Plasticulture: The Rise of Sustainable Practices with Polymers
Group exhibition curated by Aurora Robson
SVA CHELSEA GALLERY, Starrett-Lehigh Building, 601 West 26th Street, 15th floor, New York, NY 10001
OPENING RECEPTION: Wednesday, Oct 30; 6:00 – 8:00 pm
On view: October 26 – December 7, 2024
Call of the Forest!
Project by the artists Kristýna and Marek Milde
for Kunsthalle Praha, Prague, Czech Republic
Open call for submission of tree tattoos
Do you have a tattoo of a deciduous or coniferous tree that you would like to share with us?
If yes, please fill out this submission form
Plantarium: Circles and Constellations
A living sculpture developed as a site-specific project
for the newly built S-A house in upstate NY as a private commission.
Presented by SVA Galleries
SVA CHELSEA GALLERY
Starrett-Lehigh Building, 601 West 26th Street, 15th floor, New York, NY 10001
OPENING RECEPTION: Wednesday, Oct 30; 6:00 – 8:00 pm
October 26 – December 7, 2024
Bryan Northup, Red Tide, 2017, plastic and foam on canvas, 30 x 40 inches
Please join us for the opening of the exhibition “Plasticulture: The Rise of Sustainable Practices with Polymers,” presented by the School of Visual Arts SVA featuring works by 15 artists from Project Vortex, an artist collective innovating with plastic debris, and curated by founding artist Aurora Robson. By combining artistic expression with scientific exploration, “Plasticulture” aspires to encourage individuals and communities to embrace more sustainable practices and play a part in fostering a healthier planet.
Operating at the intersection of art and science, the 45 works in “Plasticulture” inspire a rethinking and reinvention of plastic debris. Exhibiting artists include Leticia Bajuyo, Tom Deininger, Ellen Driscoll, Alejandro Durán, Natalya Khorover, Niki Lederer, Pam Longobardi, Kristyna and Marek Milde, Portia Munson, Bryan Northup, Studio KCA, Ian Trask, Tyrome Tripoli, and Benjamin Von Wong. As members of the Project Vortex Collective, their work supports and contributes to efforts to reduce the influx of plastic waste in the environment. Comprised of artists, designers, and architects around the globe who are actively intercepting the plastic waste stream as part of our independent practices, the collective is a constantly expanding network.
The SVA Chelsea Gallery is open to the public Tuesday through Saturday, from 10:00am to 6:00pm, and closed on Sundays and Mondays. It is fully accessible by wheelchair.
Fifteen years after their original 2009 exhibition, Melting the Pot, which took place at the Czech Center NY, this new show reunites six New York-based artists who continue to thrive in the city’s vibrant art scene. MELTING THE POT: CHAPTER 2 reflects their ongoing exploration of cultural identity, relocation, and artistic transformation.
This exhibition revisits and expands upon the concept introduced in 2009 by curator Marek Milde: rather than blending into a homogeneous mass, these artists have continued to reshape their individual art practices, changing the “pot” of cultural framing. Their work highlights how, over time, the artists have influenced the city’s cultural landscape, while New York has equally shaped their creative journeys.
Through a range of media, including sculpture, painting, and installations, these New York-based artists with strong connections to the Czech Republic through heritage, studies, or origin showcase how they have sustained and evolved their creative voices in New York, reflecting both personal and collective narratives in an ever-changing urban environment.
About the Artists:
Silvina Arismendi was born in Montevideo, Uruguay. In 2000, she received a scholarship to study in the Czech Republic. She received her MFA from the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague in 2007, graduating from the Painting Studio of Vladimir Skrepl and Jiri Kovanda. Since 2003, she has exhibited in many European cities, as well as in Latin America and the United States. In 2007 she founded galería parásito/…, which is a curatorial platform for the cultural exchange between Latin America and Central and Eastern Europe. She currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.
