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Dominik Lang

Missing Parts

a cura di Lýdia Pribišová

The Gallery Apart - via Francesco Negri 43, Roma
Inaugurazione: venerdì 15 marzo, ore 18,30

The Gallery Apart è orgogliosa di inaugurare i suoi nuovi spazi di via Francesco Negri 43 con la mostra Missing Parts, la prima personale in una galleria italiana dell’artista ceco Dominik Lang, curata da Lýdia Pribišová.
Per l'occasione Dominik Lang ha progettato una installazione site specific che interagisce con i nuovi caratteristici spazi della galleria. Lang indaga sistematicamente l’ambiente che lo circonda, modificandolo con i suoi interventi architettonici. Nella progettazione di questo nuovo lavoro parte dalla distribuzione degli spazi, si focalizza sulle sue regole di composizione per poi applicarle al suo processo creativo. L’artista riflette sui possibili significanti degli spazi della galleria, sottolinea o nega la struttura formale dello spazio, reagisce alla sua funzionalità, non solo architettonica, ma anche sociale ed istituzionale. Le contraddizioni interne della forma, del materiale e dei significati sono analogiche alle soggettive emozioni dell’artista.
Dominik Lang opera con i moduli spaziali, trasforma lo spazio espositivo, enfatizza o contesta le sue funzionalità. Indaga la relazione tra lo spazio e la superficie, creando il proprio archivio della plasticità, positiva e negativa. Segnala la nuova forma autonoma, la quale mantiene la propria ambiguità, l’apertura verso le diverse interpretazioni. I lavori di Lang sono in mezzo tra la scultura e l’architettura, la sua installazione potrebbe essere interpretata anche come un modello possibile, come una partitura architettonica. L’autore manipola i materiali primari, crudi, dai quali compone la nuova totalità, non evitando il rischio. Le sue opere sono un po’ come i rebus: concettuali, assurdi, a volte surreali, provocatori.
Dominik Lang dedica una grande attenzione anche alla storia passata. Come se cercasse di ricordare qualcosa che non ha vissuto lui stesso. Nelle sue realizzazioni precedenti aveva interagito con la scena artistica cecoslovacca non ufficiale che, attiva nella seconda metà dello ventesimo secolo, non poteva fino al 1989 esporre nelle strutture ufficiali. Artisti che oggi cominciano ad essere internazionalemente riconosciuti, come Maria Bartuszová, Hugo Demartini, Milan Grygar, Eva Kmentová, Bĕla Kolářová, Stanislav Kolíbal, Karel Malich Jiří Novák, incarnavano allora l’opposizione contro il realismo socialista, supportato dal regime, ed avevano creato opere avanguardistiche, astratte. Lang così rappresenta una certa storia dell’arte, l’arte diventa l’oggetto della ricerca artistica. Punto di partenza simile aveva anche la sua installazione La Città Dormente alla 54. Biennale di Venezia, nel padiglione ceco e slovacco nel 2011, dove aveva presentato le sculture di suo padre Jiří Lang, e le aveva inserite in un contesto nuovo.
Nei nuovi spazi di The Gallery Apart Lang reagisce criticamente ai messaggi del modernismo e alla astrazione geometrica del dopoguerra. L’artista opera nello spazio della galleria con un intervento scultoreo che coinvolge entrambi i piani espositivi, sconvolgendo la gerarchia delle diverse parti dello spazio. La ricerca di Dominik Lang diventa così “il commento dei modi, come le cose funzionano, come sono composte e come sono preservate dalla società”. Seguendo simili suggestioni, Lang affianca poi alla grande scultura site specific un'ulteriore installazione composta di sculture, collage e disegni dotati di specifica autonomia ma nel contempo logicamente interconnessi in un unico scenario storico-artistico.


DOMINIK LANG
nato a Praga nel 1980 dove vive e lavora.

