Page 8 - Katalog_náhled

Jan Adamec

EVERYONE IS A BIG STAR

Well, I was just gazing around... says Jan Adamec, about some of his photographic Where do we start our timeline? Not immediately after military service, which is where
narratives. His pictures, however, are more than just the fruit of a life lived at a slow he began taking pictures, to escape from the green-brain space into the darkroom.
rhythm, a nonchalant life, a life as a series of impressions – as Zykmunt Bauman defines At the beginning is the semi-official Chvaletice Festival, an image which precedes
our approach to the world and time. We are either exalted gapers, drifters, tourists or the later “Players”, and a trip to Česká Třebová for an exhibition of Old Dogs in
players, and photogrpahers are most commonly the first. The flâneur, the loafer, who 1984 – Everybody Was There!, with a stop at Jan Steklík in Ústí nad Orlicí. There is no
wanders without purpose, who hangs around, looks, gapes. He sees everyone, but photograph available now of the return from the exhibition opening, but it was the stuff
no one sees him. Under his gaze, a city street comes to life, full of unrecognized stories of legends. The communist police were waiting at the main station, preparing to raid
and unwritten scenarios. Outward observation is only a small part of Adamec’s approach the whole party of returning revelers. The travelers from Třebová, however, got thirsty
to things, however; for him it is also necessary to stop, to put oneself in order, and so disembarked one stop earlier than planned… Pictures from the sunny morning
to contemplate, and to discover. of the same day, with Bohdan Holomíček and the philosopher Petr Dubský, highlight
Jan Adamec does not merely set a mirror before reality; he creates, or co-creates. the freedom from worry, the touch of happiness, unlooked for Fortuna, and the escape
For the first time, we have the opportunity to put together a whole which we have from the dark clouds of Fate.
previously only seen in thematic fragments. We are already familiar with: Another excursion to the second decade of normalization is the photograph of Stanislav
• “Czech shop windows” depicts the day-to-day surrealism, absurd, self-revealing cracks Pitaš, a rock concert organiser, dissident and a signatory of Charta 77 before his
in the façade of the ruling ideology conviction for his disrespect of President Husák, when he (Pitaš) tried to dry-paddle
• “Vojmir” commemorates the work of the Pardubice Catholic artist Vojmir Vokolek, upstream in Šonov. This is also a glimpse into Adamec’s first home in Labska 30. You can
whose work went unread and invisible by the majority of society because of his origins see Eye Happening on the wall in the spirit of Jan Steklík, and the etching in God‘s Eyes.
and focus You can see the slides glued onto the windows, so that the pictures are clear to see.
• “Players” gives us portraits of jazz musicians who appeared and ruffled You can infer Morgernstern’s poem “How the Gallows Child Remembers the Months” –
the spacio-temporal in D29 Club, Pardubice – it was possible to cross the street November is either Lazybones, Psychopath, or Pukipad, depending on the translation.
and meet the whole world, as Jan Adamec documents this stage of his interests In the minimalism of the time, it is remarkable to see the personal surroundings. There’s
• “Open” is a probe into the world of art galleries and their visitors, an area with no instant IKEA here; it is all based on the creative cultural foundation of the apartment.
potential for surreal conflicts of views and the perception of different realities Labska 30 is no longer standing, although once the storks strolled along the grass in
The catalogue focuses on four lesser known cycles. “Fragments”, a never-ending series, plain sight of the Kuňka Tower, a truly romantic sight. Adamec set up his first darkroom
testifies about the way we live. In the “Letter of Solitude”, writer Václav Vokolek there as well as his flat, although it wasn’t under the stairs… On summer weekends
describes solitude amidst the crowd. “Silence” characterizes the landscape and the there would be various events in Drozdice. Jan Adamec acted as curator even then, when
subdued urban landscape. “Black Madonnas of the New World” is an expression photographs printed on cheap paper hung pegged to the fence during those famous
of admiration, a tribute to what women carry inside, earthy and sacred at the same exhibitions. The photographer commented on the era by quoting Karel Nepraš:
time.The catalogue is an important tool for the artist, perhaps more so than even The Bolshevik was lucky that we were young at that time.
an exhibition, to allow us to discover him, behind his photographs. His views, attitudes, Browsing the catalogue, we become aware of photographs as monads. The philosophers
experiences, transformations; and the constants, of which the photographs are only Deleuze and Guattari described life as a pilgrimage, the contemporary creative man
the tip of the iceberg. as a pilgrim, a nomad, emphasizing the end of the ultimate goal of human life‘s pilgrimage.

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