Kristyna and Marek Milde are a Czech-born, New York-based artist duo whose cross-disciplinary practice encompasses sculpture, photography, and installation. They focus on the interplay between the anthropocentric environment and the natural world. Their art addresses themes of displacement, isolation, and passive consumerism, revealing the interdependencies between nature and urbanization while challenging the contradictions inherent in these relationships. The Mildes have exhibited internationally at prestigious venues such as the Queens Museum, MoMA, and DOX Center for Contemporary Art. They have participated in esteemed residencies at Art Omi, ISCP, and LMCC Process Space. Their work has been featured in prominent publications, including The New York Times, Flash art, and Hyperallergic. Kristyna studied painting at Assenza Malschule in Basel, while Marek studied sculpture at Atelier Dodekaeder in Germany. Both earned their MFAs from Queens College, New York, in 2007. They reside in Brooklyn with their son Adam. Marek works at the Czech Center New York and Whitney Museum. Currently, they are preparing for their first solo museum exhibition at Kunsthalle Praha, set to open in Spring 2025. www.mildeart.com
Hana Shannon is a classically trained painter from the Czech Republic specializing in portraiture. She received her Master’s degree in painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague and moved to the US over a decade ago to pursue her painting career. The exhibition of her colorful portraits in the storefront windows of Bergdorf Goodman, the legendary department store, was a landmark achievement for Hana. The direct connection with the viewers seeing her work in a “non-gallery” setting was a unique experience. Hana has exhibited at the Czech Cultural Center in New York on multiple occasions, including the critically acclaimed group show, “New Bohemia – Reflect What You Are,” in 2019, which was curated by Charlotta Kotik. Recently, her work was on view at Village One Art Gallery in Chelsea as part of “Idylls & Reveries”, and at Van Der Plas Gallery in Lower East Side (“Oasis of Color”), 2023. Her outstanding solo show, featuring silhouettes of important Czech figures “Czech Luminaries” which was on view in Spring 2024 at the Bohemian National Hall, marked another significant milestone in her career. Indeed, Shannon’s magnificent tribute to diverse Czechs both contemporaries and historical figures was a great success.
Petra (Gupta) Valentova (b. 1974), PhD, is a Czech-born, New York-based artist whose work explores nature, identity, and memory through various media, including hand-printed textiles. She bridges traditional and contemporary art practices, advocating for ethical engagement and cultural heritage. Valentova’s art incorporates traditional crafts from India, her husband’s homeland, and focuses on collaborations with Czech blueprint (indigo-dyeing) artisans. Her projects center on craft innovation, intellectual and cultural rights, and women handworkers. Valentova’s work on paper is inspired by the Hudson River Valley’s natural environment, where she spends much of her time. Her collaboration with Czech artist František Matoušek aka Francis de Nim has resulted in innovative works that blend traditional and contemporary techniques on denim. Her work is featured in public and private collections worldwide, including the Czech National Gallery. In 2023, she received the Gold Crystal Heart award from the Czech Center New York for promoting Czech culture. She holds a PhD from the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design (UMPRUM) in Prague, MgA. from the Academy of Arts in Prague (AVU), and an MFA from Hunter College, CUNY. Her one-person show Drawn from the Unseen is currently on display at the Czech Center NY until October 31st.
Call of the Forest!
Open call for submission of tree tattoos
Project by the artists Kristýna and Marek Milde
for Kunsthalle Praha, Prague, Czech Republic
Call of the Forest by Kristyna and Marek Milde, Kunsthalle Praha, 2025, visualization of the proposed large-scale animated video installation
Photo Credit: illustrative tree tattoos
English:
Attention all tattoo and nature lovers!
Do you have a tattoo of a deciduous or coniferous tree that you would like to share with us?
If so, you have a special opportunity to participate in a large-scale animated video installation by Kristýna and Marek Milde that will be featured in their solo exhibition at Kunsthalle Praha in Spring 2025. Please send us a photo of your tattooed tree along with basic information using this submission form. If selected, your tattoo will become part of an artistic animation of the forest. We welcome you to include a personal story about your tattoo, and what it means and symbolizes to you.
Thank you and we look forward to your participation!
Kristýna a Marek Milde, Kunsthalle Praha
Follow us on Instagram for updates @kunsthallepraha @kristynamilde
Milovníci stromů a přírody!
Máte tetování listnatého či jehličnatého stromu, o které byste se s námi chtěli podělit?
Pokud ano, může se váš strom stát součástí velkoformátové prostorové animace lesa – uměleckého projektu Kristýny a Marka Milde, který představí v rámci své samostatné výstavy v Kunsthalle Praha na jaře 2025. Chcete se zúčastnit? Zašlete nám fotografii vašeho tetování stromu spolu se základními informacemi přes tento formulář do 15. srpna 2024.Uvítáme, když připojíte i osobní příběh vašeho tetování, co pro vás znamená a symbolizuje.
