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Erik Sikora

Erik Sikora

area: Media Art

bathroom recording © Erik Sikora

Key Facts

nationality

Slovakia

area

Media Art

residence

Košice

recommending institution

tranzit.org/ERSTE Stiftung

time period

July 2015 - July 2015

Education:
2001 - 2005 Secondary Technical School of Fine Arts, Košice
2005 – 2011 Academy of Fine Arts in Prague:
School of New media I. : Michael Bielický, Markus Huemer
School of Painting II: Vladimír Skrepl
Studio of Guest: Magdalena Jetelová
Studio of Guest: Florian Reither - Gelitin Group (AT)
School of Conceptual Tendencies: Miloš Šejn
2009 – University of Arts London, Camberwell College of Fine Arts

Exhibitions:

Group exhibitions:
2010
Trial (Our house) / Trial Trail
Atelierhaus der Akademie der bildenden Künste, Vienna
Transgression, An exhibition of video and media art from Czech republic, curator: Gabriela Jurkovič,
Videotage, Honkong
2011
Transgressions, curator: Vera Mlechevska,
Gallery Credo Bonum, Sofia
Performance Lab: Exploring Contemporary Czech Performance,
DOX, Prague
How to Begin from the Beginning, (Fail Again, Fail Better),
Galerie Futura, Prague
PragueBiennale 5,
Microna, Prague
DIPLOMA AVU 2011, exhibition of graduated students of AVU
Karlín Halls, Prague
The End and Beyond, curator: Vera Mlechevska,
The Ancient Bath, Plovdiv, Bulgaria
1 + (1+1) +1, Eja Devečková, Aleš Čermák, Erik Sikora,
Meetfactory, Prague
2012
A word never far removed : Compilation, SUB URBAN VIDEO LOUNGE,
Rotterdam, Holland
2013
Medzicentrum IV
workshop and exhibition
Výmenník Štítová, Košice
Cena Oskára Čepana 2013
Pisztoryho palác, Bratislava
2014
24 hours
Lucie Mičíková (CZ), Dorota Kenderová (SK), Soňa Goscinski (AU), Samuel Schaab (AU), Erik Sikora (SK), Tomáš
Jetela (CZ) , Jan Chlup (CZ).

Solo exhibitions:
2010
Výšťava, curator Radovan Čerevka,
Make Up Gallery / Kasárne/Kulturpark, Košice, Slovakia
2011
Erik Sikora, Tvoridlo,
Gallery Pavilon, Prague
2013
Introspektiva / Introspective
curator: Jiří Ptáček
Fotograf Gallery, Prague
2014
Tešenie / Joyness
Open Gallery, Bratislava, Slovakia

Prizes:

Leif Rumke Preis 2008 (with Klára Jirková),
Munchen, Germany
Nomination for ESSL Award 2011
Finalist of Cena Oskára Čepana 2013

<link http: www.eriksikora.com>www.eriksikora.com

Erik Sikora

Projectinfo

I usually make videoessays, performance and some music too. I am focused on topics which are more complex than I can resolve. For example I am focused on the creativity itself. I like to think about the role of artist as the hero of the culture – what he/she/it could really do and what he/she/it thinks that he/she/it have to do. Can artist be also the visionary, guru, spritual leader, lifestyle trend setter, etc? These difficult thinking experiments are not easy to try at the humans, so I usually experiment with myself. When I collect all thinking material and results from these experiments, I usually shoot it as videodocumentarist with me as the main actor. During my staying in Vienna I would like to concentrate at developing the new form of my presentation. Making videos is very useful, but sometimes I need to have personal contact with my audience. I would like to develop the new way of live presentation, something between performance, essay, theatrical play, live concert and teaching at school. And about the focused topics, I hope I will not be focused on the Vienna atmosphere, or difference between life here and there, because it could be something like residency cliché. I am not yet sure about my point of interests there, but maybe the main topic which is now important for me is the shyness. What is happening in this world with shyness and without shyness, and if the shyness is important ingredient in art, and if shyness is something like one of the main human diseases. So in general, I would like to develop the new live form of presentations, and the presented thoughts and experiments will be hopefully about shyness and stuff around this.

