7 reasons to smile more

BCAA system, Nela Britaňáková, František Hanousek & Jakub Hájek, Monika Kováčová, Masha Kovtun, Šimon Sýkora

Curated by Tina Poliačková & Lumír Nykl

At Holešovická Šachta, Prague

June 18 – July 20, 2020

Photography by Světlana Malinová

I. Spontaneity
It is in our common interest to abandon a well-thought-out strategy and embark on a path of intuitive tactics. If the exhibition space resembles the interior of a paintball field rather than a salon institution, it is only in the best interests of the matter to decide not to follow a pre-set plan of action. It is therefore worthwhile to weigh your actions according to current environmental challenges, which are also based on the influence of non-human factors such as sunlight, humidity or disturbed statics due to decomposition activities and decomposition of materials. It is desirable to cover in nooks and crannies, dynamically change the field of view and gradually occupy the territory.
Let us try to rethink new opportunities, explore what it means to have a sense of history, and how to live life in conditions in which our freedom (or lack thereof) is fatally linked to how we respond to the immediate challenges of our time.

 

II. Skill
Kneading, grinding, pickling. Welding, carving, glazing. The urge to indulge in handicrafts, the emphasis on handicraft prints and careful do-it-yourself shaping have a therapeutic function on both sides. It is as if we are changing from viewers to users and at the same time surprised celebrants, which someone presented with a hand-made tweak. With a dose of historicizing sentiment, perhaps it would be like to say that the forms used have their prototype in sayings and phrases, similar to, for example, German medieval carving or Italian Renaissance painting. In our case, however, it is not a question of carving according to the order of master singing sounding from the church cure, nor of re-marking the merchant’s measurement and negotiation into the composition of the painting. Rather, we get through the bias of experienced jokes from pre-memetic times and equally through the algorithmic ballast of community-shared instructions for DIY enhancement of domestic happiness in the spirit of instant “satisfying crafts and DIYS”.

 

III. Radical helplessness
Do you ever feel helpless that escapes any conceptualization effort? An urgency that is insanely difficult to grasp in ordinary words, and even the terms themselves may seem like a flowing bucket. Are you okay? Feelings of loneliness, alienation and existential insecurity cannot be addressed or appropriated unless they can be understood as a desire to be wanted and loved. Then love is present in the eyes of those who watch. Other people become tools of self-projection, and such performative self-reflection then prevents real connection to other people, leading to solitary solipsism. Give everyone what they don’t deserve.

 

IV. A joke that stopped being ridiculous
You try to describe the surrounding events and express your impressions in words that you assume should be understandable to all present. Suddenly, however, only a throaty hatmatilka comes out of your mouth (gibberish in English), so reminiscent of a bitter and resigned laughter. Nevertheless, you resonate with others, in a relaxed community, because you are connected by the seriousness of the task that is usually assigned to your position. However, the significance of this role is unclear by the circumstances in which it was assigned to you. Do you really think that my suffocating laughter is a resignation to the seriousness of the situation?
What would happen if we threw away unnecessary clinging to what is still ridiculous? And what should lead us to tears? It is time for the voluntary choice of living in forms that seem too tight to others. The one whose inner world is crushed to pieces laughs outwardly most outwardly.

 

V. Fantasy
Real freedom comes when you look at the world with your eyes closed. Imagination allows us to deal with contradictions and bridge contradictions. Let’s not be afraid to get our theoretical gloves irrational. Intense experience is always necessarily ambivalent, does not point in one direction and does not lead us to understanding. It is then appropriate to block the usual paths to critical understanding in order to restore hope. The soft tissues rub against the rough edges in an effort to evoke a sense of belonging.

 

VI. Narrative
Didn’t you also happen to think that we were swollen enough to think that the great stories had long since disintegrated before our eyes? We live in their fragmented remnants, and they still control us. Let us come to terms with the impossibility of building new mythologies on generally comprehensible characters and let out a sigh of relief with a smokescreen that obscures the meanings.
If we do not want to enter through emotion, we should not look for heroes, but only those who play them. After their performance, only discarded objects will remain, and it is up to us whether they become props or relics of a new story for us.

 

VII. Memories of nature
Do you have the courage to change and let your body disappear just so you can see through? One afternoon, as we walked along the creek, a stone and tiny creatures hiding in the mud spoke to us. What could they just talk about? It was enough to accept the rhetorical whistling and shaky ground of our debate, and suddenly there was the prompt that we were close, even though we did not understand each other. You suspect I’m smiling.