Marie Lukáčová

Marie Lukáčová became widely known as a finalist of the anniversary 30th edition of the Czech Jindřich Chalupecký Award for emerging talents in the field of visual arts under 35. The poetic environment that she created at the exhibition of the JCHA finalists situated in one of the rooms of the Pražák Palace at the Moravian Gallery in Brno characteristically reflected on the artist’s previous work that encompasses various media forms as well as artistic and social roles in general – her artistic focus includes political activism, rap, moving image and the production of narratives.

Marie Lukáčová received her bachelor’s degree from the Studio of Painting 1 (under the guidance of Luděk Rathouský and later Vasil Artamonov) at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Brno, and a master's degree from Prague’s Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague (Studio of Supermedia under the guidance of David Kořínek). Her work was marked with a gradual shift from the static image to the moving image, and during her studies, she was also introduced to the medium of sculpture in Martin Schwenk’s studio at the Kunstakademie Mainz in Germany. When studying at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague (UMPRUM), she concurrently attended the Studio without Pedagogue founded in 2015. The foundation of this Studio was initiated by the students themselves as a testing ground for a non-hierarchical model of art education and consensual decision-making, i.e. a model that would stand in opposition to the traditional “master–apprentice” model of art education. Lukáčová’s participation in this studio, together with her activity in the collective Socialist Solidarity (SocSol), can therefore be seen in retrospect as the artist's natural need for structural change, exploring the possibilities of applying alternative ways of functioning and interdisciplinary collaboration. These activities also indicate her future direction and areas of focus, which are also apparent in her work.

The period between 2015 and 2018 was particularly important in terms of Marie Lukáčová’s political activities. She, Martina Smutná and Eva Svobodová produced videos under the banner of the independent feminist organization Čtvrtá vlna emphasising the need to open a discussion about women's social inequality. Probably their most notable short video was one of the first ever to stir the waters of the art scene by including anonymous sexist comments about female students at four of Prague’s art colleges – Academy of Fine Arts, Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design, Faculty of Fine Arts of the Brno University of Technology and Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing arts. The video’s promotional form intended for social media presentation greatly differed from the video series “Feministická trilogie o těle, mateřství, migraci a klimatické změně“ (2017) that originated in conjunction with the Artyčok.tv online platform. Lukáčová’s activism – especially with respect to the aforementioned popularization videos – could be considered as crossing the boundaries of art, however, her interest in these issues is also reflected in her artworks, as apparent from one of the videos of the “Feminist Trilogy” called Bella Body shows. As a matter of fact, all the videos have one thing in common, which is actually also the reason why Marie Lukáčová chose the moving image as her main medium of communication – and that is the democratic potential of sharing.

From the position of a video artist, Lukáčová represents several roles in her work – not only that of a director, but also an animator, editor, scriptwriter and sound recordist. The combination of image, sound and story is at the core of her work, the output then comes in the form of a visual narrative often presented as documentary fiction (e.g. When the Object Overcomes the Border More Easily Than a Subject; 2016). The conscious socio-critical background of her work is mixed with inspiration emanating from the horizon of dreaming, which works as a catalyst or a form of crystallization of unconscious psychic contents in combination with the engrained processes of the conscious state. The sophisticated form of the individual components of Marie Lukáčová’s works reveals her way of thinking not only about the narrative itself in the form of the spoken word or singing, but also about the visual layer – the author works with images using animation, real video sequences or 3D modifications. In her hands, the video medium turns mainly into an emancipatory instrument that – by using each component of video creation in her own specific way – becomes suitable for transmitting a certain message. Marie Lukáčová’s works explore everyday life, the mechanisms of power that produce hierarchies or predetermined roles, at the same time looking at the limits and boundaries of her own position as an artist, activist, and a mother.

