The title of the exhibition refers to the term “independent observer”which is frequently used by media trying to act as thrustworthy information source. According to this idea independent observer should comprehend the problem and submit reports, while himself not being interested in the results of the process he observes. On the contrary, the project “Dependent observers” deals with the idea that observing is not and cannot be entirely independent. It also shows forms of biased observations and contrasts “independence” with “dependence” as an inevitable requirement for relation between the observer and the observed. Particular works are testing forms of participation on observed objects and stress an active positions of the observer. The position can be motivated by personal commitment or just reflect a belief that the observing itself changes the observed process. This mutual cohesion has its biggest impact on the level of quantum effects, but it is also apparent in the social situations. All this because the observer changes the observed reality, which he becomes a part of. This principle is most apparent in the work od Dorota Kenderová “On TV”, the author appears here “by chance” in the TV shots and that is how she switches the roles from the observer to an actor. Jan Pfeiffer follows in his works three different forms of commited observing. He tries to guess the near future in the video called “Prevision III”. Or he let the scenario of the future to be defined by experts (“Prevision I”). Pfeiffer states his own expectations before a travel to Singapur, which he subsequently confronts with the reality shot in situ. The way how information on “state of things” can influence our sense of reality is one of the subjects of Eva Jiřička´s video. “What You Haven´t Known about Jelení” face with two differrent descriptions of the gallery space which doesn´t stem from it´s visuality but from extrasensory perception and combination of haptic and acoustic sensation within sensual deprivation??. Karíma Al-Mukhtarová´s video-performance tests automatism of contraxolitional involvement of the observer in observed reality. As the artist yawns constantly she tempts spectators to do the same. Pavel Sterec & Vasil Artamanov work on the border of pseudo-sociological research. Their instalation “What Keeps the Elite Alive” is a result of admission to czech organisation Mensa and following interaction with members. While Sterec and Artamonov use parcipative attitude within their observation, Richard Wiesner´s installation is inspired with found shopping list and pickled gherkins recipe and so it represents rather materialization of process that could or couldn´t happen. The observer do not interfere with the form of the observed object, but using the found traces he restores his own concept of past process and at the same time he create new reality.

Zuzana Štefková

Futura is an association whose aim is to promote contemporary art in the Czech Republic. It has several exhibition places and alarge number of artist’s studios. Yesterday opened an exhibition at Studio Karlin, one of the four places it have (http://www.futuraproject.cz/en/). Two young curators, Zuzana Štefková and Klára Žaludová, curate a group show about the relationship between the observer and the observed objects.Among the six artists gathered, I remark mostly the video workby Jan Pfeiffer, “Prevision I-III” (2009): a series of 3 verydifferent videos but have in common point the prediction of a future. In the first, the camera glides and stops on the details of the image objects (plants, car …) or people, while an expert voice describes and provides an estimate of their future; the second oneis a magnificent confrontation between the artist in his Prague’studio preparing a visit step by step of Singapore, and thereal visit of the state city, superimposed projection and reality;the last one is the immediate prevision that gives the artist in hisurban environment, the arrival of a young woman in the cornerof a building or the reaction of a pigeon. Face the observations and previsions, the coldness we can feel turns in a game full of humor because of this confrontation with the reality of a becoming different from what is announced.

Jean-Marc Avrilla

http://unitedartspace.blogspot.com/2012/09/zavisli-pozorovatele-dependent-observers.html

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