Visual artist Tomáš Svoboda graduated with a master’s degree from the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague (2003), where he first studied in the painting studio of Jiří Sopek and then with Vladimír Skrepl. Later he also completed his doctoral studies in the Sculpture Studio at the Prague Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design (2016). Since 2015 he has been the head of the New Media Studio at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague. In addition to his own art work, he also engages in the architecture and installation of exhibitions and is occasionally invited as a designer and architect to work on films and TV series (Toman, Rudý kapitán, Marta a Věra, Comeback, Helena and others).
In 2001, together with Zbyněk Baladrán, Ondřej Chrobák and David Kulhánek, he founded the Display gallery in Prague’s Holešovice, which moved and merged with the initiative called tranzit to form the tranzitdisplay contemporary art gallery in 2007. The gallery focused on the presentation of social and political implications in artistic practice, presented dozens of exhibitions with international participation, and operated until 2018, when this distinctive cultural institution again split into two separate parts.
Tomáš Svoboda’s work is based both on creating installations and on the performative recording of his own events. He mainly explores the individual intersections between text, sound and image, which he often combines in film. Film, which the author perceives as “the most influential artistic medium ever”, as it “has a real potential of influencing public opinion, people’s interests, their desires, etc.,”[1] typo3/plays a very significant role in Tomáš Svoboda’s work (25 slov za vteřinu, Žvýkačka, Configuration or Úhel pohledu). In 2017, the artist even presented a feature-length cinematic experiment called Jako z filmu that deals with the way of thinking about film, but also “thinking through film”. As part of the exhibition called Jako z filmu: Adaptace at the Dům umění in Brno (2018) the film was transformed into a gallery installation becoming the exhibtion’s pivotal work.
The visuality of Tomáš Svoboda's works, however, does not directly depend on film; a strong moment in his work is the textual component, and the author often combines the work with architecture and film set-up. His work with text, however, does not have the ambition of a narrative: he uses text mainly as a chain of signs and rather a visual material (Imagine Photo, 2008; Home video, 2004). On many occasions he worked with subtle text defects – as for instance on a banner signed Svobobu! from 2014. The artist often comments on serious matters from a distance and with irony, his works incorporate humour and exaggeration. For example, in his 2008 work Den nezávislosti, he combined text/spoken word with film in a very unconventional way: the audience was invited to the cinema, where the artist personally recounted the plot of the film while the visitors didn’t see even a minute of the blockbuster. The audience still had the opportunity to picture the film – based on their individual experience and imagination. Imagine Psycho from 2008 employed a similar principle. The renowned movie Psycho by Alfred Hitchcock was adapted into simple sentences describing the film’s scenes. On the opposite side from this screening, a 3D backdrop from the film was built, leaving it up to the viewers to complete the empty space using their own imagination.
The above-mentioned examples of Tomáš Svoboda’s work illustrate that his projects are often conceptual, but the artist’s early works mostly fall within the realm of painting (for example the Parkoviště series in Mánes in 1998). Svoboda later found out that he was unable to express his own thoughts and opinions more concisely through painting, and so he gradually started working with objects and videos as well as through interventions in the public space. Around 2003, a strong textual component first appeared in his work, which he combined with various types of visual media and 3D objects, and he also began to employ spoken word (Vyprávění, 2005).[2]typo3/
Among his distinctive text-based outdoor installations is the 2006 work Na návštěvě, where he focused on the connection between text and space itself. In each room of a wooden structure that was replicating the author’s apartment, he hung a banner with an alphabetical list of all the objects found inside. He employed a similar principle also in his projects Garden House from 2006 and Minimal House from 2007. In them, the author examines the use of words and their transformation into a specific meaning that is different for each of us; he perceives words as abstracts and language as an imperfect means of communication, since the specific idea of a certain word is never the same for the recipients. This principle was also illustrated in his work Síla kontextu (displayed, among other venues, at the Moravian Gallery in Brno in 2011), which shows individual words set in various contemporary or historical frameworks, thus in different contexts, evoking the different perceptions and feelings that are associated therewith. Tomáš Svoboda also plays with the space and its interactions with painting (for example at an intergenerational exhibition in Futura Gallery together with Ivan Kafka in 2008 where he presented a work with the symptomatic title Zbytný prostor k dispozici pro vystavení práce Tomáše Svobody tak, aby při vstupu do výstavního sálu pohledově nerušil instalaci Ivana Kafky).[3]typo3/
Tomáš Svoboda’s thematic focus is not only on social issues, but also on the political situation and society as a whole. His work reflects on our “life” – the way we communicate, the way we perceive and act, our habits and customs – and his usage of text as a visual material reveals additional hidden images and expands the limits of our perception. Tomáš Svoboda’s projects often delve into the operations of systems that have been in place for years, unchanging but presented in an unexpected context of the rendered process, to some extent trying to draw the viewers’ attention and throw them off balance. The seemingly simple concept and the mostly very subtle intervention of the textual component are concentrated on the perception of language and thinking in a specific environment and situation. His work playfully combines architecture, film, text or sound to give rise to a work characterized by a powerful concept and distinctive visuality.
