Daniel Vlček

Daniel Vlček’s contribution to the contemporary art scene takes many forms, including artworks, music production and recycling under the sobriquets DJ Francois Perrin, Reverend Dick (with Richard Bakeš), Guma Guar (with Michaela Pixová, Richard Bakeš and Milan Mikuláštík), his participation at the non-musical activities of the Guma Guar group, management of the Ferdinand Bauman Gallery (in collaboration with Matouš Mědílek), and the opening of the club Berlin Model (with Matouš Mědílek and Richard Bakeš).

Vlček attended the Secondary School of Applied Arts and teacher training collage, before studying at the studios headed by Martin Mainer, Vladimír Skrepl and Veronika Bromová at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague (AVU). His art unwinds in parallel with his other activities. He began with activist posters entitled Civil Defence (2003), in which he used the spray-plus-stencil technique typical of street art. He was influenced by the war comics of the late 1950s, which showed what to do in the event of invasion, and these works included Keep Cool, Stay Home, and Stay Away From Windows. Another influence was the pro-American foreign policy promulgated by Czechoslovak politicians at the time and the similarities between American and Russian propaganda. When choosing a theme for his diploma work (2004) Vlček drew on his interest in sound in the sense of analogue waves in space. He created three short video documentaries on radio hams.

In 2007, at the Jelení Gallery as part of the exhibition “Focus on the Ebb and Flow of Feelings and Thoughts of All Kinds, Don’t Block Them” curated by Jan Kotík, he actualised this interest. For the interactive installation Relaxcore, he and Vojtěch Zítek created a metal helmet containing two loudspeakers with soundscape comprising sixty layers of different melodies, voices and effects. In 2007 and 2008, he worked on a cycle of enamel images with an ecological subtext and motifs of arctic giraffes and melting glaciers (“Tak sbohem, já mizím”, 2008, Skutečnost Gallery). In autumn 2011 at Gallery 207 he exhibited a static image of an apartment block in Strakonice, a refurbished socialist building with a relief of the dove of peace. The projected image comprised two layers, and Vlček placed a translucent blue sign of the dove of peach via a photograph of the new development. The installation included the soundtrack of Pink Humming and its encyclopaedic explanation in a press release.

The theme of sound continues in his most recent pictures, which also apply a layering technique. He uses black paint to conceal a an expressive undercoat, which he then scratches so as to return the undercoat. In order to create rhythmic tracks he uses vinyl discs that sometimes serve as stencils or a means of creating a relief. Petr Brožka (curator of Přívětivě povědomé – Daniel Vlček, Matyáš Chochola) describes Vlček’s geometry as “tribal-visual”.

Vlček is currently exploring the mutual relationship between music and visuality inspired by the vintage styles and aesthetic of the 1970s. Abstraction results from the magnification and layering of concrete images and sounds.

Curating:

2014
In the Beggining Was Silence,
Gallery of City Pilsen , GMP
Martin Andersson /SE/, Jana Babincová /CZ/, Milan Guštar /CZ/, Morgan O’Hara /US/, Martin Janíček /CZ/, Jan Krtička /CZ/, Michal Kindernay /CZ/,
Petr Pufler /CZ/, Martina Růžičková /CZ/, David Šmitmajer /CZ/,
Lenka Vítková /CZ/, Miloš Vojtěchovský /CZ/

2013
16-20000 Hz
Gallery Meet Factory
Curators: Daniel Vlček, Miloš Vojtěchovský
Martin Andersson (CH), Jana Babincová (CZ), Milan Guštar (CZ), Morgan O’Hara (US), Tom Kotik (CZ/US), Jan Krtička (CZ), Hanne Lippard (GB), Radio Lemurie (CZ), Matěj Smrkovský (CZ), Jiří Valoch (CZ), Tomáš Vaněk (CZ), Lenka Vítková (CZ), Zimoun (CHE)

PIŽMO, 8/2011, rozhovor

Nový Prostor, 385, říjen 2011, text Jiří Ptáček