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Jayne
H. Baum
Susanna Cole and Erin Donnelly
Elena Filipovic
Ingrid LaFleur
Trong G. Nguyen
Olu Oguibe
Chika Okeke
Sandhini Poddar
Praxis
Ashkan Sahihi
Marketa Uhlirova
Marketa Uhlirova
Enter Ponetovice, a slowed-down, drowsy little village near Brno in Southern Moravia. The place is an archetypal idea, interchangeable, impartial, a veritable model of a village where “there is nothing there”. The past and present are glued together by a well-worn, invisible chewing gum, and they float evenly towards a similarly insignificant future. When there is nothing there, we, the Czechs, say “a dog kicked the bucket here”.
Katerina Seda made the so-called nothing into something. Together with the villagers, she multiplied it into a reverberating mass-experience.
Synchronising a day’s chores, domestic events and outdoor activities of an entire village was to rigorously script what, as it turned out, had already been scripted; to automate what had already been automated; to rationalise what had already been rationalised. Following her thorough investigation (spying) into people’s lives, Katerina and Ponetovice ceremoniously gelled what was scarily Similar into nearly-the-Same.
To understand the game of “There Is Nothing There” as a form of manipulation would be correct—I wonder if manipulation is at its most striking precisely when one is asked to perform something so normal as opening a window, at 9.00 am in this case—but it was a rhetorical kind of manipulation. A coordination of the experience of doing everything together, at the same time, for the sake of greater visibility, power and importance. Crucially, the prescribed daily regime was already present and pre-defined internally, by the collective itself. Katerina only consolidated it and by this minute twist she possibly managed to elevate the trivial into the magnificent. (Katerina rejects the term manipulation.)
When invited to take part in “The One” I was strangely thrilled about the prospect of dealing with the idea of the Messianistic. It tasted like forbidden fruit. Are we still allowed the One? But I don’t know and in fact I couldn’t care less whether Katerina is the new Maestro, the new Good Shepherd of art—although, admittedly, she is quite becoming in her role as small-town Mastermind. What matters is that the “execution” of the Saturday of the 24th of May, 2003, by an entire village complete with the population of about 300 was a heroic achievement in one of the universes which don’t normally count.
If the rules of the Ponetovice experiment are vaguely reminiscent of the modernist and socialist Utopias of good citizenship, manifest in the well-orchestrated weekend outings or summer camps for youth Scouts and “Pioneers”, I rejoice in the fact that on 05-24-03 it actually worked. The team of Ponetovice is a stellar example that pocket Utopias are not only possible but also desirable. Especially when there’s no loser.
About the curator
Marketa Uhlirova completed her MA in Art History at Charles University in her native Prague, Czech Republic, in 2001. Between 2000-2002 she studied at the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College. She has worked variously as a curator, researcher, and writer. She has contributed to journals and publications including Art Monthly, Detail, Labyrint, Fashion Theory, and the Encyclopaedia of Clothing and Fashion. Since 2002 Marketa has been an Associate Lecturer of Cultural Studies at University of the Arts, London. Together with Christel Tsilibaris she is now co-curating the first edition of the Fashion in Film Festival to take place in London in Spring 2006.