MOSTRE PERSONALI

2013 Missing Parts, The Gallery Apart, Rome
Expanded anxiety, curated by Annette Südbeck, Secession Wien, A
2012 Dominik Lang. Humble Objects, Kunsthaus Dresden, DE
The Lovers, curated by Karel Císář, Galerie Krobath, Vienna
Documentation, Hunt Kastner Artworks, Prague
solo project in the Respirirum, Veletržní Palace, National Gallery, Prague (opening September)
2011 Private Collection, Galerie Krobath, Berlin, DE
Local Museum, Galerie Kabinet T, Zlin
Sleeping City, curated by Yvona Ferencová, Czechoslovak Pavilion, 54th la Biennale di Venezia, Venice, IT
2010 Wall, Gallery 99, DUMB: Brno House of Arts, Brno
2009 Storage, Karlín Studios, Prague
Architect (a selection of works), Gallery 99, DUMB: Dům umění v Brně, Brno
Visitor, Galerie Na bidlýku, Brno
Place for a Viewer, Yvona Ferencová , the Atrium at the Moravian Gallery, Brno
Three-Dimensional Geometry, GNF, Ústí nad Labem
2008 Between, Zamek Ujazdowski, Warszawa, PL
2007 Things for Viewing and Walking Around, IMPEX, Budapest, HU
2006 Space Imagination, etc. galerie, Prague
Give Me the Brick, WNOD gallery, Prague
2005 Czech Republic, Gallery Jelení, Foundation and Center for Contemporary Art Prague
We Did Almost Everything (with Jiří Thýn), Entrance Gallery, Prague
Shopping Bag, Preproduction space - gallery, Berlin, DE
If this Procedure Should Fail, We Will Try Another (with Eva Koťátková), Galerie im Alcatraz, Hallein, AT
VAU !, Gallery Jeleni, Foundation and Center for Contemporary Art Prague
Cottage Settlement, Gallery of Young Artists, Brno
2004 Dyzajn blok, Goethe-Institut, Prague

PRINCIPALI MOSTRE COLLETTIVE (dopo il 2006)

2013 Collection Joseph Kouli, Mains d'ouvres, Saint Ouen, FR
2012 The Beginning of the Century, curated by Pavlina Morganová, Pilsen Regional Museum, Pilsen
Intense Proximity, La Trienniale, curated by Okwui Enwezor, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, FR
Between the First and Second Modernity, 1985-2012, curated by Edith Jeřabková, and Jiří & Jana Sevčik, National Gallery in Prague at the Veletržní Palace, Prague
2011 Auxiliary Constructions - Behilfskonstruktionen, curated by Petra Reichensperger, Kunsthaus Dresden - Staedtische Galerie fuer Gegenwartskunst / Municipal Gallery for Contemporary Art, Dresden, DE
Les amis des mes amis sont mes amis, hommage a Ján Mančuška, Galerie Jocelyn Wolff, Paris, FR
Sculpture in the Street, curated by Karel Císář, DUMB: Dům umění v Brně, Brno
Zentrum (with M.Geiger & M. Mazanec), Czech Center Vienna & Austrian Cultural Forum, Prague
2010 One Day You Will Lose It All, 4+4+4 Days in Motion Festival, Prague
5th Biennale of Young Artists, curated by Tomáš Pospisžyl, House of the Stone Bell, Prague City Gallery City, Prague
Dziewiec tytulow, BWA Zielona Gora, PL
2009 White Paper, Black Bride, curated by Jiří Kovanda & Edita Jeřabková, Prague Biennale 4, Karlín Hall, Prague
Easy Actions Without a Clear End / Azioni molto semplici senza uno scopo preciso, Artra, Milano, IT
Lived In Spaces, Krajska galerie Zlín
Brno Art Open 2009, DUMB: Dům umění v Brně, Brno
2008 Bewohnte Orte, Illusionen über die Stadt und das Land , Kunstverein Springhornhof, Neuenkirchen, Neuenkirchen, DE
Love at First Site, curated by Emanuela Nobile Mino, Gallery Futura, Prague
MANUAL CC, Instructions for beginners and advanced players, CSW Centrum Sztuki Wspolczesnej / Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle, Warszawa, PL
Contemporary Czech Cubism, curated by Václav Magid, Old Town Hall, Prague City Gallery, Prague
Výstava Humhala, Galerie Jelení - Center for Contemporary Art, Prague
Archive, (with Jiří Hůla), inaugural exhibition of DOX - Centre for Contemporary Art, Prague
2007 GNP2, curated by William Hollister, Mars Gallery, Moscow, RU
The Collectors: Live Re-Edit, curated by Jiří Ptáček, Dům panů z Kuštát, Brno
Leif Rumke Award, ZKMax, Munich, DE
Glocal Outsiders, curated by Jiří David & Vasil Artamonov, Praguebiennale 3, Karlin Hall, Prague
GNP, curated by Kryštof Kintera, Municipal Library, Prague City Gallery, Prague
Essl Award Finalists, Gallery at the Academy of Fine Arts, Prague



