Tereza Buskova

New Website, New Blog!

2011-12-03T05:41:00.000-08:00

Tereza Buskova has launched a new website with a new blog, please follow this link to keep up to date.....

www.terezabuskova.com

Beheading of the Cockerel donated to the Freedom From Torture Charity Art Auction

2011-11-05T05:32:00.000-07:00

I am pleased to recommend attending the Biennial Freedom From Torture Charity Art Auction on 29th November 2011. All proceeds go directly to Freedom from Torture, helping survivors of torture and organised violence. There will be up to 60 artists' works available, many appearing in a silent auction with guide prices ranging from £250 to £6000.

Tereza Buskova has donated Edition 3/3 of Beheading of the Cockerel (2009) and I hear that it will be in the featured in the exciting live auction amongst the likes of the Chapman Brothers, Michael Craig Martin, Julian Opie, Paula Rego and Ian Davenport. Christie's Director, Piers Boothman will be the auctioneer for the evening.

Date: Monday 28th November

Time: Drinks and canapés from 6:30pm

Venue: Village Underground, 54 Holywell Lane, City of London EC2A 3PQ.

Website: : art.freedomfromtorture.org

If you can't make it on the night absentee bids can me made on line.

Buskova in the Woods - Long Live the Lincoln Art Programme

2011-08-18T14:14:00.000-07:00

Installation Shots of 'The King of Lincolnshire' & a rare capturing of Tereza in her natural habitat

Breaking out of the white cube and thriving in Lincoln thanks to the fabulous LAP curators.

LAP Curator Alan Armstrong kindly noted that ' a highlight to the project was an installation by Tereza Buskova, who placed a huge billboard in the middle of the forest, exploring the mythology of the woodland in English History. “The billboard is an example of how we can show 2D work in a wood without being completely lost,” he said'...... Lincolnite review

The King of Lincolnshire - Charter of the Forest

2011-07-16T11:25:00.000-07:00

'The King of Lincolshire' Production Shot

POLITICS OF LAND USE & WOODLAND MYTHOLOGY

CHARTER OF THE FOREST - 6th & 7th August - 11am to 3pm

Chambers Farm Wood, Hoop Lane, Near Wragby, Lincolnshire (FREE bus from Lincoln)

Tereza Buskova / Richard DeDomenici / James Wilkes and Townley & Bradby / Via Vaudeville! / Boyd Webb / Carey Young

Magic cows, animal protests, smoke signals, camping trips that go bump in the night...

FREE EVENT

FREE BUS from The Collection, Danes Terrace, Lincoln, LN2 1LP www.charter.eventbrite.com

Lincoln is approximately 1.5 hours on the train from London, with regular connections

The Collection is a short walk from the train station

The Charter of the Forest was outlined as a complimentary charter to the Magna Carter from which it originated, and was issued in 1217 by King Henry III. The charter is sometimes referenced as the Charter of the Common Man, as it was the first document to give land access and ownership rights to people outside of nobility or clergy. Lincoln Castle is the only site which holds a copy of both the Charter and the Magna Carter.

Chambers Farm Wood is a small part of the Lincolnshire Lime Woods site which stretches 60 square miles across Lincolnshire.

The Lime Woods contain around a quarter of the countries historical woodland along with a number of medieval Abbeys’ and archaeological sites, whilst various areas across the site have been designated sites of specific scientific interest.

The charters re-establishment of rights of access and the historical relevance of the Lincolnshire woodlands, act as a starting point for the artist’s commissions. The proposed selling of woodland under parliament and the verbal mythologies that have been passed down through generations exploring the rural of the countryside will be explored throughout the project.

Working in collaboration with The Collection, and The Forestry Commission, ‘Charter of the Forest’ will present a number of new artist’s commissions located throughout the woodland surrounding Chambers Farm Wood, that explore issues relating to land ownership and use of woodland space.

Tereza Buskova will present a staged tableau in the form of billboard situated within the woodland, exploring the mythology of the woodland in English history combined with the Celtic goddess Fidias and her magic cow.

Richard DeDomenici will be staging a live protest as the animals of Chambers Farm Wood receive eviction notices, the audience members are vital components to the piece which will be turned into a film.

James Wilkes and Townley & Bradby will take the audience on a tour of the woodland in a disjointed nature using a two way walkie talkie system, the audience will have to communicate with the artists at a distance, and ultimately fend for themselves.

Via Vaudeville! will combine tradition with contemporary covert emergency signals, combining the oldest form of communication, smoke signals, with the latest coded messages used within the public domain.

Boyd Webb will be screening an existing film where a pantomime horse and dog undertake a camping trip that goes horribly wrong.

Carey Young will also be screening an existing video work that repositions terms and conditions from websites onto the countryside, in an attempt question its saleability.

CONVERSE SUBMISSON OF THE WEEK: TEREZA BUSKOVA

2011-06-17T01:54:00.001-07:00

The Mother of Masopust, Screen Print, Edition 3 + 2 AP

The Carollers' Wives, Screen Print, Edition 3 + 2 AP

These screen prints for Masopust have been kept under wraps up until Dazed & Confused selected them as Submission of the Week for the Converse/Dazed Emerging Artists Award 2011 in partnership with the Whitechapel gallery.

Susanna Davies-Crook has done a great feature and interview with her on Dazed Digital.......

Hopefully the judges will short list, exhibit and award her the overall prize, but for now it is good to see Masopust getting some much deserved exposure.....

Buskova Commission for Lincoln Art Programme

2011-06-07T12:31:00.000-07:00

Book your coach seat from Lincoln's 'The Collection' to Chambers Farm Wood to see the Lincoln Art Programme's most interesting project to date.

Amongst the thoughtfully selected group of artists picked for this historic art event in the woods is Tereza.

She has been commissioned to produce a large scale print. A respect for our history and the natural world will be distilled and reincarnated into a liberated experimental billboard totem in the Woods.

There will be horns, the Haxey Hood and it will be opening on August 6th and 7th.

Depending on the weather, the print may be there until September 25th.

