Martin Kochan: Homework

An opening of the exhibition on Tuesday, April 2, 2019, from 6 p. m.
The exhibition until April 27, 2019

curator: Lenka Sýkorová

Accompanying program on Saturday, 27 April 2019, 2:00 – 4:00 p.m. – animation workshop for children, 4:00 – 5:00 p.m. – commented viewing of the exhibition and the exhibition activity of Klamovka Pavilion.

The Slovak artist Martin Kochan graduated from Michal Gabriel’s Studio of Sculpture at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the Brno University of Technology. He also graduated from the Faculty of Education of the Trnava University in Slovakia, majoring in biology – visual arts. His specialty is intermedia artwork with a strong emphasis on irony that everyday situations bring. He balances on the edge of an analytical creative process and non-concentrated “freestyle” artwork. His artwork transforms banality into engaged art and may often seem almost critical. The moment of an unrestrained performative gesture is also important for him. Since the year 2010 he has actively collaborated with Cyril Blaž, who is from an older generation, on performative interventions in a public space and on a series of drawings called Pub Art that refers to the games played mostly in pubs during the normalization period. Their collaboration is based on a creative dialog where one responds to the other. However, Martin Kochan also collaborates with non-artists.

Humor, hyperbole and banality are the points of departure for his exhibition in the Altán Klamovka Gallery. In the end, we have decided for an older series of drawings that better fits the curator’s gallery intent, with a focus on drawings designed as a post-conceptual gesture. The artwork called Homework was created in 2010 when Martin Kochan had a part-time job at the Polytechnic High School in Trnava, while also working as a part-timer sorting and assembling television sets. The artist managed to reconcile these seemingly disparate activities into his artistic concept based on the principle of unceasing creative potential. As a teacher, he transformed irony and everyday situations into the ordinary task of drawing any object from different angles. To motivate artistic blacksmith students, he helped them with their homework on a weekly basis. He chose an analogue audio cassette from the punk band Oi Polloi. However, let’s not expect any affection for retro objects. For Martin Kochan the cassette was a hidden metaphor for a conveyor-belt in the firm where he worked as a part-timer. Workers could take a rest during their break time. Martin Kochan transformed the permanent pressure to perform into a post-conceptual artwork comprising of eight drawings and an actual object. The important social context was in the end amplified by the fact that one of his drawings was auctioned off for 350 €. He made more money from the sale than from his wages in both regular jobs. Homework is a probe into the artist’s life. The unwound cassette evokes the artist’s attitude that does not have to necessarily take place in anticipated routine situations as everybody expects.

Lenka Sýkorová