OPENING RECEPTION
Thursday, January 24, 2014, 5 - 7 p.m.
EXHIBITIONS DATES
January 25 - March 29, 2014
ABOUT THE SHOW
Jiri Svestka Berlin is proud to announce the first substantial Berlin solo show of video artist Mark Ther (born 1979, lives in Prague), one of the leading voices of the young generation with a rich body of work and great reputation.
The exhibition Das wandernde Sternlein entitled after Thers video from 2011, consists of three video projections and some drawings (after original drawings of the artists grand grand uncle Franz Schmelz from 1920s and 1930s). Mark Ther works with fictional and historical relations all connected to the Sudetenland. He connects the topics of Heimat and Vertreibung (forceful and violent deportation of about 3 million German citizens from Czechoslovakia after 1945) with mysterious stories and explorations of sexual identity. Queerness and gender variations are one of the main topics of his work. Most of his films are in more or less extinct Sudeten German language.
Thers videos incredibly short, cinematic, hilarious, and confusing have concerned themselves with the enunciation of a definitive style; a style that is marked by joyful revivification of a camp aesthetic, which is as sophisticated as playful, as well as a flippant sense of humour having its roots in Eastern European absurdity. What distinguishes Thers work from that of other contemporary Czech artists is its fearless exploration of sexuality and transgender, topics that he manages to engage in without politicizing his commitment. Unlike most video artists of his generation, Ther experiments with narrative in all of his videos; his approach is liberated and liberating, an approach that is not blinded by conceits of age. Although they frequently, through music and visuals, hearken back to the 1980s, perhaps the kitschiest decade yet, theres something timeless in so many of these pieces, which makes them work so well right here and right now. We might claim this time as Thers. (Travis Jeppesen)