The Spring Rising at the Royal Academy Summer Show 2011

2011-05-22T12:31:00.000-07:00

Image of Work in Progress for Giclee print edition of 20, The Spring Rising 2011

This year Tereza was invited by Royal Academician Chris Orr to submit her work to the Royal Academy Summer Show.

She took the opportunity to produce both a smaller and more affordable 20 edition print from her Spring Equinox project named 'The Spring Rising'.

Drawing on the ethos of her 176 Zabludowicz Editions this will make her work accessible to both experienced and first time collectors aiming to make acquisitions more efficiently in this age of austerity.

The seasonal cycles of fertility may enchant us like the initial beauty of this print, but I find that change is often painful. We only have to look the Arab Spring to recognise this. Here we see Winter and Spring embodied with peacefulness, pride, richness and poverty.

To see the finished print go to this year's Royal Academy Summer Show. Maybe you will need binoculars to spot it amongst the chaotic tapestry of Gallery I ..............

Yinka Shonibare's Guest Projects Premiers Masopust

2011-03-23T13:06:00.000-07:00

Masopust Production Shot, 2010

After spending a little time off producing an amazing baby boy named Emil, rumour has it that this summer Buskova will be back, this time in the wood's of Lincoln on behalf of the Lincoln Art Programme, but before then her 2010 film Masopust will have its premier exhibition screening at.............

Exhibition Title: PROPS

Private View: 1 April 2011 (18.00-21.00h)

Dates: 2 April 2011 - 30 April 2011

Venue: Guest Projects, 1 Andrews Road, London E8 4QL tel: 020 7249 1409

Opening Hours: Wed-Thu 11:00 to 18:00 (by appointment, tel: 07527992912, 07929611668)

Fri-Sun 11:00 to 19:00

Talk: Ellen Mara de Wachter (curator 176 Zabludowicz) and PROPS artists.

9 April 2011 (16:00 -17:30h) Free.

PROPS is an exhibition celebrating theatricality in contemporary art. The artists employ a variety of media, including collage, film, sculpture and performance to explore the narrative potential and rhetorical force of spectacle, ritual and display. At the heart of PROPS is an inquiry into the status and boundaries of entertainment in everyday life. The exhibition draws on an international cast of artists who play with the terms and distinctions of artifice and simulation, reality and play, participation and engagement. Co-directed by Adam James and Tintin Cooper.

Guest Projects is an initiative conceived by Yinka Shonibare MBE to offer the opportunity for artistic practitioners, of any artistic discipline (dance, visual arts, music) to have access to Guest Projects exhibition space.

Participating Artists:

(1) Tintin Cooper (2) Tereza Buskova (3) Adam James (4) Woodrow Kernohan (5) Sakarin Krue-on (6) Andy Parker (7) Tuksina Pipitkul (8) Jessica Sue-Layton

*Also including catalogue works by Boyle N Shaw and an opening night performance by musician Wayne Binitie.

Masopust is supported by Czech Centre London, Shaw & Co & the Arts Council UK

A Fluid State: Food, Glorious Art

2010-12-01T23:53:00.000-08:00

Winter and Spring, Edition 1 of 3, Screen Print, (Tereza Buskova) 2009

Today the artist and curator Lesley Deere is taking away Buskova's print which pitches winter against spring, or perhaps both against man. It will join a select group of visual artists and musicians including her long term collaborator Bela Emerson at a very intriguing gourmet food event in a secret location..........

'Experience curators The Tasting Sessions bring back “A Fluid State” London’s most exciting food and drink festival for a second year – this time over 4 days from 02 to 05 December 2010 – with an even wilder take on food and drink meets art,music and live performance.'

For more details see: www.afluidstate.com

400 women, 16 Czechs & 7 Brits

2010-10-20T13:12:00.000-07:00

For Maria Santos Ramirez Vega, Tereza Buskova (Mixed Media) 2010, a project for 400 Women

Just one more number. One more artist in the group show. One more Eastern European immigrant in London reflecting on their journey. One more woman paying tribute to the suffering of women.

In the coming month of November as the UK views people more and more as numbers in order that we can efficiently reduce some group of other numbers called a deficit, Buskova will be one more exhibiting alongside artists paying tribute to murdered Mexican women, and one more exhibiting amongst yet more artists reflecting on how their travels to and from Czech have emanated in their work.

See you there at:

400 Women

12-30 November 2010

Shoreditch Town Hall Basement, 380 Old Street, London EC1V 9LT

Private View: 11 November

A project by Tamsyn Challenger & curated by Ellen Mara De Wachter

'The figure of 400 women is now old news. Since January 2010 there have been more than 300 women murdered or abducted in the area. That's more than one a day.' (Ellen Mara De Wachter)

LOST IN TRANSLATION? – 1-19 November 2010 – Riverside Studios

OPENING PARTY – SUNDAY 14 NOVEMBER 5.30pm!!!

Curated by Michaela Freeman & organised by the Czech Centre

'Mostly, it doesn’t matter to people where they are from until they move elsewhere. That’s when you really start to see who you are; to the point of surprising yourself with unexpected yearning for the national identity and culture, which is suddenly becoming comprehensible and visible to you.' (Michaela Freeman)

Tereza Buskova: Saatchi Online Critic’s Choice by Paul Carey-Kent

2010-10-07T23:08:00.000-07:00

Film shoot 'Masopust', Feb 15th 2010, Sumava, Bohemia

It looks like Saatchi's on line blog is now on line and here is Paul Carey-Kent's review of Buskova to date. One of the best descriptions of her work if you ask me:

'For a straightforwardly-presented film to work in a gallery context -rather than just turning the gallery into a cinema – it needs to have an immediate impact which draws the passing viewer in, whenever they arrive. The London-based Czech Tereza Buskova has made three films of a few minutes each – with a fourth in production – which achieve that with intoxicatingly effect.

