Exhibition: RAPPROCHEMENT with the public space.
Date: 28. 4. – 29. 5. 2020 + few more days to 3. 6. 2020
Exhibition venue: Gallery 2, Ústí nad Labem House of Arts Faculty of Art and Design at Jan Evangelista Purkyně University in Ústí nad Labem
Despite the situation with COVID-19, we begin preparation of an exhibition RAPPROCHEMENT! Gallery 2 has large windows and viewers can witness the exhibition and installation from 28. 4. 2020 from the street. Be curious with us and discover first details.
You can visit the exposition personally beginning 12. 5. 2020 and also be a part of our focus groups (more at email: adela.machova@ticass.eu).
The exhibition “RAPPROCHEMENT with the public space” focuses on the city spaces in the Czech Republic, Italy, Kenya, Poland, South Africa and the United Kingdom, and its aesthetics. The researchers of TICASS project collected the pictures of their public space and prepared the documentary photographs for this exhibition. The aim of the exhibition is to get the recipients familiar with other cultural patterns of visual communication and bring them closer to the perception of the pictures. We assumed that people usually walk through the public place and their perception is in a standby mode, because they are attacked by many pictures, signs, and symbols all the time. They see the visual signs, but they do not (want to) decode the messages. The exhibition shows how the viewer could pay attention to what is present in the picture, and why it is there. Remember that there is a possible gap between what you see and what is the first impression.
This exhibition shows us the image of the public space. But this exhibition plays game with the viewers. At first sight, we see a lot of details that are just fragments of the documentary pictures captured in the cities. We need to switch on our imagination, examine the experience we have and recognize the information in the picture.
We can also recognize some objects in this exhibition – boards that are a part of a public space. These objects have taken our mind to secondment stays in Szczecin (Poland), in Kilifi (Kenya), in London (UK), in Macerata (Italy) and here in Ústí nad Labem (Czech Republic). If we will observe diligently, we find among the documentary photography of public space an electronic information sign, an advertising sign for a “mganga” (healer), the yellow light of a pedestrian crossing, a label calling our attention, and a street sign. We looked for some identifying items of the public space where we spent time with one of our researchers too.
Finally, we can find in all the photography the six selected specifications from the public space of the cities by TICASS researchers – we can identify the underpasses, the pedestrian crossings, the public institutions, the entrance to universities, the labels, and informational boards. Are all these categories a part of the public space? Obviously. Do not forget – there is always more information; it depends on our experience and skills when watching. Try to enjoy this visual game with pictures and open your mind.
The title of the exhibition refers to a noun, “rapprochement” in the sense of an establishment or reestablishment of harmonious relations. Aesthetics is not rational. It is a culture, habit, craving, and identity. Looking at the contributions of artists, curators, and scientists, please pay attention to what is there. Try to go beyond, to notice as many details as you can, and ask yourself – why is it important? Remember that creativity is not just for artists. Let this exhibition be the beginning of your new perspective – a perspective in which you pay attention to what is next to you. Start being critical, start comparing the images, without prejudice and without background. This is your time to be critical, like a child learning how to read the world for the first time.
The exhibition is a part of the international project TICASS – Technologies of Imaging in Communication, Art, and Social Science which focuses on the visual technologies and their significant influence on people, and also on visual literacy. “RAPPROCHEMENT with the public space” is a presentation that will be transferred to all TICASS member institutions. The exhibition serves as a research tool and within the exhibition, the researchers work with different target groups in the form of workshops. The TICASS project is interested in the perception of the public space, so we ask the following question – how do people in different cities read and how do they perceive the visual signs, icons, QR codes, graphic designs, and pictures?
Exhibition venue: Gallery 2, Ústí nad Labem House of Arts Faculty of Art and Design at Jan Evangelista Purkyně University in Ústí nad Labem
Despite the situation with COVID-19, we begin preparation of an exhibition RAPPROCHEMENT! Gallery 2 has large windows and viewers can witness the exhibition and installation from 28. 4. 2020 from the street. Be curious with us and discover first details.
You can visit the exposition personally beginning 12. 5. 2020 and also be a part of our focus groups (more at email: adela.machova@ticass.eu).
The exhibition “RAPPROCHEMENT with the public space” focuses on the city spaces in the Czech Republic, Italy, Kenya, Poland, South Africa and the United Kingdom, and its aesthetics. The researchers of TICASS project collected the pictures of their public space and prepared the documentary photographs for this exhibition. The aim of the exhibition is to get the recipients familiar with other cultural patterns of visual communication and bring them closer to the perception of the pictures. We assumed that people usually walk through the public place and their perception is in a standby mode, because they are attacked by many pictures, signs, and symbols all the time. They see the visual signs, but they do not (want to) decode the messages. The exhibition shows how the viewer could pay attention to what is present in the picture, and why it is there. Remember that there is a possible gap between what you see and what is the first impression.
This exhibition shows us the image of the public space. But this exhibition plays game with the viewers. At first sight, we see a lot of details that are just fragments of the documentary pictures captured in the cities. We need to switch on our imagination, examine the experience we have and recognize the information in the picture.
We can also recognize some objects in this exhibition – boards that are a part of a public space. These objects have taken our mind to secondment stays in Szczecin (Poland), in Kilifi (Kenya), in London (UK), in Macerata (Italy) and here in Ústí nad Labem (Czech Republic). If we will observe diligently, we find among the documentary photography of public space an electronic information sign, an advertising sign for a “mganga” (healer), the yellow light of a pedestrian crossing, a label calling our attention, and a street sign. We looked for some identifying items of the public space where we spent time with one of our researchers too.
Finally, we can find in all the photography the six selected specifications from the public space of the cities by TICASS researchers – we can identify the underpasses, the pedestrian crossings, the public institutions, the entrance to universities, the labels, and informational boards. Are all these categories a part of the public space? Obviously. Do not forget – there is always more information; it depends on our experience and skills when watching. Try to enjoy this visual game with pictures and open your mind.
The title of the exhibition refers to a noun, “rapprochement” in the sense of an establishment or reestablishment of harmonious relations. Aesthetics is not rational. It is a culture, habit, craving, and identity. Looking at the contributions of artists, curators, and scientists, please pay attention to what is there. Try to go beyond, to notice as many details as you can, and ask yourself – why is it important? Remember that creativity is not just for artists. Let this exhibition be the beginning of your new perspective – a perspective in which you pay attention to what is next to you. Start being critical, start comparing the images, without prejudice and without background. This is your time to be critical, like a child learning how to read the world for the first time.
The exhibition is a part of the international project TICASS – Technologies of Imaging in Communication, Art, and Social Science which focuses on the visual technologies and their significant influence on people, and also on visual literacy. “RAPPROCHEMENT with the public space” is a presentation that will be transferred to all TICASS member institutions. The exhibition serves as a research tool and within the exhibition, the researchers work with different target groups in the form of workshops. The TICASS project is interested in the perception of the public space, so we ask the following question – how do people in different cities read and how do they perceive the visual signs, icons, QR codes, graphic designs, and pictures?
Curator of exhibition concept: Karolina Zawiślak
Curator of exhibition exposition: Adéla Machová