Děkujeme a těšíme se na Vaši účast!
Kristýna a Marek Milde, Kunsthalle Praha
Pro aktuální informace sledujte náš Instagram: @kristynamilde @kunsthallepraha
Staff Only:
Whitney Staff Art Show
Jun 29–July 17, 2024
Opening Celebration: Wednesday, July 10, 6:30 – 8:30 pm
Offsite, free, and open to the public
Westbeth Gallery
55 Bethune Street
New York, NY 10014
Wednesday–Sunday, 1–6 pm
Happy to participate again in the Whitney Staff Art Show at the Westbeth Galery. Come to check out our Public Library, a growing archive and collection of discarded books taken out of the waste stream of New York City functioning as a no-circulating library.
Public Library
From its origins in Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney’s Greenwich Village studio in 1914 to its relocation to the Meatpacking District in 2015, the Whitney Museum of American Art has always sought to support living artists at critical moments in their careers. Many of the Museum’s staff members, who make the Museum’s exhibitions, programs, publications, and day-to-day operations possible, are artists themselves. For the seventh time in its history, the Whitney Staff Art Show will be held in a public space, offering staff an opportunity to share their work and deepen connections with one another as well as a wider public audience.
Gallery Hours
June 29–July 17, 2024
Wednesday–Sunday, 1–6 pm
STAFF ONLY is organized by colleagues from various departments throughout the Museum. The exhibition is free and open to the public, Wednesdays through Sundays from 1 to 6 pm, and will be part of West Side Fest, a celebration of arts and culture on the West Side of Manhattan, July 12–14.
The international conference
22-23 February 2024
Wonderful to be part of the international conference GARDENING OF SOUL: PERSPECTIVES OF RESOURCES at Jan Evangelisty Purkyně University in Ústí nad Labem, organized by the Faculty of Art and Design of Jan Evangelista Purkyně University and the Ústí nad Labem House of Arts.
We were excited to talk about our art practice in connection to gardening alongside so many inspiring artists, curators, scholars, and organizers.
We would like to thank the conference team for their meticulous organization, especially Zdena Koleckova, Dean; Michal Kolecek, Director of the House of Arts, Zuzana Dolezalova, Marketa Chalupova.
“This event brought inspiring discussions and new perspectives on the issue of caring for the locality, community, and nature from the standpoint of current artistic and curatorial strategies utilizing the metaphor of the garden and aspects of gardening to all participants.
We would like to express our deep gratitude to all presenters for their valuable contributions and involvement in the conference. Thanks to their expertise and passionate sharing of experiences, the conference became not only a place for mutual learning but also an inspiration for further work in the field of environmental and community care.”
The international conference was supported by the EEA and Norway Grants 2014–2021.
Wrightův Dům v New Yorku
We are thrilled that the Czech National Television Ceskatelevize.cz features our sculpture Homescape at Manitoga / The Russel Wright Design Center in the recent program about Cultural News Události v kultuře on October 20, 2023. You can see it in the archive. It is in part in Czech and English language.
A Dialogue of Czech and Slovak Artists 30 Years After Independence
Exhibiting artists: Radek Brousil (SK/CZ), Kristyna and Marek Milde (CZ), Tamara Moyzes (SK),
Gregor Petrikovic (SK), Ezra Šimek (CZ), Adam Vačkář (CZ), Martin Vongrej (SK)
Curated by Charlotta Kotik
Exhibition at the Czech Center Gallery
September 7th – October 5th, 2023
Opening Reception: Thursday, September 7th, 2023, 6 PM – 8 PM
Czech Center New York presents the exhibition Amicable Separation, which is a dialogue between the themes and stories of Czech and Slovak artists currently based in New York, organized to mark the 30th anniversary of the independence of the two countries after the division of Czechoslovakia. Curated by Charlotta Kotik.
The exhibition Amicable Separation is a dialogue between the themes and stories of Czech and Slovak artists, organized to mark the 30th anniversary of the independence of the two countries after the division of Czechoslovakia. The project, curated by Charlotta Kotik, highlights the positive cooperation between Czechs and Slovaks and the ongoing cultural exchange between the two nations, which has actively developed despite the separation and independence of the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Today, both Czech and artists Slovak are achieving recognition on the world stage and have become an integral part of the global art world. New York is currently hosting a number of artists from both countries who have been awarded residencies, and prestigious fellowships, or are currently exhibiting in local galleries. The Czech Center New York connects these artists and provides a platform for them to present their aesthetics, working methods, and newly created artworks.