The films present living tableaux, more like a linked succession of moving paintings than a story, in which traditional Bohemian rituals are seamlessly merged with artistic reinterpretations and interventions. They are wordless, their heady atmosphere heightened by haunting, cello-heavy soundtracks. Buskova makes the costumes and props, directs the actor-dancers and edits the film. She also makes screenprints from the action: the colour coordination and heraldic flatness of the scenes are well-suited to the still image.

Buskova’s first three films have given us her take on ‘Wedding Rituals’ (2007), which seem more foreboding than celebratory; the logical follow-up of a ‘Forgotten Marriage’ (2008); and ‘Spring Equinox’ (2009), her version of Easter rituals in the oldest village in Moravia. Slow-moving white-painted near-naked women, cardboard cut-out animals to represent fertility, and bizarre headwear recur. There are narrative strands of sorts but they’re mysterious: the men in Spring Equinox, for example, start out joyfully whipping maidens’ buttocks but end up blindfolded and stranded in a lake, at which they now lash out.

The effect is a kind of invisibly unified collage of the old and the new which freshens up the decadence of the past. But what lies beyond the mesmerising folk surrealism? The films assert the resilience of local cultures – these rituals have seen off communism – and also ask two interesting questions. First, what role should traditions play in the modern world? Best, Buskova implies, not to let them ossify in conservation, but to change them to suit the present. Second, what is the boundary between life and art? The melding of the two shows that the division is not such a simple one, and speaks for the art of living.

Next up will be the results of Buskova’s February filming of the carnival of Masopust, in which, she says, Bohemian villagers deal with their cold winter with a combination of drink, meat, processions, brass bands and grotesque behaviour. Sounds like just the thing for our economically tough times … Let the carnival begin!'

Masopust is here, embrace austerity my friends!

2010-07-21T03:49:00.001-07:00

This week I saw the final edit of Buskova’s latest video work. I have already seen the latest screen prints, be warned they are her most powerful yet. It is ready just in time for the winter of discontent as our leaders try to stop spending money on their public.

I wonder how the Bohemian villagers dealt with their cold winters and their changing totalitarian rulers' economic policies. Well the carnival of Masopust involving drink, meat, processions, Big Society, brass bands and grotesque behaviour seems to be one option.

Should we all get Pagan and dance like Bohemian rural folk to survive the incoming misery of austerity? I don’t think Buskova would recommend any such sort of Paganisitic evangelism and as a proud Yid I would rather spit on some of those villagers who to this day dress up as almost extinct Jews of Bohemia with chilling nooses around their necks and infuriating swag bags over their shoulders.

Perhaps that is enough of my bile for anti-Semitic scum, but unlike Babel I am no great author in the genre of silence. Despite or perhaps because of some of the traditional manure it grows near, this film is her darkest and strongest work yet. Winter does get cold. Death does come to us all and the holocaust did purge Czech of some its greatest minds. Buskova’s Masopust is the counterpart to her Spring Equinox work when fertility, green and flowers are everywhere.

In Masopust there is ice and death. And yet this work should not leave us in absolute despair. There is beauty in the darkness. She even gets all Soviet revisionist and cuts out any images of the villagers who still dare to mock my people. Well I guess that is where her reconstruction of folk traditions and systems gets really interesting. She takes what she wants from the villager’s rose ritual and then makes up the rest. Thus we get an appreciation for raw human qualities and a respect for ritual which is distilled and reincarnated into a liberated experimental contemporary totem for us all to dance around and ponder in a thoroughly contemporary fashion.

Perhaps it is too tender and too preoccupied to consider, but when her liberal Jewish muse Zoe Simon stands with an apple in her mouth and a pig’s head in her hands, does this not perhaps stand as a grotesque monument to the dangers of getting too pagan, getting too pogrom and sacrificing scape goats in times of economic strife? Let us hope that our artist does not get too carried away and sacrifices her muse in any subsequent performance; that really would be taking art too far, at least from my perspective.

Go East! Life is peaceful there!

2010-05-05T02:27:00.000-07:00

(Exclusive: still image from raw footage of Tereza Buskova's latest project exploring the Czech Carnival Masopust 2010)

Today Tereza Buskova marches back Eastwards to Prague/Praha. But don't get too excited 'the unbigoted of Rochadale', there she will remain only for as long as she works with local expert artisans to hammer out two magnificent screen prints that will underpin her latest video and performance work exploring the Czech winter Carnival 'Masopust'. This Bohemian carnival colourfully dances on the bitterly cold face of austerity, which is perhaps something we could all do a little more of.

Sadly Rowena Chiu has been taken away from curating the project after the art giant's Hauser & Wirth snapped her up and took her away to Zurich. But do not be sad because the fabulous Rob Diament appears to be stepping into the breach and beginning his transition from art collector aficionado & acclaimed musician to an all out contemporary renaissance man.

(Festive Days, Tereza Buskova Screen Print 2008)

And as Buskova goes East to complete these latest prints, her 'Forgotten Marriage' series of 2008 are travelling with Waterside Projects & the Czech Centre to Viennafair for the preview tonight! There, thankfully, a vast number of people are choosing to focus on the positive cultural output of Central and Eastern Europe, rather than moan about migration westwards like the 'unbigoted' of Rochdale and their counterparts throughout the West.

'but all these eastern European what are coming in, where are they flocking from?'

2010-04-30T15:31:00.000-07:00

If like that 'un-bigoted' woman of Rochdale you wonder about 'all these eastern European what are coming in, where are they flocking from?', you might be in luck. The Viennafair not only has an on-line catalogue search tool that might educate the ‘un-bigoted’ about the names of Central and Eastern European countries; it will even reveal the kind of contemporary art that they might bring with them to steal our British art collectors, grants and press coverage.

With the UK descending into a theatre where it is important to make newcomers feel as unwelcome as possible, perhaps it is time to take a trip to Vienna between May 5^th to the 9^th for something a little less little-islander and more stimulating to say the least. If you take a little time to reflect whilst you are there, it might also be possible to think of a few nearby historic warnings which demonstrate the dangers of worrying too much about where your neighbours were born and what their heritage is.