The human body and its social reality are often presented in the artist’s works as an economic potential, a part of the capitalist system; yet, it is also apparent that it is its physical form that predetermines a social role in this system for the body. Contemporary feminist thought is reflected in the video Milenina píseň (2019) that draws on cyberfeminism formulated in the 1990s by Sadie Plant, which the artist sets in opposition to another system, namely Christianity. In addition to Živa (2018), a video that tells the story of a morphing chimera subject to the labels and the gaze of others, with which she made it to the final round of the Other Visions competition at the 2018 PAF Festival, and the video Ancurvation (2017) – both of which deal with futuristic nonhuman bodies – the theme of the body also appears in her videos Bella Body and Gizd i Zgarb (2017). In the films, the viewer simultaneously visits not only a different time, but also a different space – interplanetary travel is not uncommon in Marie Lukáčová’s work. As a matter of fact, focus on fictional futures is one of the characteristics of her work, accompanied with mythological elements, for example, in her earlier works Who Is the Agent My Frozen Fog? (2016) and Sirena (2017). Other symbols, characteristics and frameworks employed in her work include not only leftist activism and feminist thinking but also ecology and geology – sciences closely observing the global environmental threat. This is also evident in What Would Evolution Do? (2017) that depicts a dark future of absolute automatization, virtual reality, domination of technology and machines, as well as in her latest video Pole Žin (2020).  This video collage depicts the renaturalisation of the landscape, in which the artist combines storytelling in the form of a fairy tale with rap vocals.

The leftist critique of global capitalism is most prominent in Moréna Rex (2019). The narrative line here comes in the form of feminist rap, with noticeable Silesian dialect. The form of this statement, with its rhyming, cadence and cheeky intonation, provides a suitable framework for conveying this urgent and often fierce content, and together with the psychedelic 3D animation and magic themes stands in contrast to the austere context of investment forecasts. Moréna Rex, created for an exhibition at the Cursor Gallery curated by Edith Jeřábková, is one of Marie Lukáčová’s most extensive works. Described as a video-musical, rap music video or experimental documentary (a category in which it received an award at the 2019 Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival), this work combines the above-mentioned visual elements while partially using the narrative lines of her previous video (Bella Body) or her song Bonita (2019). Moréna Rex can be perceived as a condensation of the artist’s work to date that comprises almost all of the main sources of her work. Her video Skuzomeetzah (2019) dedicated to the expanding digitization that was presented at the exhibition of the finalists of the Jindřich Chalupecký Award 2019 may also be included in the category of “rap operettas”. The strong influence of rap, which is apparent in Marie Lukáčová’s works, is inverted in her diction – women have certain unchanging roles in the rap genre, especially in its mainstream form, which Lukáčová tries to transform through her own performances that sometimes take on a protest character, drawing attention to this issue.

Marie Lukáčová's audiovisual work creates a complex experience informed by several areas of her long-term interest. On the backdrop of the global socio-political-economic problems of our day-and-age, her almost hypnotic signature highlights the necessity of collaboration, mutual solidarity, choice and unconditional equality. Her works have so far been exhibited in galleries Kostka, TIC, City Surfer Office, Jelení, A.M.180, INI Gallery, Plato, GAMU and the Moravian Gallery. At present, she teaches multimedia production at Arcus, a private secondary school in Prague, and works as an assistant professor at the Centre for Audiovisual Studies at Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. She is currently preparing a collection of short stories entitled Pohádky z Malešic.

2017
I Become a Man Who I Love to Be With, obchod Euronisc, Palladium ve spolupráci s Fotograf Festival, Praha, Česko
Open Studios, Meetfactory, Praha, Česko

2020
JEŘÁBKOVÁ, Edith et al. Zvuky krize = Sounds of crisis. Vydání první. Praha: Centrum pro současné umění, o.p.s., 2020. 255 stran. ISBN 978-80-906915-8-2. 2019
Katalog
Cena Jindřicha Chalupeckého 2019 : Comunite Fresca, Andreas Gajdošík, Baptiste Charneux, Marie Lukáčová, Pavla Malinová. Praha: Společnost Jindřicha Chalupeckého, 2019. 2017
Katalog
2. mezinárodní sympozium absolventů vysokých uměleckých škol. 19. 9.  –30. 9. 2016, výstava 2. 10. – 31. 10. 2016. Klatovy: Galerie Klatovy- Klenová, 2017. 2014
Katalog
Art dialog - Meziprostory: Mezinárodní sympozium absolventů vysokých uměleckých škol. Galerie Klatovy-Klenová.