Dominik Lang

Missing Parts

curated by Lýdia Pribišová

The Gallery Apart - via Francesco Negri 43, Rome
Vernissage: Friday March 15th, 6.30pm

The Gallery Apart is pleased to announce the upcoming opening event of its new exhibition spaces in via Francesco Negri 43 (Rome) which coincides with the presentation of Missing Parts, the first solo show by Czech artist Dominik Lang to be hosted by an Italian art gallery and curated by Lýdia Pribišová.
For the inaugural exhibition Dominik Lang has conceived a site-specific installation which interacts with the new distinctive gallery spaces. Lang systematically investigates the environment that surrounds him, transforming it through his architectural works. In designing this new work, he started off with the layout of the spaces, he focused on the composition rules in order to apply them to his creative process. The artist reflects upon the potential meanings of the gallery spaces, underlines or denies the ordered structure of the space, he challenges its functionalities, not only architectural, but also social and institutional. The internal contradictions of the structure, of the materials and of the meanings reflect the artist’s personal feelings.
Dominik Lang works with the spatial modules, transforms the exhibition spaces, highlights or challenges its functionalities. He investigates the relationship between the space and the surface, creating his own archive of plasticity, either positive or negative. He highlights the new independent form, which keeps its ambiguity, the openness to different interpretations. Lang’s works are halfway between sculpture and architecture, his installation piece may be also interpreted as a possible pattern, as an architectural structure within the space. The artist manipulates the most basic of materials and weaves them into a new totality, never shunning the risk. His pieces are kind of a rebus: conceptual, absurd, sometimes surreal, provocative.
Moreover, Dominik Lang devotes great attention to the history of the past. It’s as if he strives to remind something that he himself did not get to experience. In his previous works he interacted with the so-called unofficial Czechoslovakian art scene of the second half of the 1950s and that until 1989 was not allowed to stage their artworks in the official public venues. Artists who are now finally starting to emerge and gain recognition throughout the world, such as Maria Bartuszová, Hugo Demartini, Milan Grygar, Eva Kmentová, Bĕla Kolářová, Stanislav Kolíbal, Karel Malich Jiří Novák, at that time represented the opposition against the ideologies of the State-endorsed socialist realism, and who were engaged in creating an avant-garde, abstract art. Thus, Lang represents a certain history of art, art becomes the subject of the artistic research. His exhibition project titled “The Sleeping City”, held in the Pavilion of the Czech and Slovak Republic at the 54th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia in Italy 2011, shared a similar starting point, where he staged Jiří Lang’s sculptures, the artist’s own father, placing them within a new context.
In the new exhibition spaces of The Gallery Apart, Lang critically challenges the messages of modernism as well as the post-war geometric abstraction. The artist’s sculptural intervention thoroughly invades the two gallery’s exhibition floors, subverting the hierarchy of the different space divisions. Hence, Dominik Lang’s research becomes “the comment on the method, how things work, how they are created and how society preserves them”. Following similar suggestions, Lang joins the great site specific sculpture with a further installation comprising Sculptures, collages and drawings with specific autonomy but at the same time logically interconnected in a single historical and artistic scenario.