They Come to Us without a Word.Installation view.

The Czech Republic is represented at La Biennale di Venezia 56th International Art Exhibition in 2015 by Jiří David 's site-specific installation Apotheosis in the Czech and Slovak Pavilion. The concept of the piece is based on the Czech Secessionist artist Alphonse Mucha's monumental painting Apotheosis of the Slavs: Slavs for Humanity (1926) from his romantic series The Slav Epic (1911–1926) in which Mucha thematized the heroic saga of the history of the Czechs and the Slavic nations.

David approaches Mucha's painting from the position of a contemporary artist with an analytical-critical point of view and an ambivalent stance. David's gesture of appropriation and reinterpretation of Mucha's work, represented by a black and white reworking of the original image, simultaneously constitutes an act of deconstruction enhanced by his subtle intervention in the individual parts of the composition in the form of apocrypha. The point of the installation with intertextual crossovers is the active spectator, whom David provides with a whole range of interesting mental, emotional and visual experiences via participation in an empty space and a cramped one with the key focal point of a corridor, which presents the spectator with the challenge of submerging into the "archaeology of knowledge and memories". Here the viewer/participant encounters the reinterpreted Apotheosis, reflected in a mirror wall of identical dimensions, and becomes an ephemeral part of it. The mirror is an important metaphor in the context of this work, because it offers the spectator the possibility of self-reflection and introspection. The installation based on meditation as well as playfulness motivates the recipients to consider geopolitical and socio-cultural issues in a timeline of more than a century and asks them questions relating to the re-evaluation of concepts such as home, country, nation, state, the history of the Czechs and the Slavic ethnic group. In this way, Apotheosis also becomes a time-specific installation that is a stimulus to critical thinking about a number of serious political, economic, socio-cultural, philosophical and sociological issues that reference the past and the present of the world in the broader relationships in which local and global issues intersect.

Installation view

Jiří David

I don´t feel ashamed of being Czech, however, sometimes I even publicly criticise my country. Currently, contemporary art does not enjoy any significant attention, whether public or political, with marginal overall support. Czech Republic is a traditional, classical dead cultural outdoor museum for poorer western European tourists, with increasing number of tourists from China and South Korea. In spite of it, I think there is an art being created here which is comparable to an international one, if interest be. The western cultural — very often arrogant — context is not capable of adopting this art, it only searches for what is close or similar, what it can understand through its education. And that's not enough.

Hmm, considering my age and previous experiences, I don't have any illusions that I'm interesting commercially or otherwise for the Western artworld. I'm not. I am focused on those who come with sensitivity, capable of understanding my message, without any a priori judgments or prejudices. Mutual sharing is precious and delightful. It doesn´t make any difference whether it would be an important curator, gallerist or ‘just’ an amazed passer-by. If he can accept my art, respect it, share it through his professional life or personally, I would be grateful, of course.