Leica Gallery in Prague presents Miroslav Machotka‘s Retrospective until April 5th, 2015.
In his In Search of Lost Time, Marcel Proust assigns the intuitive rediscovery of inner cognition and the moment of inner truth outside of the mundane, sometimes even banal reality, the significance of a major artistic feat. That is where, according to him, the essence of real creation lies – not in the mere intellectual following of an ahead defined path.
These essayistic reflections originally written in relation to literature, however, remarkably resonate with another medium – with photography. We of course cannot link them to every type of art photography – however, to Miroslav Machotka’s work, it’s as if they were ascribed. As if the photographer constantly sought the truthful image, the exact moment of time in the depths of his inner self and because of it, over and over he brought authentic records of the surrounding world ..
The exhibited retrospective called Site Events presents a substantial collection of Machotka’s black and white photographs, created analogically during the past forty years. What is remarkable though is that despite the time span encompassing these works, they create a comprehensive collection and new links to be found repeatedly between individual photographs. Machotka more or less creates his shots – without any manipulation, only through the selection and visual linking of elements of the photographed world – much like a painter constructs an abstract painting or a sculpture.
He looks for his topics, or “sites”, in the scenes of urban civilization from which he then selects specific cuts, objects, situations created by time and light. Most of the time, he works with detail and half-detail. Machotka’s sources are mainly Prague, where he lives, and Roudnice, his birth town he frequently revisits – places where he feels to be fundamentally anchored. Everything is seemingly matter-of-course here for him, yet it is here where he again and again finds impulses provoking a new grasp of intimately known surroundings.
Because together with the overall atmosphere of the era. Machotka’s work is occasionally linked to minimalism, land art, conceptualism, etc. In reality though, his work is highly distinctive and is essentially outside of external formal influences. By combining a visual shift with authentic elements of reality captured in concrete time, the author creates an unusual and exciting tension. In turn, this entices the viewer’s imagination to their own interpretation.
Eva Heyd, curator
EXHIBITION
Retrospective by Miroslav Machotka
Through April 5th, 2015
Leica Gallery
Školská 28
110 00 Praha 1
Czech Republic
