↳ Exhibitions

HEROIC vs HOLISTIC at PLATO Ostrava

January 15, 2018

Artists: Barbara Falender, Grzegorz Kowalski, Miyeon Lee, Beny Wagner, Nadja Argyropoulou

Exhibition title: HEROIC vs HOLISTIC (Erotic eco-drama)

Curated by: Daniela & Linda Dostálková

Venue: PLATO Ostrava , Ostrava, The Czech Republic

Date: November 16, 2017 – January 28, 2018

Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artists and PLATO Ostrava

“Sour grapes. What an expression (on your face). Sour grapes are unexpected and unwanted. You pick a grape, bite through the skin to the fleshy fruit expecting sweetness. Perhaps you anticipate seeds, but more likely not (seedless reigns). Expecting sweetness, you are disappointed by the sour grape. Say “yuck” and spit it out if you can; if not, grimace and swallow. The grape is rejected. Is it bad? Or just not what you wanted? Not what you paid for? Were you deceived by the unblemished appearance of the fruit? Can you trust the next one?

Sour grapes: the expression refers to someone who is dissatisfied, holds a grudge, doesn’t have a sense of humor, won’t go along with the crowd, a sore loser. Sour is crabby, sullen, surly, as well as acerbic. Adjectives to put down, as well as to describe. Adjectives used to describe feminists, troublemakers.

Sour grapes is an expression to describe something that leaves a bad taste in your mouth (another expression), in someone’s mouth. The question that no one asks is, how does the grape feel? How does being sour feel? How does being spat out feel? How does being rapidly gulped feel? Does the grape feel rejected or glad to get away? Really now, does the grape feel at all? Hey, are any grapes reading this text? Grapes, get together.”(1)

Today, ethical reflection on the value of nature is regarded as a sports discipline. Ecologists compete in how to introduce values with a clear hierarchy. They create an autonomous construct, different from our personal desires and experiences; a hypothetical machine designed to control. Feelings have nothing to do here; even worse, they are perceived as ridiculous obstacles easily interfering with a perfectly thought-out machinery. Arguments that are not based on facts, but on love or compassion, are irrelevant. The heroic mind has managed to look, but not see, act but not feel, think but not know. Holistic people adopt a different standpoint to the current crisis of nature. Their opinions do not have a competitive essence, we can rather call them stories that model a fluid portrait of the world we live in. This image is not based on a unified view. It is a stream that brings the voices of people emerging from different places and life circumstances. They emphasize the metaphorical role of nature settled in abstract universal principles, and replace the dictates of heroic ethics with the imagery of the world’s mindscape. Holism is defined as a theory establishing the organisation of the world on the existence of a whole, while heroic ethics is characterized by isolated action. Introduced in the form of an erotic eco-drama, the exhibition Heroic vs. Holistic offers a postromantic view of nature from the point of view of the two ethics mutually permeating one another.

-Daniela & Linda Dostálková

Heroic vs. Holistic, Plato, 2017: Beny Wagner, Inner Circle, adhesive vinyl color inkjet print on window, dimension variable, 2016

Heroic vs. Holistic, installation view, Plato, 2017

Heroic vs. Holistic, Plato, 2017: Grzegorz Kowalski, Blue Devotional Articles, photographic object, 1972, mixed media (metal, fabric, wood), 54 x 87, 5 x 5 cm; Miyeon Lee, Blown Up Drawing, 2016, acrylic and liquid graphite on linen, 150 x 200 cm; Daniela & Linda Dostálková, Acid Rain, 2017, full HD video, 05 min 04 sec.

Heroic vs. Holistic, Plato, 2017: Grzegorz Kowalski, Blue Devotional Articles, photographic object, 1972, mixed media (metal, fabric, wood), 54 x 87, 5 x 5 cm; Miyeon Lee, Blown Up Drawing, 2016, acrylic and liquid graphite on linen, 150 x 200 cm.

Heroic vs. Holistic, installation view, Plato, 2017

Heroic vs. Holistic, Plato, 2017: Beny Wagner, Appartions, 2017, UV print on mirror, each 36 x 52 cm

Heroic vs. Holistic, Plato, 2017: Miyeon Lee, Blown Up Drawing, 2016, acrylic and liquid graphite on linen, 150 x 200 cm; Daniela & Linda Dostálková, Acid Rain, 2017, full HD video, 05 min 04 sec; Beny Wagner, Appartions, 2017, UV print on mirror, each 36 x 52 cm

Heroic vs. Holistic, installation view, Plato, 2017

Heroic vs. Holistic, Plato, 2017: Barbara Falender, Adio Kerida, 1977–2012, alabaster, marble, 28 x 48 x 43 cm; Grzegorz Kowalski, Oskar Desage–Schmidt, 1974, photography, each 30 x 42 cm; Miyeon Lee, Untitled, 2016, liquid graphite on canvas, 30 x 40 cm

Heroic vs. Holistic, installation view, Plato, 2017

Heroic vs. Holistic, Plato, 2017: Miyeon Lee, Untitled, 2016, liquid graphite on canvas, 30 x 40 cm; Barbara Falender, Abandoned (Elaine), 2012, marble, 43 x 39 x 30 cm

Heroic vs. Holistic, installation view, Plato, 2017

Grzegorz Kowalski, The Courier I, from series The American Cliche, 1970–1997, photography collage, 50, 5 x 40 cm

Heroic vs. Holistic, installation view, Plato, 2017

Heroic vs. Holistic, Plato, 2017: Barbara Falender, Hourglass, 2005, marble, 57 x 35 x 28 cm

Heroic vs. Holistic, Plato, 2017: Daniela & Linda Dostálková, Heroic vs. Holistic II, 2017, full HD video, 05 min 20 sec; Heroic vs. Holistic III, 2017, full HD video, 02 min 53 sec; Beny Wagner, Inner Circle, adhesive vinyl color inkjet print on window, dimension variable, 2016

Heroic vs. Holistic, Plato, 2017: Beny Wagner, Inner Circle, adhesive vinyl color inkjet print on window, dimension variable, 2016; Daniela & Linda Dostálková, Heroic vs. Holistic II, 2017, full HD video, 05 min 20 sec, Heroic vs. Holistic III, 2017, full HD video, 02 min 53 sec; Miyeon Lee, 38 Border Line Wants to Retire on a Dutch Asparagus Farm, 2017, acrylic on canvas, 40 x 30 cm

Heroic vs. Holistic, installation view, Plato, 2017

Heroic vs. Holistic, Plato, 2017: Miyeon Lee, Monument for a Lost Land, 2016, acrylic on canvas, 30 x 40 cm; Barbara Falender, Selfportrait, 2016, marble, 43 x 40 x 32 cm

Heroic vs. Holistic, installation view, Plato, 2017

Heroic vs. Holistic, Plato, 2017: Barbara Falender, Erotic Pillows, 1973–2006, bisquit, each approx. 20 x 20 x 10 cm

Heroic vs. Holistic, installation view, Plato, 2017

Heroic vs. Holistic, Plato, 2017: Beny Wagner, Inner Circle, adhesive vinyl color inkjet print on window, dimension variable, 2016; Beny Wagner, We’re All Here, 2016, full HD video, 11 min 40 sec; Miyeon Lee, Absence of Mountains, series, 2017, acrylic on canvas, each 20 x 30 cm