Introductory speech by the Dean of the Faculty Pavel Mrkus and curators Anna Vartecká and Jaroslav Polanecký
The virtual exhibition of works by respected graduates of FUD UJEP was originally conceived as a regular exhibition in the Armaturka gallery in Ústí nad Labem. However, during the preparations for the exhibition, the societal circumstances changed dramatically as a result of the global epidemic and the galleries were closed, and mass and cultural events were canceled until further notice.
Due to the current situation, the dean of the faculty Assoc. Prof. Pavel Mrkus and curators of the exhibition Anna Vartecká, Ph.D., and Jaroslav Polanecký, Ph.D., all decided that the exhibition DREAM TEAM will take place on the scheduled date, but in an online form in the space of the virtual Armaturka.
Thanks to this progressive format, it was possible to expand the exhibition by a large number of exhibits and, last but not least, try new alternative forms of presenting said exhibition.
Dozens of personalities have graduated from the Faculty of Art and Design in Ústí nad Labem in more than 25 years of its existence. Graduates of the faculty successfully work in the field of visual art and design, both in the Czech Republic and abroad. This exhibition is dedicated to them, above all. Many of them won significant domestic and international awards during and after their studies in prestigious competitions and shows, such as the National Award for Student Design, Czech Grand Design, Designblok, Red Dot, Stanislav Libenský Award, Sanssouci Junior Glass Match. The fine arts section includes finalists and laureates of the prestigious EXIT Award/competition of Czech and Slovak art students, artists awarded at the video mapping festival Mask, Jihlava International Documentary Film Festival, Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, London Short Film Festival.
The DREAM TEAM exhibition features a representative selection of works by successful graduates of all studios, though it is naturally limited by the need to select authors. Additionally, the virtual space does not allow us to exhibit all of the truly respected artists and designers who have completed a bachelor's or master's degree in this presentation; it is also necessary to emphasize the word „completed“ because all the members of the DREAM TEAM are FUD graduates and the team does not include those who studied at FUD and subsequently finished their studies at another school. On the other hand, graduates of master's and doctoral studies at FUD who have previously studied elsewhere are represented.
The exhibition is divided into two spaces of the virtual Armaturka, which represent separate sections. One is dedicated to fine arts (curator Anna Vartecká) and the other to design (curator Jaroslav Polanecký). The authors of the exhibition are aware of the fact that there is a very loose border between the spheres of art and design, with numerous cross-border overlaps, which either consciously or intuitively ignore the division into creative fields and specific definitions of university departments and studios. At the same time, it is necessary to respect a wide array of creative work, with its proverbial branches split into visual art as well as graphic and product design.
The curators of the exhibition worked intensively with the heads of the studios when it came to the matter of selecting exhibitors, and the final collection of the presented works is the result of their joint dialogue and efforts. Without the active cooperation of the selected graduates, the DREAM TEAM exhibition could not have been created. The authors of the virtual exhibition appreciate their helpfulness, especially considering the difficult situation we have found ourselves in; a situation that even a lover of catastrophic scenarios would have called far-fetched when the early preparations for the exhibition took place.
Last but not least, let us appreciate and highlight the flexibility and commitment of all those who, willingly and swiftly, joined the curators and architect of the exhibition when it was decided that the exhibition will be realized in a virtual format. It is characteristic that they are students, graduates, and employees of FUD. Without them, the DREAM TEAM would not be complete.
Curators of the exhibition: Anna Vartecká, Jaroslav Polanecký
Architect of the exhibition: Jiří Bartoš
3D modeling: Tereza Matyášková
Web interface implementation: Aleš Loziak, Pavel Matoušek
Virtual environment consultation: Klára Míčková
Graphic design: Michal Max Mráz
Music: mʊdʌki
Guided tour of the Art section with curator Anna Vartecká
Guided tour of the Design section with curator Jaroslav Polanecký
Art
Design
Navigation
Click to select a specific gallery and wait for the model to load. • You can view the exhibition in autopilot mode as a passive spectator. • Use the annotation bar at the bottom of the model window to move between the parts yourself. • We recommend watching the tour in full-screen mode • You can use the arrow keys to zoom in to any work or place. • You can also move without restrictions, simply drag the mouse to change the direction of your view • Navigation on a mobile phone works with the usual intuitive gestures • You can learn more about the work and its author by clicking on the numbered annotations, and it is also possible to view the web catalog for a complete CV and portfolio.
