Antonín Jirát

Antonín Jirát’s intermedia work is based on the principle of sequence of associations.  He has been interested in the definition of time and story ever since his studies in the Studio of Digital Media headed by Štěpánka Šimlová, as well as in the Studio of Interactive Media headed by Pavel Kopřiva at the Faculty of Art and Design at the University of Jan Evangelista Purkyně in Ústí nad Labem. He finds banal mechanisms in everyday reality that he transfers to the border of illusion and reality. He creates space for depicting a poetic situation through visual form. In his work he utilizes the possibilities of post-production which he does not put above the actual concept. An important factor for him is the initial impulse – situation or material found, for which he tries to find the ideal form of expression. He works with the materials found, which are random or from family history, in the gallery on the basis of simple physical regularities. He often defines the space of the gallery with the materials found. He places emphasis on a strong aesthetical experience and cleanliness of execution.

We can trace the foothold for the characteristic of his work back to his studies when in his work Dopřejme jim zázraky (Let Them Have Miracles), from 2009, he created installations of imaginary miracles using banal mechanisms. For example, he set a spontaneously swinging swing in the park in motion using the mechanism of a windshield wiper, or a tree turning in the woods using an electromotor. Antonín Jirát created strange events that fascinated him using the D.I.Y. principle. For his thesis work he chose the subject of time where in the work Readymade – Readymades from 2010 he worked with a piano thrown out of the window. In a few seconds he initiated an event that caused the origin of a new object – thousands of small fragments. He uses the form of revision of an object to deal with the notions of a whole and a fragment of an art work in the context of post conceptual art.

Antonín Jirát expresses himself in an intermedia way and works freely in the media of video art, new media, photography, object and installation. An important factor for him is to build abstract, if not absurd situations. He perceives an object as a medium and an independent thing that comes alive in the gallery with a clear message. It is not a sculpture. It is an independent thing. And it’s nothing else than that actual thing. For example, in the exhibition project Quaqmire in Gallery Kostka with Martin Llavaneras from 2013 the two artists worked with images and objects taken out of realistic contexts and they created a situation for the sequence of associations that very much resembled the atmosphere of a surreal vision. In the work Bez názvu (Without a Title) from the year 2014 Jirát uses photography as an object within its adjustment, where text is an important component. He places the photograph freely in the gallery space and its support becomes an artistic gesture. With his commentary to the photograph “Za tímto kamenem je nejkrásnější žena na světě (The Most Beautiful Woman in the World Is Behind This Rock)“  he touches on universal beauty that does not exist. With the text he creates absolute narration and its interconnection with visual material empowers the power of message and poetics of his work.

Antonín Jirát focuses on imagination in his work. He doesn’t need for the viewer to understand everything but to grasp the hints that are coded in his work. The titles of the works are important because they open up the path to the viewers on which they can unwind the story that the artist wanted to indicate.

Crash Test / Pro My Street Films:
mystreetfilms.cz/cs/video/crash-test

A2 č. 11, 2014 - Galerie / Zvíře nikdy nespí
Lídři, hrdinové atd.
 

Jak uplést svetr pro dům / 10. prosince  2012 / Český rozhlas
http://www.rozhlas.cz/mozaika/zahranicni/_zprava/jak-uplest-svetr-pro-dum--1147979

Český design ve Stockholmu: dům ve svetru i botasky / 30. LISTOPADU 2012 / Lidovky.cz
www.lidovky.cz/cesky-design-v-zime-ve-stockholmu-dum-ve-svetru-i-botasky-pzt-/design.aspx