Czech-American artist Petr Motycka projects his work “Projections”, created especially for Langstrasse, onto the terrace of Perla-Mode.
Every evening, a new black-and-white drawing in the style of a trivial comic is projected onto the outer wall of the terrace. Over the last four nights, the complete series of drawings has been projected as a comic strip showing a plot with minimal movement: a kneeling, naked woman opens a man’s trousers, while the man remains faceless; the characters conduct a dialogue in speech bubbles. The text and image do not appear to be directly related, but the depiction – a man and a woman in a suggestive sexual act – inevitably provokes a new context. Over the past few weeks in Zurich, Petr Motycka has collected authentic statements and texts, interviews, advertisements and media reports on Swiss politics, society and the European Football Championship in Switzerland. These text fragments, cut from their original context, are linked in the speech bubbles in the comic to form an absurd dialogue.
For the closing event on 21 June, message salon will open its doors and Petr Motycka will show documentary material on “Projections” in the exhibition space.
Petr Motycka about “Projection”
“Projections reflect my long term focus on the roles of information and various kinds of speech. In the context of Euro-American culture, it is possible to say anything. More than what is being said, it is important where, by whom and for what reason. The value of information is in the means of its use, or simply put, what are we trying to achieve by saying what we say. What is being said is not important in itself. Projections is an appropriation of different types of speech from different contexts.
News headlines, texts from political campaigns, information from Euro08 advertising material, citations of politicians and people from the street, quoted by news reports have been taken out of their original contexts to create a new speech, in this case a somewhat trivial comics strip, formally reflecting the area of Langstrasse, as the red-light district of Zurich.”
Petr Motycka is currently artist in residence in Zurich, invited by Pro Helvetia. He is active on the international art scene with the artist collective “Pode Bal”. Founded in Prague in 1997, “Pode Bal” presents exhibitions and performances in galleries, art spaces and public spaces.