2018, solo show at Start Up, Prague City Gallery, Prague, curated by Jitka Hlaváčková, video co-directed with Kryštof Hlůževideo projection (HD video, 12 min loop) & projection stand (metal, fabric, foam, with wooden, plastic, metal details) & carpet & pillows (fabric, foam)
“From exploring new technologies and the greater galaxy, to artistic expression and spiritual reflection, intuitive Ultra Violet lights the way to what is yet to come,” says Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of Pantone’s color institute. “PANTONE 18-3838 Ultra Violet conjures mindfulness, spirituality, creativity, experimentation, and non-conformity.” (https://www.pantone.com/color-of- the-year-2018)
In this work, created for the intimate interior of the former stables at the Colloredo-Mansfeld Palace, the viewer sees a girl moving on a screen according to a predetermined choreography. At the same time, we hear an original monologue spoken in a suggestive girl’s voice. The young girl on the screen is almost provocatively natural; she seems innocent, alive, and attractive. When she disappears from view for a moment, the viewer will most likely yearn for her to return. Perhaps, in her company, we felt young, full of life, and innocent ourselves. However, we have no way of calling her back or in any way influencing her actions.
In her exhibition commentary, Valentýna Janů assigns her flighty heroine the role of “a girl who keeps the visitor company.” A less immediately apparent but more literal interpretation of this statement might tell us not only that the girl on the screen blesses us by her presence, but also that she keeps us company in the sense of being a metaphor for society. In 1999, France’s Tiqqun collective published a book of diverse writings titled Premiers matériaux pour une Théorie de la Jeune-Fille (Preliminary Materials for a Theory of the Young-Girl), which formulated a parallel to contemporary society in the form of the somewhat problematic archetype of the Young-Girl who was a slave to consumerism. Despite the fact that our society is aging, the concept of woman as a symbol for life is in many ways replaced by the young girl. Is the creature on the screen a girl or a young woman? Her chaotic behavior and the parallel story about decisions, loneliness, and love offer a clear answer. It is an urgent, almost plaintive message, one that can perhaps be placated by the emotional force of PANTONE 18-3838 TCX Ultra Violet.
“Is your blue the same as mine?” the girl asks. Can two pairs of eyes see the same color? Our realities are growing apart, and we each live our lives in our own private dimension. The rhythms of our lives, our emotional expectations, our political beliefs, and our view of ourselves all follow mutually non-intersecting trajectories, an infinite number of which fill the universe. Is there any chance at all of our trajectories connecting? Each person possesses a different visual apparatus, a unique structure of synapses with a different way of processing information, and above all a different cultural foundation and thus different experiences for defining colors… According to some studies, today’s generation of twentysomethings is most afraid of the possibility that they might not find a partner (https://www.vice.com/en_uk/article/nnyk37/what-vice-readers-fear-the-most-hannah-ewens-love- loneliness)...
text by Jitka Hlaváčková
directed by: Valentýna Janů & Kryštof Hlůžedirector of photography: Kryštof Hlůžegirl: Valentýna Janůassistant director: Lubomír Balleksound: Martin Blauberpostproduction: David Koblížekboomer: Juras KarakaMUA: Kateřina Koki Mlejnkovácostume: Karolína Juříkovátext: Valentýna Janůvoice-over: Ewelina Aifen Chiu
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