Thankfully, with the help of the Czech Centre Vienna, the Waterside Project Space men are repatriating some of Buskova’s work eastwards for this event where hopefully the 'Eastern european' will acquire them before they can sneak back in and take up more British gallery space whilst our YBA’s starve in garrets.

UNFORTUNATELY DUE TO VERY SEVERE DAMAGE IN TRANSPORT BUSKOVA'S 2008 FORGOTTEN MARRIAGE SERIES PRINTS CAN NOT BE SEEN AT VIENNAFAIR AS PLANNED.

For more details:

http://www.viennafair.at/en/index.html

http://www.watersideprojectspace.org/fairs/ViennaFair-2010.html

http://www.czechcentres.cz/vienna/program.podrobnosti.asp?ID=37739&menu=

Back through the looking glass magazine into an exhibition hall in Vienna!

2010-04-23T10:16:00.000-07:00

'How would you like to live in Looking-glass House, Buskova? I wonder if they'd give you an exhibition in there? Perhaps Looking-glass art criticism isn't good to experience -- But oh, Buskova! now we come to the passage. You can just see a little peep of the passage in Looking-glass House, if you leave the door of our drawing-room wide open: and it's very like our passage as far as you can see, only you know it may be quite different on beyond. Oh, Buskova! how nice it would be if we could only get through into Looking-glass House! I'm sure it's got, oh! such beautiful things in it! Let's pretend there's a way of getting through into it, somehow, Buskova. Let's pretend the glass has got all soft like gauze, so that we can get through. Why, it's turning into a sort of mist now, I declare! It'll be easy enough to get through -- '

And so it was that Buskova was taken back into the Glass Magazine and you can read about it here:

www.glassmagazine.co.uk

And if that was not enough, the lovely men of Waterside Project Space are taking her prints to an exhibition hall in Vienna where her art will have a thousand reviews, ay, ay, ay, ay, take this art, take this art, take this art, it's yours now, it's all that there is:

http://www.czechcentres.cz/vienna/program.podrobnosti.asp?ID=37739

www.watersideprojectspace.org

UNFORTUNATELY DUE TO VERY SEVERE DAMAGE IN TRANSPORT BUSKOVA'S 2008 FORGOTTEN MARRIAGE SERIES PRINTS CAN NOT BE SEEN AT VIENNAFAIR AS PLANNED.

Concrete Soviet Myths

2010-03-27T06:43:00.000-07:00

The young critics Hannah Forbes Black and Natasha Rees of murmurART have shared some ideas about All That Remains Teenagers of Socialism, for more details see:

www.murmurart.com

It was interesting reading how these fellow Brits view this collection of European artists who grew up in a world that we can only imagine. I often find myself lazily fantasising that all Soviet life in the Eastern Bloc was lacking in colour, deprived of all worldly pleasures and repressed in regards to individual expression.

I notice that one of the critics was struck by how Buskova’s colourful and anarchic exploration of pre-socialist rural culture seemed to stand out. Indeed the focus of her work existed before, during and after Communism, so it does not exemplify what it was like to live under communism in a very concrete and literal sense. However Buskova’s liberated and improvised takes on historic traditions perhaps exemplify best how repression and restriction can paradoxically foster and enhance the imaginative, experimental and individualistic capacities of artists and all other citizens.

I recall her mother discussing how she felt that there really was little money, few opportunities for free public expression and no London style personal indulgence; however the importance of stories, books and fantasy worlds grew in importance, for at least her. This reminds me of Bulgakov’s Master & Margarita in which the tapestry of Soviet oppression of creative expression is explored richly, but always indirectly through wild magical realism and black humour. I cannot speak for the other countries, in which the artists of the show grew up, but these appear to be distinctive features of some of the most inspiring Czech arts created by people who didn’t just imagine what it was like to live the Soviet way.

Marxism may always remain popular amongst western avant garde art lovers and many of the artists may be understandably unwilling to view their childhood as entirely ravaged by vile totalitarian political radicalism. Despite this I would discourage this exhibition from being included in any misguided nostalgic revisionism. No amount of Lacanian slight-of-hand or distraction with references to philosophical deconstructionist concepts can hide the facts of the Gulags. I would advise that these teenage artists of socialism should not be viewed as unusual fruits of an alternative viable political regime, but people who demonstrate how we can manage to survive assaults on individual expression. At the least, their work makes a change from some of the dull patterns borne from too much indulgence and a very capitalist art bubble that had to burst.

New 176 Zabludowicz Collection Edition 'Baked Spring'

2010-03-19T00:23:00.000-07:00

New 176 Zabludowicz Collection edition freshly baked for spring 2010:

Baked Spring, 2010
Digital print on canvas in handmade Vizovicke dough frame
Diameter of 18.5 cm
Edition of 18

£150

For more details see:

www.projectspace176.com

Her first edition commissioned for the 176 Zabludowicz Collection was Ostara And The Hare:

Ostara And The Hare, 2009
Archival Ink Jet and screen print
20 x 40 cm
Unframed and unmounted
Edition of 18

Ostara & The Hare is currently being exhibited alongside Buskova's fertile and disquieting video work 'Spring Equinox' at:

All that Remains... the Teenagers of Socialism

Anna Baumgart, Florian Wüst, Gerda Leopold, Łukasz Ronduda, Ştefan Constantinescu, Tereza Bušková, Karen Mirza and Brad Butler

13 March - 11 April 2010

Waterside Project Space

Unit 8, Waterside

44-48 Wharf Rd

London N1 7UX

The gallery is situated between Angel and Old Str, on Wharf Rd, near Victoria Miro Gallery and Parasol Unit.

For more details see;

www.czechcentres.cz

All that remains is to our advantage?

2010-02-06T17:29:00.001-08:00

When the iron curtain fell, how many Masters and how many Margaritas were released from the minds of the teenagers of Eastern Europe?

