THE WORST OF MARTIN ZET - YOUR COUNTRY NEEDS YOU | rock, karaoke and black performance

This exhibition of works by the beloved and reviled – yet world-renowned – artist, sculptor, performance artist and creator of short experimental films features a cross-section of his work, presented as “the worst of Martin Zet”: heavy sculptures and selection of his film work, presented using the profane technology of the karaoke. This festive occasion is also being marked by the first public London release of his book The Suicide of the Image, whose limited edition was confiscated immediate after being printed in 2006.

The Worst Of Martin Zet in Divus Prague on 2013
Martin Zet in Divus London on 2008
Martin Zet at Delfina Foundation in London

The average life of mammals is 800 million heartbeats. In human terms, that's 19 years. If we didn’t live so long, the human world would be a delightfully unambiguous place. Nineteen — that's exactly the age when bright black and white vision begins to soak up grey nuances,* as one slowly becomes pliable, caving in to compromise.
To mature into the age of reproduction, to beget children and die. Children raising children — this is exactly what "mature" educators are scared of the most. I take great pains to return to a state of consciousness in which the recognition of what is really important (fun, love, friendship, sex) and distinguishing right and wrong (which some adults assert doesn't exist) is the most natural possible thing. And dealing with something other than what you want is just wasting time.
A general and also a personal problem is that I am living longer than what I was made to** (and if there were no doctors, it would be just those 19 years).  - excerpt from The Suicide of the Image.

The oldest sculptural works exhibited at The Worst of Martin Zet at Divus Pragerkabarett were made at a time when Ivan didn’t know me yet. When nobody knew me yet. When I didn’t want to exhibit,* had moved away from Prague and was working intensively. I invested all the money that I could get into new things.** I placed my full trust in sculpture, I thought in terms of shapes interwoven with material, I condensed thoughts into words only when absolutely necessary, when they could help a feeling find the precise form. I abandoned and forget worn-down words in the belief that the completed sculpture would not require any guidelines. That it would be capable of acting nonverbally.*** I myself remember nothing from that time, only a kind of intense pressure, a general self-contained feeling of all-encompassing concentration, trust and yearning. A faith in working in isolation, zero social ambitions.

And so when Ivan asked me if I had any text related to the time when he didn’t know me yet, I realized that I didn’t – neither mine nor by anyone else – and so I put together a kind of diagrammatic overview of the evolution of my relationship to the media (material, categories, areas of interest) that dominated by working life during this period:

8 Aug. 2013, Prague-Libušín

Martin Zet – personal media biography:
born 1959

16 years without preference
8 years – metal
8 years – stone
6 years – action art
15 years – social topics

* My first real solo exhibition after school was not until 1991, six years after the Academy, at the Municipal Museum in Hořice.

** For instance, my investment into a three-meter monument constructed of Kralice marble was greater than the annual income from my full-time job at the time.

*** For this reason, the sculptures at the exhibitions are labeled only with letters and the year.

In collaboration with:

Supported by Czech Centre in London and Techo.