Exhibition in the Art section
Ľuba Bakičová, Bára Čápová, Miroslav Hašek, Antonín Jirát, Stanislava Karbušická, Markéta Kinterová, Václav Kopecký, Jakub Korselt, Petr Košárek, Marija Mandić, Lukáš Opekar, Markéta Oplíštilová, František Pecháček, Jaroslav Prokeš, Michaela Spružinová, Libor Svoboda, Markéta Váradiová, Dany Josue Vigil Avilés, Robert Vlasák.
Anna Vartecká / curator
Visual culture is not just a way of looking at what is happening around us, but something that we use to actively participate in change. Nicholas Mirzoeff, How to See the World (2015).
The Dream Team exhibition concentrates on the presentation of successful and respected graduates of FUD UJEP in Ústí nad Labem, who, after leaving school, established themselves in their chosen field, achieved success, and continuously take part in the domestic as well as foreign cultural scene, whether in the field of design or fine arts. The conception of the artistic part of the exhibition was not an easy task for me, though I have been teaching at this school for 20 years, with the selection criteria set as they were. The guidelines for aspects of evaluation, balance, or appraisal of the artistic activities are not as well-defined as in the forms of creation where utility is the main goal.
The Dream Team exhibition concentrates on the presentation of successful and respected graduates of FUD UJEP in Ústí nad Labem, who, after leaving school, established themselves in their chosen field, achieved success, and continuously take part in the domestic as well as foreign cultural scene, whether in the field of design or fine arts. The conception of the artistic part of the exhibition was not an easy task for me, though I have been teaching at this school for 20 years, with the selection criteria set as they were. The guidelines for aspects of evaluation, balance, or appraisal of the artistic activities are not as well-defined as in the forms of creation where utility is the main goal.Besides, active and high-quality application in the field of contemporary fine art is, on many levels, in opposition to social prestige or mainstream inclusion. Therefore, we tried to take into account several factors that would help find at least a little objective consensus in this tension when it came to the selection process, but in no way did we resign on the quality of the creations. Above all, however, the selection was guided by the preferences of the heads of the studios themselves, who see the trajectories of their successful students on a more complex, personally engaged level. We also tried to take into account tangible results, given that they are more comprehensible in the assessment process, such as awards in competitions, participation in various expert commissions, published works, and, of course, exhibitions in relevant domestic and foreign galleries and exhibition institutions. Finalists and laureates of the EXIT Award/competition of Czech and Slovak art students, artists awarded at the video mapping festival Maska, at the Jihlava International Documentary Film Festival, the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, and the London Short Film Festival all appear here. Some are successful teachers at prestigious art schools such as FAMU or lead important art periodicals and festivals, such as the magazine and the Prague art festival Fotograf. But there are also artists whose work regularly appears at domestic and foreign shows and exhibition projects, and although their work has not yet been awarded a major award, they already represent respected personalities of the domestic art scene.
The concept of the virtual tour was based on the effort to create a unique model of a real exhibition, but we do not use any common thematic concept. Our ambition was to present each graduate through a work that captures the dominant aspect of the author's profile, to create a window into the significant parts of their artistic expression. Unfortunately, since the limitations of the virtual environment are surprisingly large, it is not possible to present spatial installations, interactive projects, or video projections in an optimal way. We had to give up the authentic gallery experience, which enriches visual art through other surplus values, such as the smell and light of the gallery, its acoustics, and the interaction of the viewer's physical and emotional experience with these non-transferable realities. On the other hand, we did discover the advantages of a virtual exhibition; its format can exist in a dynamically evolving form, it is easily distributable and, in the future, can provide our faculty with another optimal way to present its creative background and direction.
Although the selection in this part of the exhibition originally only featured studios of fine art (studios of Photography, Fine-Art Photography, Interactive Media, Digital Media, Time-based Media, Performance), graduates of studios of applied arts also appear here. This coalescence is proof of the fluid, yet consciously and responsibly chosen boundaries between the language of design and art. The only subliminal leitmotif of this part of the exhibition has become the key question of contemporary visual culture, which Nicholas Mirzoeff mentions in the title of his excellent book: How to see the world? The work of these artists is largely driven by the desire to see the world actively. This is, I think, at a time when we are facing a modern-day pandemic that brings about a seemingly unexpected extent of global change, a good precondition for improving our visual imagination. Through visual thinking and imagination, we can most certainly create the worlds we live in, and which we wish to change.