All that Remains... the Teenagers of Socialism

Anna Baumgart, Florian Wüst, Gerda Leopold, Łukasz Ronduda, Ştefan Constantinescu, Tereza Bušková, Karen Mirza and Brad Butler

13 March - 11 April 2010

Private view: Friday 12 March 2010, 6.30-10pm

Waterside Project Space

Unit 8, Waterside

44-48 Wharf Rd

London N1 7UX

The gallery is situated between Angel and Old Str, on Wharf Rd, near Victoria Miro Gallery and Parasol Unit.

All that remains... The Teenagers of Socialism presents a young generation of artists from Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic, Romania and the UK exploring ‘all that remained’ once the political system of their childhood had disintegrated.

In relation to the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the exhibition seeks to address the complexities of the effects of the decline of Socialism in Eastern Europe, which has been disruptive - if not traumatic - for a generation of artists who were in their mid and late teens when the first bits of crumbling concrete sparked an avalanche of revolutions in Eastern Europe. This young generation of ‘Socialists’ had to transform into ‘Capitalists’ in the midst of their adulthood. For some of them socialism became a ghostly figure linked to childhood memories, social relations and oral history - living images glued into memory like photographs in a family album.

The exhibition will showcase works, many of them previously unseen in the UK, from a variety of artists based in both the East and West countries: Anna Baumgart (Poland), Florian Wüst (Germany), Gerda Leopold (Germany), Łukasz Ronduda (Poland), Ştefan Constantinescu (Romania and Sweden), Tereza Bušková (Czech Republic and UK) and Karen Mirza and Brad Butler (UK).

Exhibition curated by Maxa Zoller.

A specially devised screening of artists' film works, curated by Maxa Zoller and Florian Wüst, will take place at no.w.here in Bethnal Green on Saturday 13 March, 7pm.

One Russian still attempts to stamp out 'Bohemian Garishness'

2010-01-21T12:26:00.000-08:00

It is nice to see a Russian who remains obliviously keen to try to stamp out the nonconformist and 'garish' practice of Czech artists like Buskova. Just as well the Arts Council don't think the same or else perhaps we would not be able to appreciate Buskova's forthcoming Masopust. Perhaps next time Sonia Zhuravlyova may spend a little more time before she lazily chooses to demonstrate that she is devoid of understanding rather claiming that Buskova's prints are devoid of meaning.

For more details see: murmurART

MASOPUST is waiting to begin

2010-01-16T14:22:00.000-08:00

Despite the freezing climate both literally and economically, Buskova and her team are ready to export a little more Bohemian vibrancy with their next project Masopust.

In a week of high exposure in press and in exhibitions, it has been sweetly ended with news that Shaw & Co, the Arts Council and the Czech Centre are all financially supporting this year's major project. Notably 176 / Zabludowicz Collection also express provisional hopes to assist in making sure that the work gets seen.

The dynamic Rowena Chiu aims to assist in developing a solo show platform for Buskova's latest project this year, which going by last night's Swan Song of hers, I expect will be very busy to say the least.

Masopust is waiting, the players are gathering, the funding is there, it all begins on February 14th in a little village in South Bohemia..........

Photo50 Nomination at London Art Fair

2009-12-31T16:49:00.000-08:00

London Art Fair

13-17 January 2010

Nominated and introduced by Anita Zabludowicz:

"Bušková’s process is intriguing – she orchestrates tableaux vivants with actors, dancers, props, and costumes which she films and photographs to make her art works. The flatness which is inherent in the final prints is referenced in the situations via the props and make up. Card cut outs and body paint stand in for characters and clothing, playing with both perspective and reality.

Her Czech heritage is in essence her ‘material’. She re-interprets historical traditions, practices, costumes, taking her references from traditional Czech folklore. The pleated skirts or sleeves and the embroidered bodices and head-dresses are remade with reference to original artefacts which she has sourced.

As well as the costumes, Bušková‘s use of screen printing is archaic in this digital age – the ‘screen’ through which the ink is pushed makes a pattern which is almost pixel like."

(Anita Zabludowicz)

Photo50 at London Art Fair Jan 13-17th 2010, Islington London:

www.londonartfair.co.uk

176 / Zabludowicz Collection Editions:

www.projectspace176.com

Saatchi On-Line Recommendation:

www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk

Anita Z, Photo50 & the London Art Fair

2009-12-06T11:48:00.000-08:00

Poju & Anita Zabludowicz

Anita Zabludowicz is great. Maybe it would be fun to be like her and literally travel the art world at light speed, and support large numbers of artists in drawing out vast amounts of creativity from the ether. Personally I think that the inevitable overload of ideas and experiences would be a little overwhelming to say the least, but she still seems to be smiling.

Now beyond sound reasoning which some or most writers seem to have no interest in, I can only provide highly subjective support for this avid collector because she clearly holds Buskova's art in high regard, which I am also found guilty of. However first hand observation does perhaps increase the validity of my support for Anita Z. Her patronage or 'matronage' has not made Tereza Buskova overwhelmingly famous or rich over night. However it was her project space and her sharp curators (Lizzie Neilson, Ellen De Mara De Wachter & Maitreyi Maheshwari) who again helped to stretch Buskova's talents in the preparation and exhibition of the suitably acclaimed A Tradition I Do Not Mean To Break.

During this time and since then Anita Z has also continued to demonstrate her high regard with nominations. First she selected her for the pop up show of emerging talent called MurmurART at Selfridges whilst Peter Blake rather interestingly picked his daughter Electra Blake. Mrs Z proceeded to make Buskova's work accessible to the public by commissioning a fabulous affordable edition that was made available to the public at the 176 / Zabludowicz Collection and Zoo Art Fair. To put the minds of the paranoid at rest, these affordable editions provide a little money for the artists and the collection, there is no hidden profit focussed agenda. Furthermore this edition was also given to the Medical Foundation for victims of torture for their exciting silent arm of their charity auction last month. Who would believe how competitive people can get when bidding for charity?

