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September 2011
Martin Gerboc
Iconoclasm
(The Society of the Spectacle)
JAS Gallery - Paris
22 Sept - 30 Oct
Iconoclasm
(The Society of the Spectacle)
JAS Gallery - Paris
22 Sept - 30 Oct
AFTER PARTICIPATING in "Decadence now!", a noteworthy group exhibition at the Rudolfinum gallery (Prague) featuring the works of Damien Hirst, Jeff Koons, Robert Mapplethorpe, Andres Serrano, and Cindy Sherman, Martin Gerboc (born in 1971 in Bratislava) is now preparing his first show in a French gallery. The JAS Gallery will thus welcome a new protest exhibition from 22 September to 30 October 2011 entitled "Iconoclasm (The Society of the Spectacle)".
"The picture is for me, most of all, thinking in artless connexions, committed social act”, explains Martin Gerboc. The sources of inspiration that he mentions first are authors such as Brecht, Barthes, Bataille, Debord, Robbe-Grillet, Sartre… Indeed, Gerboc first takes a stance from the viewpoint of ideas, with art simply being a means of raising awareness. He is first and foremost an activist artist trying to resist all coercion, be it dictated by the mechanisms of what Michel Foucault calls "bio-power", which Gerboc understands as a synonym for restrictions on individual freedoms… or by the continuous flow of group images from the “Society of the Spectacle" (described by Guy Debord) totally obliterating any critical distance.
References to Berlin cabarets as outlets and places for protest expression
The numerous historical references in Martin Gerboc's work frequently harken back to the Weimar Republic through
symbols of Nazi Germany and cabarets. As places of artistic and political protest, cabarets reached their peak in the
1930s, particularly in Berlin, and sometimes also allowed for the expression of a kind of decadent eroticism. On his canvasses, Martin Gerboc portrays deliberately fetishistic and sadomasochistic scenes, where sexuality, brutal though
it may be, comes across as a conscious and willful means of assertion in a totalitarian society.
Structured in a single plane, Gerboc's paintings form a frontal portrayal. "There is no room for curiosity and mystery", explains Czech curator Petr Vanous. The characters and text saturate the space where black and red often dominate, with the full authority summoned by these colours. The canvasses are furthermore permeated by words of anxiety ("fear", "anger", "fake", “horror”, “pain”, "sickness", "crisis", "hate", "satan", “devil”, etc.), which inevitably pull us away from any semblance of serenity. "Some "doors" opened too fast or too soon are hard to close later…", further comments Petr Vanous.
Martin Gerboc thus brings us a portrayal of the human soul in its darkest and most chaotic essence. But in what appears to be a nightmarish cabaret, as a nod to Bertolt Brecht, Martin Gerboc is not seeking approval: he is trying to provoke a reaction rather than passive reception. Gerboc questions the observer about his relations with others, his degree of insensitivity to cruelty. By accumulating them in a theatre of horrors, perhaps Martin Gerboc is hoping to turn the means of spreading evil-insults, violence, ugliness-against themselves as if to ward off the evil.
"The picture is for me, most of all, thinking in artless connexions, committed social act”, explains Martin Gerboc. The sources of inspiration that he mentions first are authors such as Brecht, Barthes, Bataille, Debord, Robbe-Grillet, Sartre… Indeed, Gerboc first takes a stance from the viewpoint of ideas, with art simply being a means of raising awareness. He is first and foremost an activist artist trying to resist all coercion, be it dictated by the mechanisms of what Michel Foucault calls "bio-power", which Gerboc understands as a synonym for restrictions on individual freedoms… or by the continuous flow of group images from the “Society of the Spectacle" (described by Guy Debord) totally obliterating any critical distance.
References to Berlin cabarets as outlets and places for protest expression
The numerous historical references in Martin Gerboc's work frequently harken back to the Weimar Republic through
symbols of Nazi Germany and cabarets. As places of artistic and political protest, cabarets reached their peak in the
1930s, particularly in Berlin, and sometimes also allowed for the expression of a kind of decadent eroticism. On his canvasses, Martin Gerboc portrays deliberately fetishistic and sadomasochistic scenes, where sexuality, brutal though
it may be, comes across as a conscious and willful means of assertion in a totalitarian society.
Structured in a single plane, Gerboc's paintings form a frontal portrayal. "There is no room for curiosity and mystery", explains Czech curator Petr Vanous. The characters and text saturate the space where black and red often dominate, with the full authority summoned by these colours. The canvasses are furthermore permeated by words of anxiety ("fear", "anger", "fake", “horror”, “pain”, "sickness", "crisis", "hate", "satan", “devil”, etc.), which inevitably pull us away from any semblance of serenity. "Some "doors" opened too fast or too soon are hard to close later…", further comments Petr Vanous.
Martin Gerboc thus brings us a portrayal of the human soul in its darkest and most chaotic essence. But in what appears to be a nightmarish cabaret, as a nod to Bertolt Brecht, Martin Gerboc is not seeking approval: he is trying to provoke a reaction rather than passive reception. Gerboc questions the observer about his relations with others, his degree of insensitivity to cruelty. By accumulating them in a theatre of horrors, perhaps Martin Gerboc is hoping to turn the means of spreading evil-insults, violence, ugliness-against themselves as if to ward off the evil.
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Call to Artist
FONDAZIONE ANTONIO PRESTI -FIUMARA D’ARTE
International Museum of Image
Terzocchio Meridiani di Luce - Sole di Mezzanotte
(ThirdEye Meridian of
Light - Midnight Sun)
Librino,Catania
Deadline: Ongoing
Terzocchio Meridiani di Luce - Sole di Mezzanotte
(ThirdEye Meridian of
Light - Midnight Sun)
Librino,Catania
Deadline: Ongoing
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