Exhibition in the Design section:
Patrik Antczak, Tomáš Bém, Ondřej Dostal, Jitka Kamencová Skuhravá, Zuzana Králová, Filip Krampla, Zuzana Kubelková, Anna Marešová, Monsters (Michaela Labudová, Pavel Frič), Papelote (Kateřina Šachová, Štěpánka Bláhovcová, Hana Šradějová, Helena Kopecká, Filip Šach), Helena Patelisová, Petr Pščolka, Reformate (Michaela Klihavcová, Sára Bergmannová, Tomáš Brychta), Tomáš Rejmon, Segrasegra (Dagmar Mertová, Eliška Mertová), Lenka Skalická Husárková, Studio Divize (Sára Bergmanová, Tomáš Brychta, Karla Gondeková, Jan Buchtela), Studio Revír (Martina Kleinová, Miroslav Nachlinger), Roman Šedina, ŠTIMTIM (Marek Štim, Radek Timoftej), Jakub Vlček.
Jaroslav Johan Polanecký / curator
The word design has been a part of the Faculty of Art and Design‘s UJEP in Ústí nad Labem (formerly the Faculty of Applied Arts and Design) name since 2000 when it replaced the Institute of Fine Arts (IVK) founded in 1993. Education in the field of design took place within IVK from the beginning. First in studios focused on glass and ceramics, and later on in other specialized workplaces focused on graphic and product design, textile design, and interior design.
The Faculty of Art and Design (hereinafter FUD) organized several representative exhibitions in which the design work of students and teachers was presented. From all of those, let us name at least the exhibitions Předlice University in 2012, and Mo(nu)mental topography in 2018. However, these projects were always thematically conceived, and focused primarily on the current state of creation and the potential of authors associated with FUD. It has never been a retrospective show of success, with a respectable number of students, graduates, and staff working in the field of design and graphic design at the national and international level. Several contemporary design shows, including competitions, have been supported, participated in, or directly initiated by the FUD.
From the beginning, the Dream Team exhibition was conceived as a meeting of successful artists and designers who completed (not temporarily studied) at least one of the three levels of study (bachelor's, master's, doctoral) at FUD. In the field of design, the measures of success are very diverse. These can be various awards obtained in the field within competitions, shows, and student or professional awards, quality authorial/business concepts enriching the market of practically anything, prosperous craft workshops, as well as a collective creative involvement under a studio brand, or a largely anonymous design activity in a company with a huge impact on the serial production of mass-produced goods.
An exhibition conceived in this way requires a very specific approach by its curator. Instead of space for the realization of well-thought-out ideological concepts, there was a clear and pragmatic task: to exhibit results of the work of respected personalities working in different branches of a wide range of design of all kinds, with numerous overlaps, in one place. The unifying criteria in this case are the affiliation to the FUD and the unquestionable quality of the exhibited works. The selection of exhibitors was therefore intensively consulted with the heads of the studios from which they graduated. It is worth noting that, in most cases, the curator's pre-selection of authors coincided with the choices of their former teachers.
The scope of the Dream Team exhibition was, naturally, limited by technical possibilities. At first, it was the limits of the space of Armaturka in Ústí nad Labem, where exhibiting more than 20 authors was not possible, with the limited number of available slots in the design section. Then, during the preparations for the exhibition, there was a significant change in the social situation due to the global epidemic. Thus, the preparatory team decided to conduct an online show in the environment of a virtual Armaturka. Thanks to this, it was possible to "install" more works than the physical exhibition would allow; however, not even a virtual gallery is inflatable. In any case, it is only a selection, however carefully considered. There are certainly many more successful FUD graduates in the field of design than this exhibition shows.
I would like to thank all the exhibitors for their helpfulness and cooperation in light of the difficult and uncertain circumstances of the past months when the situation changed from week to week, sometimes from day to day. Everyone who had devotedly participated in the realization of the exhibition in its originally unplanned virtual form has my immense appreciation. For me, as a curator, this is a completely new experience. I hope that the results of our joint work will be accepted with understanding and, at the same time, will be a fundamental proof of the vitality not only of the FUD but of the entire design community.