Exhibition of prize winners of the 4th International Triennial of Graphic Arts Prague 2004

5th International Triennial of Graphic Arts Prague 2007

9.10.2007 - 25.11.2007

19 - 21 Husova St., Prague 1 – Old Town

This is the second time the competition part of the Prague International Triennial of Graphic Arts has been accompanied by a separate exhibition of work by prize winners from the previous Triennial. As in 2004, this year’s exhibition is taking place at the Czech Museum of Fine Arts, whose Husova Street spaces are ideally suited to the scale and character of graphic art expression. The five participants, who were awarded prizes at the last Prague Triennial in 2004, are Bodo Korsig (*1962, Germany, Grand Prix), Vojtěch Kovářík (*1976, Czech Republic, 1st Prize), Zuli Olcese (*1943, Argentina, 2nd Prize), Irene Wydler (*1941, Switzerland, 3rd Prize) and Jiří Samek (*1955, Czech Republic, Honorary Jury Prize).

There are several reasons behind the idea of staging such an exhibition. For the prize winners, it is a chance to present their work at a respected museum of art in Prague, one of the major culture capitals of Europe. In contrast to the competition part, where limitations of space are a key consideration, here they are able to exhibit a larger series of works that provide a better all-round view of their individual artistic ideas. Triennial visitors have the chance to see the work that prize winners have produced in the three years since their previous meeting. Although graphic art is still the focus of the presentation, artists have the opportunity to show viewers other aspects of their work that are closely related to their printmaking; this year, for example, Bodo Korsig included his monumental painted aluminium reliefs and images (woodcuts and pulp paintings) for limited–edition books, while Irene Wydler is showing her delicate yet intensely energetic large–format pencil drawings. Each prize winner has a clearly separate area to show his or her works, but the exhibition is meant to be greater than the sum of its parts, revealing contrasts and mutual connections between the different artistic voices. At a human level, the artists are able to return to the Triennial (or make a first visit if they were not personally present when their work won an award) and experience at first hand the valuable communication forum that the Triennial traditionally provides.

International triennials provide a cross-section of diverse printmaking approaches that is informative but sometimes confusing in its sheer size. What in fact makes graphic art different to other areas of contemporary expression? Does it still have unique distinguishing features given the increasingly interdisciplinary and multimedia character of the present-day art scene? Using the current Prague Triennial as a starting point, I found certain recurring factors, motifs, themes and symbolic areas that together help provide a telling (but by no means exhaustive or definitive) profile of graphic art sensibility: multiplication of an original artwork, meaning that the print is essentially a unique statement created several times over and as such is conceived to find its way among a larger number of people; the deliberate repetition of motifs within the artwork creating a kind of ‘rhythm of contemplation’; the transfer and transcription of images in which the printing ink pressed on to paper indicates the symbolic imprint of human civilisation; records, traces of action, movement and ideas; remnants, residual forms, echoes in apparent emptiness or nothingness; the elasticity, even fluidity of space and time and the movement of human identity through this space and time; bare structures, abandoned places and fragmental figural forms as the ‘landscape of memory’; systematic exploration of the meaning of culture and communication through the letter, number, pictogram and expressive calligraphic sign.

Graphic art continues above all to be an artistic field of humanist conviction, a conviction fertilised rather than diluted by crossovers with other creative areas. Despite the broad spectrum of different approaches, it is characterised by a great degree of mutual tolerance and positive support. In this spirit, the Prague Triennial of Graphic Arts creates a focal point whose meaning goes far beyond the formalities of an artistic survey.
text Richard Drury