Documentation

I spent my residency time in very good mood. I got „Vienna pack“ full of visiting galleries, visiting museums, cycling, seeing, feeling the atmosphere. It was like the cure for me. I can expect that it could be normal tourist feeling in Vienna, especially on July. But the residency in Museumsquartier was very special for me. I felt like I am inside of big organism, created for culture, and it was my pleasure to be part of it. For example it is good message for any ego to have name on the posters inside the MQ, where I crossed everyday:)
I choosed the way of my residency as fully concetration term for long thinking as itself. I didn't contact a lot of people, but I enjoyed the stay as observer. Then I would like to thank Erste Foundantion Library for the acces to the books and Heide Wihrheim and Michaela Geboltsberger for care and consultations. All these enriched my staying.

I developed some long term projects during my residency which are not visible, but I will continue on on this work back home. For the topics I am focused on the roles of artists, which artists can not satisfy. For example, maybe a lot of people expect that artists can help them with some spiritual questions, questions about the harmony in life, meaning of life etc. I would like to feel me as this kind of artist, and I will try all these things even I will fail. In my last projects I tried to be somebody who will develop some new harmony products for your homes, or I tried to be some kind of spiritual guru. These stories I collected as some documentary or videoessays.

Now in Vienna I developed my new role. It is about the position of humankind for this planet. I am trying to convince you that humankind is the reproducing organ for all Earth's life. Only humankind can spread the life to the Universe, nobody cares about it and I will be the missionary hero for this message. This is the basic idea and I thought about all posibilities how artist can spread this idea trough the artistic possibilities or art pieces.

The studio in Museumsquartier in the centre of the town and walking around was the great place for thinking about it. But I also developed the other project, which is more site-specific.

I call it „landscape pop“. I am also focused on music and song writing, and as an artist I am testing if I can put some conceptual ideas or experiences to the songs especially trough the lyrics of songs.
Here is the description of my landscape pop. When artist – painter come to see some interesting place, he/she can paint it as landscape painting.
The landscape painting was the revolution thing in the history of arts, because before it everybody painted the landscape as background for figures, and landscape was not standalone. I followed this observation on lyrics for pop songs. It is very usual that every singer sings about some human things, actions, love, etc. If somebody mention the landscape, it is still connected to people.

In Vienna I made three pop songs about specific landscape. I choosed three places in Vienna, I focused on places for leisure activities. I didn't go outside Vienna for some „pure“ landscape, but I tried to find landscapes inside of Vienna. Then I often visited these choosed places as some landscape artist and I watched all the details, especially something which will be unique for this area.
Then I put it to the lyrics of the songs, and in my studio I made music on PC and I recorded my voice singing. I prefer the low-fi condition for the sound recording, because I like to produce the song connected to the place, so I recorded my singing in improvised sound studio in the bathroom of Museumsquartier studio. You can hear these three songs online on Youtube (keyword: landscape pop Vienna).


I choosed these my favourite Vienna places:
1.    Volksgarten (because of roses and tourists)
youtu.be/W3dT1ta1gOE
2.    Donauinsel (because places around Danube river were favourite for me)
youtu.be/V4x0ydFgZcw
3.    Stadtpark (because of lake and animals)
    https://youtu.be/fjipG1h5rTg?list=PLPaIkt5cWnNKzKepHfw1VaZy5dlc1n2iL

A lot of my works, especially songwriting is based on playing with Slovak language, and during my stay in Vienna I had a lot of time to think how I can transfer my projects abroad. So this is the first step, all these three Vienna landscape pop songs I made in English language.

The other meaning of landscape pop songs I can find in street culture, where writers leave the writings on the wall. They tag the place or they show the relationship with this place. In my landscape pop project I also tag the place but with the song. The place is not changed by me, but if some landscape pop song will be hit song, then it could be help for the fame of place and the relationship between me and my places will be famous...

Thanks
Erik Sikora

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