Vojtěch Hlaváček – That’s What I Saw
February 20, 2025 — March 28, 2025
Gallery SPZ, Prague, Czechia
"Dawes laughed long and loud.
'The word isn't print - the word is build. We're building tools, making things.'
He pulled out the crude wooden cup and laid it down on the ash.
'Printing means merely copying. I can't explain to you what building is; you'll have to try it yourself to find out. Building and printing are two totally different things.'"
(Philip K. Dick, Pay For The Printer, 1954)
Vojtěch Hlaváček's sculptural installation works with combinatorics in the broadest sense of the word. The deconstructed transport box for artworks, the embedded relief plate and its other variations on the walls demonstrate a twofold reflection: firstly, on the dynamic handling of the material and secondly, on the possible recycling of personal and global contents, of which we are often only observers. The exploration of the relationship between physical matter and lived experience in the urban environment thus naturally straddles the boundary between the abstract and the concrete. This becomes apparent upon first reading the reliefs, in which we find both a semiotic code in the form of language or in the industrial marking of goods, and an alienated human face. The process of repetition, transformation and experimentation is part of the artistic process for Hlaváček.
The central object itself, based on the shape of the protective crate, is made from found materials - the base plate, planks, plywood and the welded chassis gave shape to the matrix from which the reliefs were then formed. These take advantage of the original properties of the matter from which they are made to enhance their qualities. The plaster mould thus produced a sequence of cassettes using a variety of techniques in different finishes: from French stucco and concrete, “fused” cardboard and epoxy, to the use of coffee, roiboss or green vitriol, which give the reliefs a specific patina (in the case of vitriol, the oxidised patina of rust). The cassettes, which can be moved and inserted arbitrarily into the box, together with their visual content, introduce into the discussion a consideration of a certain flexibility and resilience of perspectives or also a consideration of originality and prefabrication.
The phrases "Ghosts Against Greed," and "We Will Haunt You" are based on banners captured in photographs from the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) protests that took place in 2011. In this case, the protest is seen more as a fragment of a broader context, a puzzle into which Hlaváček adds other, more personal layers that relate to the recycling of themes already present in his bachelor's thesis. Following on from the use of images from the protest, the following becomes the starting point for developing the question: do the reliefs still relate to reality, or are they rather a kind of xth-order reality (in the sense of Baudrillard's theory of simulacra)? If we witness something, does that automatically mean that we are credible? Is it really what we have seen? The "Demonstration Only" sign on the box then alludes to exactly the above.
Hlaváček's artistic process is a process of experimental research, exploring the potential of materials and technological processes. The results of his work are not static but dynamic, avoiding strict definition and straightforward description, which entails a degree of encryption that may seem impenetrable at first glance. In a way, however, it precisely captures the fragmentation of information flows, the multiplicity of technology and the difficulty of grasping the hyperobjects of the contemporary world. The installation debris and dust on the floor beneath the reliefs remind us of the artist's attempt to materialize the experienced - to point out the difference between "print" and "build".
Vojtěch Hlaváček (*1994) is a graduate of the studio of Fine Arts I (Dominik Lang) at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague. He is currently completing his Master's degree in the studio of Figural Sculpture and Medal (Vojtěch Míča) at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, and spent the winter semester 2024/2025 at The Royal Academy of Art (KABK) in the Netherlands. His most recent solo exhibition "of, relating to, or proceeding from a root" could be seen two years ago at AM180 (Prague). Apart from his independent artistic practice, he is also engaged in exhibition scenography and architectural and interior bespoke projects through Studio Archt Ateliers, of which he is the co-founder.