Roman Štětina
artist in residence August 2016, Czech Republic /
Statement
In my work, I explore media culture as a social construct with fixed practices and expectations. Through my installations, video and audiovisual interventions I interconnect my interest in sound and the spoken word, especially as it relates to radio, film and TV broadcasting, and the strong visual aspect of the objects or situations connected with it. One of my major sources of inspiration is the radio studio as an imaginary backstage, which remains hidden from the final recipients of the broadcasting. I aim to disrupt the status quo and make the invisible visible through interventions. I often stage typical production methods like sound editing, or recreate visual and performative situations, recontextualizing them in the gallery or even cinema space. I also find inspiration in cinematography as such. Through editorial interventions - removing or re-selecting some of the formal (pictorial or audio) components of films, I recreate new narratives, often in a more abstract sense of the moving image. The common feature in both of these approaches is the discovery of new transformations in the viewer’s experience and shifts in the image, as well as “sidestepping” between divergent modes of presentation.
Biography
Roman Štětina was born in Kadaň (Czech Republic) in 1986. He currently lives and works in Prague. Štětina graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague in 2015 after spending two years on the Städelschule in Frankfurt am Main in the classes Judith Hopf and Douglas Gordon.
Roman Štětina's is currently included in Manifesta 11, Zurich curated by Christian Jankowski. Current Solo shows include: Instruction for Use od Jiří Kolář (with Miroslav Buriánek), Plato, Ostrava, curated by Marek Pokorný and The Fortress of Solitude from the holy wood of eternal noise (with Larisa Sitar), MNAC Bucharest, curated by Anca V. Mihulet. Recent Solo shows include: 2015: Souvenir, Polansky Gallery, Prague; Lecture, Gallery of Fine Arts, Zlín (CZ) ; 2014: Mluv, abych tě viděl, Kabinet Gallery, TIC, Brno (CZ) . Other recent selected group shows include: 2015: All Watched Over, James Cohan Gallery.Silver Lining, National Gallery, Prague ; Graduates of the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, National Gallery, Prague ; 7th Zlín Youth Salon, Gallery of Fine Arts, Zlín (CZ) ; The Importance of Being in a (Moving) Image, National Gallery, Prague (2015); Jindrich Chalupecky Award, National Gallery, Prague); Straight to Camera: Performance for Film, Modern Art Oxford ; 2014: Peripheral Vision, IV. Moscow International Biennale for Young Art, MMOMA; Explain Me Not, Autocenter Berlin.
His films and video works were presented at Anthology Film Archive, New York, International Film Festival Karlovy Vary (Czech Republic), goEAST, 14th Festival of Central and Eastern European Film in Wiesbaden in Germany, Bosse & Baum London, PAF Olomouc (Czech Republic), Delfina Art Foundation London, etc.