Dirtphoto-performance, 2010

BARBORA KLEINHAMPLOVÁSELECTED WORKS

I‘ve been always interested in wide range of elements assembling together a notion of “society”.

We Are People Who Understand Flexibility Has Its Widespread BenefitsBoneless arm, representative of a precarious society Silicone cast, object, 2015

Sometimes They Almost Feel Happy

The installation maps the nature of contemporary society from the perspective of human emotion that always violates social norms and requirements.

I was searching for a way to talk about the precarious society and its problems: anxiety, fear, excessive emotions and the virtual environment where people spend most of their time. Inevitably, I deal with the theme of the body, the virtual body in particular, in connection with a certain affect and therapy that have become a part of our world.

installation (plazma TVs, stands, extension cords, projection, text)

take-away text, 2015

Sometimes They Almost Feel Happyinstallation (plazma TVs, stands, extension cords, projection, text), 2015

Sometimes They Almost Feel Happyframecuts, 2015

Sometimes They Almost Feel Happymocked/staged therapyframecuts, 2015

Sometimes They Almost Feel Happymocked/staged therapyframecuts, 2015

The Labour of the Eye“The Labour of the Eye” is inspired by a research of Jan Evangelista Purkyně, the 19th century experimental scientist, who dedicated his research to eyesight and its relation to experienceand very essence of vertigo feelings brought about by rotating movements. His experiments using merry-go-round or see-saw served for therapeutical procedures. Under the category of vertigo he included illusions as well as fallacies.The vertigo theme is framed by an experience of corporate sector. The camera is rotating inside an open office, it evokes a sense of heaviness and confusion. Whispering voices that accompany the camera`s movement tell a story of bemused clerk who, frustrated and lost all alone with his feelings, wanders around the office.video (7’, audio)In collaboration with Zbyněk Baladrán, 2014

Sleepers’ ManifestoSleepers’ Manifesto is a project about sleep as a symptom of our current society. It expresses revolt against late-capitalist society which is running only too fast without knowing where, which celebrates action for its own sake and whose heroes are those who sacrifice sleep for success. It expresses a desire for a different world where sleep and rest are valuable in themselves.video (11’, audio)In collaboration with Tereza Stejskalová, 2014

Sleepers’ Manifestoframecuts, 2014

Sleepers. A three-act play with six actors.We fall asleep when we want to be awake and we cannot sleep when we would wish nothing else.performance / theatre play (40’)In collaboration with Tereza Stejskalová, 2014

Reliable RelationshipI’m interested in a paradoxical relationship between seemingly contradictory logic of the art and the economics. In the simplified scheme imaginable on the one hand imagination and irrational instincts and on the other exactness, logic, reason. In the confrontation between the two spheres, however, the gap between them suddenly seem less overwhelming, economics becomes irrational and art is inseparable from economics. This work is based on the confrontation of these seemingly unrelated disciplines, rationality and esoterics.performance 1,5 hourvideo (20’, audio; filmed by Kristýna Bartošová), 2014

Reliable Relationshipframecuts, 2015

Fieldwork on the Human Kindinstallation view, 2015

Fieldwork on the Human KindIn the twentieth century machines replaced human labor; now they are displacing human perception. In the light of an impending ecological disaster, a new perspective opens, which shows the story of the modern human as a finished chapter. A radically alienated, distant, technical look at humans swarming like insects offer a possible artistic strategy which can help us understand what we have come to.installation, 2015

I Love Things, Silent ComradesThe installation consists of five pairs of different technological devices - e.g., smartphones, TVs, notebooks. Each set reproduces a dialogue between a therapist and a person/object in trouble.The form of the performance is inspired by the rubric Letters to Sally in the Mlady svět magazine in 1970s and 1980s in Czechoslovakia. The section was quite popular at that time especially among young people as it dealt with their personal problems without bias. In our piece Sally has to respond to complaints and grievances related to the intimate and traumatic relationship between people and technological devices. In the performance-installation technological devices face each other and transmit the actors voices. Actors are present but only as silent assistants.In collaboration with Jiří Skála &Tereza Stejskalová, 2015

Circle of ConfusionI focused on „debt“ as an individual’s obligation to society. The case of the murderess Olga Hepnarová can be understood as an extreme example of the conviction that it is society which owes to individuals. Hepnarová drove into a group of unknown people with a lorry truck because she assumed they represented the society which was indebted to her and which could not meet its obligation to her. Her act was in fact a monstrous instance of debt collection (repossession).installation, 2013

Thoughts in CirclesInstallation in Cube Gallery was meant to be a free interpretation of spiritist photographs from the 1920s. I was looking for a possible connection between a spiritist séance and today’s “Homo economicus/ Homo consumericus”. White shirts were free to be taken away by the visitors symbolizing ghosts that thus came to life.installation, 2012

Thoughts in Circlesinstallation view, 2012

HandshakeHandshake through a fly, in front of the Unisphere, NYC (USA)photo-performanceIn collaboration with Jan Brož, 2012