UFO Visitor #2: Šimon Kadlčák (Brno House of Arts, Brno)

Simon Kadlcak credit Magdalena Duskova 1 1200x801

My enga­ge­ment in visu­al arts is so mul­ti­dis­ci­pli­na­ry, that I usu­al­ly don’t like to (and I pro­ba­bly I can’t) label my acti­vi­ties with a sin­gle name. I am an artist and a cura­tor, ear­lier in 2021 I star­ted wor­king as a coo­r­di­na­tor of the Brno Artists in Residence pro­gram­me under the House of Arts in Brno, Czech Republic (which is a part­ner insti­tu­ti­on of Cas-Co from UFO net­work). I’m also a co-foun­der, coo­r­di­na­tor and cura­tor of Zaazrak|Dornych, an expe­ri­men­tal artist-run spa­ce in Brno, a mem­ber of a dj crew speed­co­re­trew, I wri­te arti­cles and cri­ti­cal reviews for dif­fe­rent art-rela­ted media or do other free­lan­ce jobs for insti­tu­ti­ons. So alto­gether it’s real­ly a lot and it’s split bet­ween both the insti­tu­ti­o­nal (which is earning me money) and the inde­pen­dent sphe­re (which I put the money into, but I sin­ce­re­ly love it). It. can be tiring and I feel like a living meme some­ti­mes, but it’s the best I’ve been able to esta­blish for myself so far.


What are you cur­rent­ly wor­king on?

Right now I’m hap­py that I mana­ged to suc­ces­sful­ly finish my who­le 2021 sche­du­le des­pi­te the covid-rela­ted com­pli­ca­ti­ons. All the shows I was about to curate/​organize this year had hap­pen, even though some of them were post­po­ned mul­ti­ple times and the time for their rea­li­za­ti­on was short, which is a litt­le mira­cle.
My major plan for 2022 is to slow down a bit. Furthermore we are reor­ga­ni­zing the BAiR resi­d­en­cy pro­gram­me to make the resi­den­cies lon­ger, more advan­ta­geous for the artists and clo­se­ly con­nec­ted to the cura­to­ri­al focus of G99 Gallery that is a part of the resi­den­ce. Besides the seven shows I will cura­te at my home Zaazrak|Dornych, I got invi­ted to take care of Trinidad off spa­ce in Oaxaca, Mexico for two months, so that’s the big­gest goal for me on per­so­nal level and the thing I am loo­king for the most.

How would you defi­ne your practice?

As scat­te­red and mul­ti­dis­ci­pli­na­ry in terms of my role, but focu­sed in cer­tain aes­the­tics and the­me at the same time.

How do you see your rela­ti­ons­hip with artists?

As a coo­r­di­na­tor of the resi­d­en­cy pro­gram­me and a free­lan­ce cura­tor I see my role most­ly as a help­ma­te and a con­sul­tant of the artists. I usu­al­ly want to hear about the artists’ plans and visi­on first and try to under­stand it and then I’m trying to ful­fill it and make the rea­li­ty as clo­se to the plan as pos­si­ble. At the same time I’m trying to uti­li­ze the over­view I have as an exter­nal non-author” of the work to come up with some han­dy sug­ge­s­ti­ons to make the pie­ce even bet­ter. I’m trying to learn not to pro­ject myself too much in the pro­jects of other individuals.

What do you expect from the UFO visi­tors programme?

Most of all I’m loo­king for­ward to visit the new part­ner orga­ni­za­ti­on of our resi­d­en­cy in Brno and hope to bring back some cool & use­ful tips which may help us to impro­ve our own appro­ach. I’m also curious to meet the local artists, which can pos­si­bly lead to some futu­re coo­p­e­ra­ti­ons rela­ted or unre­la­ted to my job.


BIO

Šimon Kadlčák works inter­dis­ci­pli­na­ry in the field of con­tem­po­ra­ry visu­al art. Along with his own artis­tic prac­ti­ce he co-foun­ded and co-cura­tes an inde­pen­dent expe­ri­men­tal off-space

Zaazrak|Dornych in Brno, Czech Republic, wri­tes cri­ti­cal reviews for dif­fe­rent onli­ne and prin­ted media (Artalk, A2, Fotograf, etc.) and coo­r­di­na­tes the Brno Artists in Residence pro­gram­me under The Brno House of Arts. He is one of the authors of the book Atlas of Spontaneous Art (together with Pavel Konečný) that is map­ping the work of unt­aught artists in the public spa­ce of Czech Republic. Between 2013 and 2018 he used to be one of the cura­tors of Umakart Gallery in Brno. In his recent artis­tic prac­ti­ce he explo­red the the­me of dis­sol­ving iden­ti­ty of an indi­vi­du­al in the col­lec­ti­ve or in the alte­red sta­tes of con­scious­ness, which led him to take inte­rest in auto­no­my, free­tek­kno, foot­ball or the Hussite move­ment. In past years he exhi­bi­ted solo at Berlinskej Model, 35 m² Gallery, Jelení Gallery or National Gallery in Prague and at group shows at PLATO Ostrava, Kunsthalle Bratislava (SK) or Galerie Emila Filly Ústí nad Labem. He is a mem­ber of the musi­cal and orga­ni­za­ti­o­nal plat­form speed­co­re­trew. He lives in Brno, Czech Republic, whe­re he also gra­du­a­ted from the Intermedia Department at the Faculty of Fines Art.