research, reconstruct life journeys and explain the context and motivations of actions, artists often treat lives and events in the form of fiction.
The exhibition intends to open a discourse that is critical of what is depicted and how it is viewed. The paintings, installations, sound and videos that you will encounter here always deviate from the artist's original intention in everyone's interpretation. How then can an artist work with biography as a genre? Is factuality important, or do we long for fiction?
