VERNON PROJEKT

Hermanova 12, Praha 7

Press release
issued 10.7.10, Prague

PUŠKIN/TALACKO
ALTER EGO
22.7.- 27.8.2010, (pre-opening 21.7., 18:00), Vernon Projekt, Heřmanova 12

The art duo Puškin/Talacko is bringing its exhibition Alter Ego to Vernon Projekt. Prepare yourselves for encounter of the third kind with figures familiar and unfamiliar, but definitely as you’ve never seen them before. Puškin/Talacko are giving us the ALTER EGOS. David Švehlík as a boar skin, Tomáš Verner as a pocket knife, or Jan Haubert as a black shoebox? The installation is a notional encounter among figures who elsewhere may not have met. And of course you have a role to play here too. Can you answer the questions Puškin/Talacko are asking?
Can it be said that you are a being, a human, but you are not a work of art?
‘We assign you an object, your Alter Ego. This is an alternative physical object that will now be exhibited in the gallery. Could it be said that this object, this Alter Ego, is now a work of art? Or not? Do you think that your Alter Ego is now art? We do not yet have enough evidence. What is certain is that if this object is really put on exhibit, the situation will become somewhat complicated.
And what do you think about this? Will you take possession of the object assigned to you? Will you think about it? Will you be insulted by our choice? How do you see your own Ego, your existence, and the image you present? What do you think you are?’


Puškin/Talacko

Alexandr Puškin was born in Prague in 1975. Patricie Talačko was born in 1976 in St. Gallen Switzerland. Perhaps it was fate that brought them together in 1999 at the Department of Stage Design at DAMU in Prague. In 2006 they appeared for the first time together at Roxy/NoD with a performance titled ‘De/Solution 3’ (tragic repetition). Three years later they appeared again with a performance called ‘With Him’ at Benzinkia u Slaného, and then in a joint exhibition and performance titled ‘Testimony’ at the Prague gallery Pavilon. For anyone who saw their performance ‘The Gift’ at Divus Underground in 2010 it will be clear, or perhaps unclear, who this involves. In the words of Ivan Mečl:
‘First we should say that this is a performance* – is what the earl of one archival theatre would certain say. I don’t want to see it for anything in the world! We’ll happily remain in the muck of ignorance because we like not going far, wide, and deep into the hierarchy of the theatrishment of the artvant-garde and we don’t want our exploits archived even at a later age. We want to perish in the forest beneath the rain, with a large disco ball over our heads and a station between our legs. Better that Pati go wet herself and Puškin just screws off somewhere. It’s better for everything to remain forgotten. What keeps us afloat is the truth that this has no meaning at all. That and the freedom to sink beneath the surface if we wish.’
* ach, a few question marks and a couple of explanation marks and maybe even an raised forefinger – Masaryk!!! Back to the grave you eternal, vile moralistic beast!!!


CONTACT

www.galerievernon.com  
Markéta Faustová/PR
+420 773 915 501
marketa.faustova@tina-b.com