Vaclav Pozarek

20.02. – 01.08.2021

The Kunstverein Bielefeld is delighted to present TUC (Turnstile Utter Chaos), a solo exhibition by Vaclav Pozarek. Born in 1940 in Budweis (Czechoslovakia, now Czech Republic) Pozarek today lives in Berne, Switzerland. His work is characterized by a combination of sculpture, drawing and photography, used along with architecture, printing, book design and typography. His artistic practice focuses on the conditions that constitute both artistic production and reception. Deliberately destabilizing the boundaries between art and its exterior, Pozarek undermines the traditional ordering principles used within, and constructed by, institutional and art-theoretical contexts.

Pozarek exhibits an ensemble of new objects, designed specifically for and with the architecture of the Kunstverein Bielefeld. It consists of simple materials, mostly wood, found or industrially manufactured, covered with ordinary commercial protective paint. Their formal structure makes reference to the shape of doors, boxes, or building components. The pieces are marked by open structures; they give new nuance to the vocabulary of modernity, against a backdrop of postmodern formal language. The witty, critical work reflects on art’s historicity, simultaneously disclosing and highlighting the contradictions and ambivalences within this historicity. Pozarek’s work offers some of our era's most precise analysis, constantly posing and reposing the question of what identifies art as such.

Pozarek's work has been shown in solo exhibitions at the Mitterrand Gallery, Paris (2020), the Francesca Pia Gallery, Zurich (2019), the Musée d'art moderne et contemporain (MAMCO) in Geneva (2018), the Barbara Wien Gallery, Berlin (2018), the Kunstmuseum Solothurn (2015), the Bündner Kunstmuseum, Chur (2012), the Kunsthaus Glarus (2006), and the Kunst Museum Winterthur (2004). His work has also featured in numerous group exhibitions, and was presented by the galleries Francesca Pia and Barbara Wien as part of Unlimited Art Basel 2019. In 2006, he was the recipient of the Prix Meret Oppenheim.

As part of Pozarek's solo exhibition at the Kunstverein Bielefeld, PAIR, an artist’s book, was produced.

Curated by Nadine Droste

KUNSTVEREIN BIELEFELD
Welle 61
33602 Bielefeld

Thu–Sun, 12:00 – 18:00
Mo-Wed, by appointment

T +49 (0) 521.17 88 06
F +49 (0) 521.17 88 10
kontakt@kunstverein-bielefeld.de

Graphic drawing of the letters T, U and C, which form the title of the exhibition and stand for Turnstile Utter Chaos.

© 2020 by Vaclav Pozarek

Triangle pointing left Triangle pointing right
A brown, two-sided wooden gate stands on two wooden rollers. It is attached to the wall with the open sides.

Vaclav Pozarek, TUC, exhibition view, Kunstverein Bielefeld, 2021.
Photo: Fred Dott

1/10
In the next room, the two-sided wooden gate continues. Here, too, it stands on two wooden rollers and the open sides are mounted on the wall.

Vaclav Pozarek, TUC, exhibition view, Kunstverein Bielefeld, 2021.
Photo: Fred Dott

2/10
Back to the first object: the grid-like arrangement of the wooden gates now becomes clear. Even if one cannot see the object in the other room through the wall, it is now possible to imagine how the gate continues across walls and thus creates its own spaces.

Vaclav Pozarek, TUC, exhibition view, Kunstverein Bielefeld, 2021.
Photo: Fred Dott

3/10
Walking through the exhibition rooms, one encounters more wooden racks. In this picture you can see a two-sided brown gate on rollers, which is hidden behind a column.

Vaclav Pozarek, TUC, exhibition view, Kunstverein Bielefeld, 2021.
Photo: Fred Dott

4/10
If you take a step back, the gate in the next, smaller exhibition room also becomes visible.

Vaclav Pozarek, TUC, exhibition view, Kunstverein Bielefeld, 2021.
Photo: Fred Dott

5/10
The two three-sided wooden gates on rollers in the small cabinet room look much more massive than the same gates in the larger otherwise empty exhibition rooms.  The close-up shows that the artist has placed the hinges that hold the gates together on the outside, making them visible to the viewer.

Vaclav Pozarek, TUC, exhibition view, Kunstverein Bielefeld, 2021.
Photo: Fred Dott

6/10
Wooden gates were also installed on the upper floor. One in the front room and two in the back, with only the frontmost and the rearmost visible in the exhibition view. In general, no more than two gates can be seen at any one time.

Vaclav Pozarek, TUC, exhibition view, Kunstverein Bielefeld, 2021.
Photo: Fred Dott

7/10
The frontal view of the gate makes it look flat and less spatial.

Vaclav Pozarek, TUC, exhibition view, Kunstverein Bielefeld, 2021.
Photo: Fred Dott

8/10
The small room on the upper floor is the only one in the entire exhibition where two gates face each other. They do not mirror each other, however, but can rather be understood as a continuation of the respective other part.

Vaclav Pozarek, TUC, exhibition view, Kunstverein Bielefeld, 2021.
Photo: Fred Dott

9/10
The frontal view of this last grate on the upper floor puts the structure of the grate in relation to the structure of the windows to the right and left of it. The openness and the closedness of the objects thus come to the fore.

Vaclav Pozarek, TUC, exhibition view, Kunstverein Bielefeld, 2021.
Photo: Fred Dott

10/10

Press information

Events:

  • 16.04.2021, 19:00

    ONLINE LECTURE

    by Valérie Knoll (Director, Kunsthalle Bern)
    in context of the exhibition TUC by Vaclav Pozarek

  • 18.04.2021, 17:00

    ONLINE EXHIBITION TOUR

    through the exhibition TUC by Vaclav Pozarek with Nadine Droste

  • 13.06.2021, 17:00

    GUIDED TOUR

    through the exhibitions with Leonore Spemann

  • 27.06.2021, 17:00

    GUIDED TOUR

    through the exhibitions with Leonore Spemann

  • 03.07.2021, 10:00

    CHILDREN'S ACTIVITY

    Workshop with Klaus Braun
    10:00 - 15:00

  • 04.07.2021, 17:00

    GUIDED TOUR

    through the exhibitions with Carsten Gude

  • 11.07.2021, 17:00

    GUIDED TOUR

    through the exhibitions with Carsten Gude

  • 16.07.2021, 19:00

    ARTIST TALK AND PRESENTATION OF THE ARTIST BOOK PAIR

    Vaclav Pozarek in conversation with Nadine Droste

  • 18.07.2021, 17:00

    CURATOR'S TOUR

    through the exhibitions with Nadine Droste

  • 25.07.2021, 17:00

    GUIDED TOUR

    through the exhibitions with Leonore Spemann

  • 01.08.2021, 17:00

    CURATOR'S TOUR

    through the exhibition TUC by Vaclav Pozarek and BLACK PAGES with Nadine Droste

Publications and editions

Vaclav Pozarek
TUC, 2021

Vaclav Pozarek
TUC, 2021

Vaclav Pozarek
PAIR, 2021

Vaclav Pozarek
a due e due e luce, 2021