2020
Veronika Liptáková, Kateřina Bouřková, Sylva Poláková. Scrollování, news a rumors v procesu tvorby. Rozhovor s Marií Lukáčovou, portál Filmový přehled, dustupné z: www.filmovyprehled.cz/cs/revue/detail/scrollovani-news-a-rumors-v-procesu-tvorby-rozhovor-s-marii-lukacovou. 2019
Profil na ČT ART, dostupné z: art.ceskatelevize.cz/profil/marie-lukacova-UluZm.
Anežka Bártlová. 30. ročník Chalupeckého ceny. Art & Antiques, ročník 18, číslo 2, strana 3–4 (online zde: flashart.cz/2019/12/10/12945/).
Markéta Magidová. Marie Lukáčová: broukn harts banky chcou. Art & Antiques, ročník 18, číslo 4, strany 66–67 (online zde: www.artantiques.cz/marie-lukacova).
Moréna Rex umělkyně Marie Lukáčové byl v Jihlavě oceněn jako Nejlepší český experimentální film, Artalk.cz, rubrika Aktuality: artalk.cz/2019/10/28/morena-rex-umelkyne-marie-lukacove-byl-v-jihlave-ocenen-jako-nejlepsi-cesky-experimentalni-film/.
Jana Orlová. Marie Lukáčová. Flash Art, #51, 3–5/2019, Czech & Slovak Edition (online zde: flashart-cz.lacolonia.studio/2019/03/12/marie-lukacova/).
Dolcevita. Alternativa. Ročník 2019, č. 11 (listopad 2019), s. 122–125.
Zuzana Janečková. Cena Jindřicha Chalupeckého – Keď zasvieti slnko. Flash Art, Vol. XIV No. 54 (online zde: https://www.artantiques.cz/30-rocnik-chalupeckeho-ceny).
Anna Remešová, Hana Janečková. Marie Lukáčová: 3D je totální zbraň. Artalk.cz, rubrika Rozhovory.
Radio Wave. Marie Lukáčová: Když jsem byla těhotná, bála jsem se, že jako umělkyně skončím. Dostupné z: wave.rozhlas.cz/marie-lukacova-kdyz-jsem-byla-tehotna-bala-jsem-se-ze-jako-umelkyne-skoncim-7762818. 2017
Tereza Hrušková. Bella Body: Projekt. Fotograf: časopis pro fotografii a vizuální kulturu, ročník 17, č. 30, s. 5–7, 2017.
Matěj Stránský. Ponižujete nás a nás už to nebaví: Feministky nové generace otevírají témata, o kterých se nemluví. Hospodářské noviny, dostupné z: domaci.ihned.cz/c1-65579300-ponizujete-nas-a-nas-uz-to-nebavi-feministky-nove-generace-oteviraji-temata-o-kterych-se-nemluvi. 2016
Česká televize, Artmix, Umělci v roli režisérů, dostupné z: www.ceskatelevize.cz/porady/10123096165-artmix/216562229000008/video/500762.

-       diplomová práce 2017, Gizd i Zgarb, Vysoká škola uměleckoprůmyslová v Praze: Ateliér supermédií, 2017, -       bakalářská práce, dostupné z: www.vutbr.cz/studenti/zav-prace, 2014/2015, -       texty k rapovým skladbám: Bonita (https://www.marielukacova.com/bonita/), Bona Sirens (https://www.marielukacova.com/bona-sirens/), Pole (https://www.marielukacova.com/pole/), Summer Hit (https://www.marielukacova.com/summer-hit/), Pixie Bug (https://www.marielukacova.com/pixie-bug/), Oddcher's Ego Trip (https://www.marielukacova.com/oddchers-ego-trip/).

Pozn.: připravuje se soubor povídek Pohádky z Malešic.