Most recently Anita Z has nominated Buskova for Photo50 at January's London Art Fair, again alongside other distinguished panellists such as the ICA's Ekow Eshun and writer David Campany. London Art Fair may not be as 'fur coat' as Frieze or as 'Shoreditch' smug hipster as Zoo, but it unpretentiously makes a vast amount of art accessible to the masses who might even be able to acquire some impressive art works with the assistance of the Art's Council's OwnArt no-interest loans. Photo50 also gives postgraduate Goldsmith curating trainees an opportunity to cut their teeth at showcasing their selections to a big and frank audience.

It is interesting that this improvisation heavy film maker, performance 'stager' and print maker (Buskova) has been nominated for this showcase of contemporary photography. However, many a lazy critic or an easy going everyday onlooker has mistaken her screen prints for photographs. Perhaps this common mistake simply highlights the importance of photographic imagery in Buskova's work. These 'real' images provide a more familiar visual foundation for her to inject with her more unique, disquieting and magical understanding of 'reality' through the techniques of freely associated tableaux, misc en scene and overlying printed illustration. Perhaps contemporary photography would be better placed to weather criticisms of being insufficiently creative and authentically imaginative, if all committed photographers made a similar habit of employing a variety of different methods of art production. This might help their vocation to escape from being reduced to technical exercises in capturing and reproducing interesting sights to be found on touring which ever little environment they scrape out their existences in. Photo50 might also assist Buskova in gathering some capital from acquisitions to enable her to make the most out of her new Masopust project focussing on the historic Paganistic carnivals of Bohemia proper (not Shoreditch).

Photo50 at London Art Fair Jan 13-17th 2010, Islington London:

www.londonartfair.co.uk

176 / Zabludowicz Collection Editions:

www.projectspace176.com

A Tradition I Do Not Mean To Break at 176 / Zabludowicz Collection:

www.timeout.com

MurmurArt at Selfridges:

www.independent.co.uk

The odds are stacked very heavily against making......

2009-11-22T14:01:00.001-08:00

Although Saatchi appears to be working hard to popularise art with TV, he seems to be discouraging artists from being brave and becoming truly great. Whilst he may advise that they become hobbyists who produce something in their spare time, perhaps he should steer clear of discouraging serious dedication to producing fine art. We can only hope that he was angling to provoke greater financial support for artists when he advised that they get a day job.

If ad men and DIY store owners can get millions, then why should fine artists not be paid for what they do best rather than teaching or data entry. In the midst of recession and Saatchi's grim words of warning Tereza Buskova defies doubts and ceaselessly plans her next project. Employed only by her vocation she spends her days, researching, collaborating and planning for Masopust (Carnival).

Every time she makes enough sales, she drops what ever day job she has and dedicates herself to exploration of our heritage through a complex mix of documentation, re-enactment, moving image, screen print and performance. Her highly perceptual, crafted, improvised and hypnotic work brings back a little bit of respect for spirituality, beauty and our history. Maybe I am way off the mark, but perhaps Saatchi and anyone else who views themselves as a supporter of contemporary art would do better lending their time, influence and dare I say money to up coming projects rather than to slick BBC programmes.

As an artist without a day job lets hope that Buskova overcomes any 'odds stacked heavily against' her making her 'godsend' Masopust (photograph of the Bear of Masopust from rural Bohemia above). The filming process will begin on February 13 - 17th 2010 in the South of the Czech Republic. This project will capture and reinvigorate the popular folk culture of Eastern Europeans who recognise the value of commemorating and celebrating life in the face of grim Winters and the times of austerity. Perhaps these are lessons that are overdue already. All interest for potential sponsors and support in kind is welcome, including Saatchi's.

The Medical Foundation Art Auction 2009

2009-11-14T02:35:00.000-08:00

Royal Institution

On Friday 20th November the Medical Foundation are holding a vast charity auction of contemporary art at the Royal Institution. They are raising funds to assist in the treatment of torture survivors.

An eclectic range of artists have been gathered together including artists who have experienced torture and art world heavy weights like Anish Kapoor.

On behalf of 176 and the Zabludowicz Collection one of the last editions of Tereza Buskova's affordable prints has been donated.

The donated print (Ostara And The Hare, 2009, archival ink jet and screen print, 20 x 40 cm, edition 18+2) was commissioned by 176 / Zabludowicz Collection as part of this summer's exhibition A Tradition I Do Not Mean To Break.

It is expected to be sold out imminently following a successful appearance a Zoo 2009, recommendations in the Telegraph and rumours that celebrity owners include the likes of Madonna.

For more details on the Auction follow the links below:

www.torturecare.org.uk/art

The Bohemians Tuesday 13th October

2009-10-10T00:33:00.000-07:00

The Bohemians
Josef Bolf, Tereza Buskova, Katerina Seda

Tuesday 13 October 2009, 7 pm – late

Spring studios, 10 Spring Place, London NW5 3BH

Spring Projects and the Czech Centre showcase an evening of films in celebration of works by Czech visual artists featured at Frieze Art Fair 2009.

Short films will be screened from 7.30 pm introduced by the artists.

Followed by a party & music.

Entry through RSVP only.

Please no entry after 9.30 pm

Please e-mail to Ruth: membership@springstudios.com

Info: +44 (0) 20 7267 8383, www.springstudios.com

Josef Bolf´s Living Room is a puppet film based on motifs from his recent works in which the fragile heroes´story is played out on a dark stage between dramatically illuminated paintings.

Katerina Seda’s video Short Cut documents another of her social experiments as she crosses her native village of Lišeň, regardless of obstructions, using the shortest route to re-connect a community increasingly divided by fences and walls.

