Alena Kotzmannová Interview
Alena Kotzmannová (1974) is visual artist and photographer living and working in Prague.
In 1998, she graduated from the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague from the Studio of Conceptual and Intermedia Works and the Studio of Photography. In 2014, she received her Ph.D. from the Faculty of Education of the Charles University in Prague. In 2004 she was short listed for Jaromír Funke Award for Young Photographers and in 2005 and 2009 for Jindrich Chalupecky Award for best young Czech artists.
In her predominantly black-and-white photographs, Kotzmannová deals with the possibilities and paradoxes of the medium. She reveals the thin line between reality and the unreal. Her photographs are also distinguished by a refinement, elegance and sensitivity to depicting reality.
Greatest inspirations or influences?
I am greatly influenced by;
sci-fi literature, space research, design of spaceships,
volcanoes, stones, horizons of landscapes and seascapes...
I often pose the question to myself: Of what is the horizon a boundary of? Attempting to cross over the horizon entails making a journey to the edge of the world, it means moving beyond the boundary of the possible. This theme concerns the perception of anthropomorphism and its questioning. Is it possible to reach the beyond, if we make the voyage there, to the horizon? The horizon is a line, a remarkable one, the field of vision, unattainable, not because it isn’t near, but because it moves with me, moves away at the same pace.
Greek mythology refers to forbidden activities for humankind in relation to the Gods: seafaring, flying or the theft (sharing) of fire. Can we in today’s world call shipping (what percentage of goods is transported by cargo ships and tankers?), flying (using airplanes) and conversion of fire (the extraction and burning of fossil fuels) the key themes of homo economicus, and perhaps the key traumas of homo sapiens sapiens?
The question of conceptualization of the visual metaphor in contemporary art is a motif that I explore in my work.
Challenges of what you do, and how do you see the art world changing in this coming decade?
I perceive art as a reaction to what is happening in the world around us. Chaos Or too much control and organization, structuring, ruling on how we shall live?
Art was always a specific way of organizing time, light, and a mirror to our material lives, that said, it is also something unpredictable, offering an escape from our daily routines.
Virtualisation coming together with the digitalization seems to be very technocratic, just about speed end perfection, so many artists react with so called slow time concepts, and irregularities in using materials etc. My question is what field will be the domain for art when the public space will be governed by artificial intelligence, which incorporates the unpredictable into technocracy and system. What boundaries will art attack then?
Favourite websites, publications or social media handles?
The list would be really long but this website is always on the top of my favourites:
Dream Project for you?
I would love to cooperate with astronauts in the future. I am fascinated by the moment when utopian ideas become reality and the fact that the shape of the future is modelled in the present. On the other hand, my dream project is anything that I’m currently working on ☺.
Anything else you'd like to share with us?
I really like your website as a platform for sharing ideas, concepts, realizations and dreams...
{Thank you Alena! We are so inspired by your work, thanks for being part of our platform.}
All works (c) Alena Kotzmannova
Portrait photo (c) Ondrej Host
