S l o v a k i a
by Lucia Benicka
"The notion of the camera's truthfulness has become suspect, as the photographers fabricated, altered and appropriated images, freeing the photo- graph from its customary role as a documentary record. No longer operating under the pretense of the camera as a ‘mirror with a memory', and self- portrait as merely the capturing of personality or superficial likeness – photographers' images ask us to reject the notion that identity is a straightforward process." (In: FICTIONS OF SELF, essay by Trevor Richardson, 1993, p.12)
Kocan's and Tiso's portrait photography is based on the principles of postmodernism: they play with identity, manipulating contents through interactive spatial installations, collages, montages, and the layering of negatives and mixed-media art. The face becomes a primary object of photographic creation. Kocan mixes races ("Black & White Benetton", 1993), people and dogs ("Like Master Like Dog - Like Dog Like Master", 1995), faces of close relatives and acquaintances ("Family Puzzle I.-II", 1992-1995; "False Horoscope", 1994; "Robino", 1992) as well as historical personalities ("Scorpion", 1996). Tiso, in principle searching for similarities and individual specialties, creates new identities ("Identities", 1998; "Dialogues with Silence", 1997; "Escapes", 1999). They manipulate reality and lie about themselves and others, provoking questions about the sense of objectivity, which is not a criterion of knowledge in this case. "There is no longer a truth of the self, but only its imaginary. Anyone looking in a mirror, even if seeking to discover their true identity, discovers first of all a fixed image of her or himself. Every self-portrait is inevitably, by its very nature, a doubling, an image of the other. Belief in the truth of the self and belief in the objectivity of photographic record have perished simultaneously. Every self-portrait, even the simplest and least staged, is the portrait of another." ("STAGING THE SELF", essay by J.F.Chevrier, London, 1986, p.9)
KOCAN's PORTRAITS - PLAYING WITH IDENTITY
"Nowadays computers control all kinds of art and I strive to avoid this. I create my photographs with pure photographic technique and little mechani- cal interference. In the creation of portraits I use the technique of collage: I cut out some part of the face of one person and I glue it on another face – creating a third, mixed. Sometimes I mix two different creatures together. Gradually, I have moved from collage to jigsaw, the halves of two different faces or the connecting of a portrait from two negatives creating one photograph for me. In fact, I have observed with the aid of my photographs a certain genet- ic relationship in my family. At the same time space attracts me, and so I install many of my photographs in the environment in the form of playful com- posites, cubes, projections, revolving panels. It amuses me to provoke the spectator to participate directly in the exhibited art; it is possible to compose and mix faces, to cast horoscopes, to enter the projections. I do not wish to do art for art's sake, which is comprehensible only to a certain stratum (or at least so one might assume). My pictures, in which I endeavor to encode a certain idea, humor, or puzzle, wish to be understood by everyone."
TISO's POLARITIES
Martin Tiso's work brought into the contemporary Slovak scene a special combination of photography, video and installation. It is strongly influenced by conceptual photography. He uses mixed-media to respond to the issues of religion and identity. Polarity is a way for him to observe reality – many of his installations have only symbolic titles. "My portrait work is a mirror of relationship between the ideas of desire and reality. It is a space for searching for our identities, for learning about whom we would like to be."
Lucia Benicka
Galleri Image ©1999 Toldbodgade 8, 8000 Aarhus C, Denmark.
