Only Good Ideas

NOD Praha, 15 January – 7 February 2004

Ivan Vosecký and Markéta Othová rolled themselves up into one creative ball for the sake of the exhibition Dobrý nápad (A Good Idea). This was the best idea they could have had. The doomed generation pictures we are used to from Vosecký and Othová’s voyeuristic melancholy were mixed into a precise formation of hybrid design, smoggy beauty and consumerist poetry. The feeling that we have somehow found ourselves in the middle of a mental crystal with two centers opened a sober approach to the sharing of thoughts. This exhibition offered no helping hands. There was no sign indicating whether it was a noncommittal play, a caustic test of the spectrum of expressive means or an intimate interview. It wouldn’t be wise to reveal who it was, but ”someone” framed shocking front-page news about Arnold Schwarzenegger and Robert de Niro; but the biggest hit was the red cotton ball dangling in front of them. ”Someone” also printed on a golden feather jacket ”Die all you motherfuckers,” a hateful slogan any snowboarder would wear as his own with the most humane intentions. And what about the pseudo-cheese columns, imitating the ornamental band running along the NOD apse…

A Good Idea was the most peculiar installation of the season. We just don’t see that many direct systems of mutual recordings, disturbed references and aesthetic highlights.

01.01.2004