DUŠAN ŠIMÁNEK

RECORD

3. 5. – 1. 6. 2011

The photographer Dušan Šimánek stands ostensibly on the dividing line between the photographic art and another sort of art which uses photography just as an artistic medium. In 80-ies he participated in exhibitions of allied photographers, who formed a group around Anna Fárová, at Činoherní klub and in Plasy. His works are represented in prestigious foreign collections, such as Centre Pompidou in Paris or JCA in Tokyo. Dušan Šimánek is often acknowledged by critical reviews as a photographer with painter’s nature. It seems that it is less important for him to depict interesting places or details but rather transpose them into a form which makes the viewer uncertain. But in fact, it has nothing to do with manipulation, it is rather a technically precise work, with seeking visual details after patient waiting for proper light or time, and then processing the photographs in a classical way. The author does not portray plain objects but creates a self-sufficient world which appears more or less like a reality. He selects only those objects which correspond with his own integrity. Casting doubt or pretending reality and then confusing the viewer again… these aspects are represented in the cycle Record which has been created specifically for the space of this gallery. It shows real things without revealing anything concrete about them; it plays with an invisible image of reality. The pictures or photographs were not created to accentuate aesthetic details but to present conceptually, without emotions, a simple, exactly calculated record of reality.