[1] Interview about the exhibition Filmů už se nebojím with Gábina Kotíková, www.galeriejeleni.cz/2013/tomas-svoboda-filmu-uz-se-nebojim/, accessed: 15 February 2021.
[2] Interview about the exhibition Filmů už se nebojím with Gábina Kotíková, www.galeriejeleni.cz/2013/tomas-svoboda-filmu-uz-se-nebojim/, accessed: 15 February 2021
[3] Reportage from the exhibition, artycok.tv/210/kafka-svoboda, accessed 10 February 2021.
Whether working with text of sound, he creates installations or documents e-mail correspondence. Tomáš Svoboda is monitoring a system. His approach to art follows from conceptually-focused semiotic research from the 1960s (Josef Kosuth, Art & Language). However, contrary to this tradition, which refers primarily to the convention of imaging itself, Svoboda’s approach expresses an interest in the possibilities of communication, (de)formed on the basis of a pre-established logic. He often researches non-narrative text and its ability to carry information (Černý‘s 428, Brno-Praha, Kaiserstrasse), or eventually relationships between text and image (London Photo Album), nor does he forget social topics, media analysis and diverse commercial information (Nabídka reklamních ploch k pronájmu v soukromém bytě – Offer of ad space for rent in a private flat, Srdečné blahopřání – Sincere Well Wishes, Prima vařečka – Wonderful Spoon, and Difference). Svoboda’s interest in the environment, where he’s living (Zrušená tiskárna / Defunct Printer) relates to this, as does his contact with city residents (City Last Aid, Post-It) and general questions on communication (Telefony / Telephones, You are not Alone).
Studium:
2013–2016
Vysoká škola uměleckoprůmyslová, Ateliér sochařství - Ph.D.
1996–2003
Akademie výtvarných umění- obor malířství - MgA.
Stáže:
2004 Berlin, Německo
2003–2004 Bern, Švýcarsko
2002 Brandenburg, Německo
1999 Staatliche Akademie der bildenden Künste, Karlsruhe
Ocenění:
2006 finalista Cena Jindřicha Chalupeckého
Sylva Poláková: Odkud až kam sahá filmový experiment?, Film a doba, 1/2019
Matěj Forejt: Jako z filmu, ale ne jako z kina, (recenze), 11. 4. 2018, online: Artalk.cz
Sylva Poláková: Jako z filmu je i o životě, (rozhovor), A2, 10/2017
Sylva Poláková: Film o životě / Jako z filmu, (recenze), Cinepur 111/2017
Mariendbad Film Festival, programový katalog, 2017
Anežka Bartlová: Výzvy a rámce, (recenze), 13. 1. 2017, online: Artalk.cz
Antonín Tesař: Jako z filmu, (recenze), A2, 8/2017
Febiofest, programový katalog, 2017
Jiří Ptáček, Tomáš Svoboda, Gioto, 2017 online: Fotogrfa Gallery
Tereza Rudolf Hrušková: Pročíst se za film, recenze, 27. 1. 2016, online: Artalk.cz,
Sylva Poláková: Tomáš Svoboda / Jako film, (profil), Cinepur 103/2016
Johanka Lomová: Jako ve filmu, (rozhovor) Art and Antiques, červenec 2016
Sylva Poláková: Film v každodennosti, (recenze,) Art and Antiques, únor 2016
Ivana Pechová, Neddělitel'né substancie Julie Roberts, recenze, 28. 11. 2012, online: Artalk.cz,
Gábina Kotíková, Tomáš Svoboda: Filmů už se nebojím, rozhovor, 2013 online: Galerie Jelení
Fotograf časopis, Dekonstrukce a (re)imaginace, profil, číslo 19, 2012
Lenka Střeláková: Ztraceno v kontextu / Kde je film, (profil), Cinepur 78/2011
Současná minulost, česká postmoderní moderna, katalog výstavy, AJG Hluboká n. Vltavou, 2000
Lenka Lindaurová, Nové tváře, (profil) Umělec, 5-6/1999