Tereza Buskova, currently riding high on a wave of acclaim following her show at 176 Gallery / Zabludowicz Collection and Selfridges, presents Spring Equinox, a disquieting, highly-stylised film reflecting the rural traditions practiced by the Moravian people of Ratiskovice. Production of the film was supported by Art Council of England

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Buskova 20 Years On

2009-09-14T14:11:00.000-07:00

Tereza Buskova & Zoe Simon at A Tradition I Do Not Mean To Break Preview. Photograph by the Stifani Brothers

Is it unimportant that in 2009 Buskova and Simon can stand together in Anglo-Czech artistic partnership in Chalk Farm? Could this have happened before 1989? 20 years on since the Velvet Revolution, Czech Centre director Ladislav Plimpfl seems understandably proud to officially support Czech culture abroad. He seems particularly pleased with the united screening of intellectually liberated Bohemian artists such as Buskova, Bolf and Seda in London's unashamedly egocentric and arguably uncontrollable contemporary art scene (epitomised in this case by that decidely decadent free market and thankfully low-state-control enterprise that is the Frieze Art Fair). (click here for more details)

Prague Spring Equinox

2009-08-31T07:00:00.000-07:00

It is fabulous to observe the increase in consideration of Tereza's work by the Czech press. Over the last couple of months this includes increasingly large reviews and previews in Flash Art, Instinkt, Denik & Lidovky.

Tereza Buskova researching Moravian traditional costumes

Last year she underwent her first Czech radio interview at David Robert's Art Foundation gallery space with Milan Kocourek. (click here for more details)

Unfortunately I must admit my ignorance because I was not able to fully appreciate the interview carried out in Czech. This year I am pleased that a Scotland born Czech journalist Rosie Johnston has allowed us ignorant english speakers to hear Buskova's personal account of her current work. (click here for more details)

It seems slightly topsy turvy for Tereza to be so actively talked about in Prague whilst her exhibitions have so far predominantly taken place in the UK. I strongly share the sentiment of the final moments of Rosie Johnston's interview where she finds out about Tereza's hopes to show her work to a Czech audience on Czech soil.

Tereza Buskova & the Art Establishment

2009-08-26T11:51:00.000-07:00

Tereza Buskova / Tate Modern / British Museum

Tate Britain / Royal Academy

(Click here for more details)

Through The Looking Glass Magazine

2009-08-24T10:21:00.000-07:00

Still from Spring Equinox, Tereza Buskova 2009

Another week another form of press coverage. The upcoming on line Glass Magazine have a chat with Tereza and publish their findings.

(Click here for more details)

Spring in Summer, Spring in Autumn, Spring in Spring & Spring in Berlin

2009-08-18T12:58:00.000-07:00

The Suitors Screen print, Edition of 12 and 4 aps

Summer is ending and so did A Tradition I Don't Mean To Break at 176 on Sunday August 16th. This July debut of Buskova's Spring Equinox appears to have invigorated Britain's growing appreciation of the outstanding contemporary art that its Eastern European migrants bring with them.

Then we take Berlin; on September 22-27 to coinicide with the Art Forum Berlin International Art Show and Art Berlin Contemporary, Anna-Catharina Gebbers and 176 will be exhibiting video work by Buskova courtesy of the Zabludowicz Collection in V-Effekt / In and Out Of Place at Bibliothekswohnung Exhibition and Project Space. (click here for more details)

The critics may have strongly highlighted the value of attending 176 this Summer to view her disquieting reinterprations of Czech traditions alongside her British contemporaries, but sometimes it is hard to get to a 6week show, however hard you try. On October 13th to coincide with Frieze the Czech Centre are providing another opportunity to view her Arts Council supported Spring Equinox short film at the Spring Projects in Spring House alongside her Bohemian contemporaries Bolf and Seda. (click here for more details)

Harper's Bazaar, Timeout, Elle, Londonist...........

2009-08-07T13:34:00.000-07:00

The Rituals of Spring Equinox at 176 - July 30th 2009

2009-08-02T14:12:00.000-07:00

July 30th 2009 will be a night that is hard to forget. The artist herself was convinced that there was a guiding presence throughout the event. The evening was so overwhelming that nobody seemed surprised when people started collapsing and glasses spontaneously exploded at the after performance drinks.

Dancers and musicians may commonly collaborate, but how often do they improvise with a life model performing tableaux vivant and an omnipotent director who walks elegantly on stage to literally pull them around like puppets?

With constant improvisation, scenes from the Spring Equinox film and screen prints were restaged, reshaped and embellished live to the mesmeric sounds of Bela Emerson. The earthly figures of the Nanohach dancers revolved wildly around the deity Ostara (Zoe Simon) and played out a physical narrative that embodied a spectrum of different stages of romantic human attachment.

The 50 minute performance in 176 was reverentially received by 70 in an atmosphere that increasingly reminded me of the shamanic Voodoo ceremonies seen in Maya Deren's Divine Horsemen (The Living Gods of Haiti). Like a humid summer storm of experiences, the event began gently, reaching peaks of excitement that were delicately held back by Buskova's guiding hands, only to change direction and return with increasingly sexualised vigour to flood the audience with a sense of oblivion in the face of the raw power of nature, fertility and ritual. Buskova and her collaborators left their mark at the historic 176 on that night.

Photographs taken by Lukase Houdka

Performance: Thursday 30th July 7pm

2009-07-27T13:45:00.001-07:00

Still image from Spring Equinox, Tereza Buskova 2009

Tereza Buskova presents

The Rituals Of Spring Equinox

with

Zoe Simon

Bela Emerson

Eliska Kasparova

Honza Malik

176

Courtesy of Camden Open2Dance, Zabludowicz Art Projects & Czech Centre, London

Performance - The Rituals Of Spring Equinox

2009-07-19T03:36:00.000-07:00

Photograph from the Spring Equinox film shoot (Jan Komarek 2009)

I must agree with Anita Zabludowicz when she suggests that A Tradition I Do Not Mean To Break is currently the best exhibition in this dirty old town.

In this context there is rapidly growing discussion about Tereza Buskova's contribution with her Spring Equinox film and screen prints. A complex resonance is provided in the room where the screen print Ostara is lit powerfully alongside the accompanying Spring Equinox film. The film moves on in the darkened room whilst the iconic glowing screen print appears to mystically embody and fix all the associated experiences in one place. The prints stand unchanging whilst the film loops with the images of villagers and performers passing by in a disconcerting whirl.

