Krištof Kintera : How Can I Help You?
DOX Centre for Contemporary Art, Prague
What an entertaining experience. It is one of those exhibitions that inevitably draw in a lot of cameras and that do well on social media, but beyond that, is at its core, based on a humorous premise that is bound to draw you in. Kintera is a well-known visual artist on the Czech contemporary art scene, mainly for his social and cultural commentary and the many sculptures that can be found displayed in public spaces. These sculptures are often quite memorable, by way of being made out of striking materials such as old parts of broken machines and different industrial materials, that one doesn't immediately think of as being an artists’s preferred material or canvas. For me, he is someone who excels at getting a point or idea across with very little material, or in a concise, yet punchy way.
This exhibition is a collection of just that: works with short, punchy, and funny lines that evoke a big reaction, despite their simplicity. The main part of the exhibition is a room that spans two stories; the walls are fully covered in a sea of canvasses, each unique, some more funny than others. What they have in common is the use of a really wide array of unexpected materials ranging from brooms to buckets, to old light fixtures, accompanied by a short sentence or collection of words, tying the whole piece together. One could stand there for hours and still find new canvasses that they previously missed. Some I found to be a bit gimmicky, but others genuinely made me laugh, which is always refreshing. Surely, someone would have found those precise ones not as funny, but the point is, it’s not that often that you find yourself in a big exhibition room, that creates an atmosphere for people to come together and share a laugh with one another.
Besides some sketches and a brief video letting the viewer in on Kintera’s creative process in his studio full of found materials, there was also a wall dedicated to an installation/sculpture, which consisted of different-sized barrels, buckets, and other vessels, provocatively labeled as “disobedience 90%” or “desirability strong”, to give a couple of examples. The sheer excess of that room was enough to leave an impression, whether good or bad, but I think it also helped bring out the idea of the exhibition: it is open for everyone to find in it whatever it is that they are looking for or whichever ideas and feeling speak to them on an individual level. In addition to that, by positioning the work as the artist’s diary, it also gave an extensive insight into his creative process and how his ideas come to life.