Now these works are in some respects preservative embellishments of the improvisation that was documented in Moravia in April 2009. However there is nothing that can capture the potent experiences that are brought about by proximity to the creators whilst they actively create. The photo above provides extra visual intrigue about what went on when they made Spring Equinox. However, it is much richer to actually be there as the Nanohach dancers, muse (Zoe Simon) and Buskova map out reinterpretations of our traditions.

It will be possible to appreciate this in vivo courtesy of support from Camden's Open2Dance Festival, the Czech Centre and 176. On Thursday July 30th at approximately 7pm this process will be re-enacted in 176 in a flurry with Nanohach's Eliska Kasparova and Honza Malik being flown in the day before and Bela Emerson for the first time bringing her live electric cello to the primary process of the performance.

Personally the gentle power of Buskova and Simon's collaboration at Act Art last year seemed more perturbing and capitivating than any of the surrounding lively cabaret transgressions . This year the fuller body of performers and longer gestation will undoubtedly lead to an event that will be hard to repeat, if only because it is hard to gather such a talented international group of people in one place.

A Tradition I Do Not Mean To Break

2009-07-11T14:19:00.000-07:00

Ostara, Screen Print, Edition of 3 + 3AP

All of us may be like fiddlers on rooftops trying to play out the complex interweaving melodies of our lives in unpredictable environments with uncertain futures. So what is it that helps us to keep from breaking our necks up here?

Tradition?! Tradition?! Tradition?!?!?

Well I am not too sure that I agree with the Fiddler On The Roof lyricist (Sheldon Harnick) about this. At least here in London I am pretty sure that all I see are traditions getting distorted, recombined and evolving to the sound of the cash till opening and shutting. At 176 all three artists taking part in A Tradition I Do Not Mean To Break naturally demonstrate this state of constant change. At least 350 people came to witness this at the preview this Wednesday, although perhaps this had something to do with Anita Zabludowicz highlighting in the national press that one of the artists taking part was her favourite rising star whose work was timeless and like nothing else.

For her contribution Buskova presents us with a film about what people in the oldest village in Moravia (Ratiskovice) still do at Easter (Spring Equinox, 2009). She then takes the threads of these rituals and folk tales to weave her own modernised hybrid folkart.

In the second part of her film Buskova employs improvisation, cardboard and nudity which cut away the villagers' taboo ridden tightly chastened clothing and conventions. The kitschness, conservatism and dullness of familiar 'ethno' folk imagery is both celebrated and sliced wide open. The new enfant terrible born by this bloody Cesarean section is disquieting to observe. Critics have previously described such work by her as almost overwhelmingly 'exotic','confusingly sinister' and now weird. Does this mean that she leaves us with just a messy incoherent attack on the past and the rural villagers of Moravia?

Personally I find myself more interested in why they wear only blue skirts or paint flowery patterns on eggs. Indeed the writer Hannah Forbes Black has already described how she found this reinterpretation to be 'plausible and elegant'.

There are a host of questions and reflections that Buskova's improvised scenes provoke. This begins with the mesmerising effects of her visually-arresting imagery that has been reported by at least 2 critics (Chris Osbourn, Rowena Chiu) within 24hours of the exhibition opening. I was particularly struck by the fact that the male figure is often subjugated, including being relegated to the swamp and forced to awkwardly whip water blindfolded in the second part of Spring Equinox. In the first half of the film the young males of Rastikovice are filmed proudly chasing and whipping the buttocks of giggling girls.

Buskova does not view herself as some conceptual revolutionary breaker of tradition and conventions, but a vessel for soulful and universal forces. Indeed her art is inspiring, why else would collectors be snapping up the associated iconic screen prints like Ostara (shown above). Some may reduce rituals and folk art to by-products of sexual reproduction. However, when you walk into the room at 176 containing nothing, but darkness, the film Spring Equinox and the glowing print of Ostara, the atmosphere is arguably mystical and reaches far beyond the more concrete realms of sexual behaviour.

Never mind these rambling words, you can check out Buskova's work for yourself until August 16th at 176 and on July 30th she will present a live reintepretation of the Rituals Of Spring Equinox with her creative partners Zoe Simon, cellist Bela Emerson and Czech performing arts company Nanohach.

What is it that helps us to keep from breaking our necks up here?

2009-07-01T12:49:00.000-07:00

All of us here in London are as shaky as a fiddler on a roof.

But what is it that helps us to keep from breaking our neck up here?????

Venice, Murmurs & Tradition

2009-06-27T10:07:00.000-07:00

The Beheading Of The Cockerel, Screen Print, Edition 3+3AP, Tereza Buskova 2009

Within weeks of returning from her adventures at the Venice Biennale, Buskova's Arts Council supported 2009 projects are finally being unveiled.

From July 9th the Spring Equinox video art, trio of screen prints and older works will be exhibited in A Tradition I Do Not Mean To Break at the Zabludowicz Art Project Space 176.

Simultaneously the above screen print 'Beheading Of The Cockerel' will be exhibited in two London based locations; 176 in Chalk Farm and Selfridges Oxford Street.

MurmurART are exhibiting her work at Selfridges as part of a Pop-Up Exhibition after she was nominated by Anita Zabludowicz.

She will appear alongside 9 other rapidly emerging artists each nominated by individual art world luminaries including Kevin Spacey, Tim Marlow & Tracy Emin.

In support of murmurART's on line service for early career artists Tereza Buskova has consigned 2 screen prints including 'Winter and Spring' (below) from the Spring Equinox series.

An affordable screen & inkjet print edition of 18 'Ostara & The Hare' has been produced on the request of 176 who use the proceeds of acquisitions to support the 176 Interaction Programme.

Spring Equinox reflects the rich Slavic folkore inheritance of the Czech Republic. Despite the exoticism of the rural traditions her improvisational and exceptionally captivating practice engages people universally. Her phantastical and disquieting portrayal of unavoidable ties to nature are significant even for the most urbane audience .

Winter And Spring, Screen Print, Edition 3+3AP, Tereza Buskova 2009