Cesky:
Výstava Amicable Separation je dialogem mezi tématy a příběhy českých a slovenských umělců, uspořádaná ke 30. výročí osamostatnění obou států bývalého Československa. Projekt kurátorovaný Charlottou Kotik vyzdvihuje pozitivní spolupráci mezi Čechy a Slováky a stále trvající kulturní výměnu, která se mezi našimi národy aktivně rozvíjí i přes rozdělení Československa na dva samostatné státy. V současnosti čeští i slovenští dosahují uznání na světové scéně a stali se nedílnou součástí celosvětového kulturního vývoje. V New Yorku v tomto roce působí velký počet umělců z obou zemí, kteří získali ocenění, jako jsou umělecké residence, prestižní stipendia, nebo aktuálně vystavují v místních galeriích. České centrum v New Yorku tyto umělce propojuje a poskytuje jim platformu pro prezentaci nové tvorby.
Czech Television features artists Kristyna and Marek Milde and their work Homescape at Manitoga on the occasion of Czech President Petr Pavel‘s visit to the exhibition Amicable Separation at the Czech Center, where Marek Milde talks about the work Motherboards, which is part of the exhibition. The curator Charlotta Kotik, the granddaughter of the first Czech President T.G. Masaryk, introduces the exhibition and talks about her discovery of Louise Bourgeois and her participation in the Venice Biennale.
ČTK ČESKÉ NOVINY, 21.09.2023
Article about the visit of the Czech Presiden Petr Pavel to the exhibition
Amicable Separation A Dialogue of Czech and Slovak Artists 30 Years After Independence
at the Czech Center Gallery, NYC Curated by Charlotta Kotik, Sep 7– Oct 5, 2023
English Translation
Czech Television, September 21, 2013
In New York, President Petr Pavel devoted part of his program to Czech compatriots and, among other things, visited an exhibition at the Czech Center and the One Vanderbilt skyscraper.
He is pictured here talking with Czech artist Kristyna Milde. ČTK/Lenka Penkalová
New York – President Petr Pavel devoted part of his program to Czech compatriots in New York on Thursday, visiting an exhibition at the Czech Centre and the One Vanderbilt skyscraper. At the exhibition, which was prepared to mark 30 years since the division of Czechoslovakia, the president met with its curator, Charlotta Kotíková, the great-granddaughter of the first Czechoslovak president, Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk.
“I am going to talk about all the successful Czechs who are active in America in the field of culture, sport, business, or science,” Pavel told reporters. The Czech footprint was also important to him during his visit to the One Vanderbilt skyscraper in Manhattan with its famous view, as the Czech start-up company Sharry was involved in the building’s technological equipment.
The President went to the Czech National Building after meetings with the President of Mongolia and the Prime Minister of Andorra. There he visited an exhibition called Amicable Separation, which, according to curator Kotíková, is intended to show that the division of Czechoslovakia was an exceptional event in the international context, and also an opportunity for Czech and Slovak artists, who, she said, are becoming more and more prominent in the international context. Thanks to this, the author of the exhibition was able to select exhibitors from among artists who have recently completed artist residencies or received scholarships in the USA.In addition to Kotíková, the director of the Czech Center, Miroslav Konvalina, and several of the exhibiting artists, such as Radek Brousil, Marek and Kristýna Milde, and Adam Vačkář, who caught Pavel’s attention with his video showing the rebirth of a forest after a fire in the Czech Switzerland National Park.
“I didn’t expect the works to have a common theme, but it’s nature. The theme of how we are destroying nature is close to the artists’ hearts,” Kotíková told ČTK. “Another connecting element is technology,” she added.
Pictured from left: Czech photographer Radek Brousil, director of the Czech Center in New York Miroslav Konvalina, artist Adam Vačkář, great-granddaughter of the first Czechoslovak president Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk and curator Charlotta Kotíková and President Petr Pavel.
Conductive Fields
Solo Exhibition by Kristyna and Marek Milde
508 W 26 Street, Suite 5G, New York, NY 10001
July 13 – August 11, 2023
Opening reception: July 13, 6-8pm
Kristyna and Marek Milde, Motherboard #52323, 2023, edition 1 of 5,
Photo etching on Printed Circuit Board (PCB) with immersion gold finish, 21.6 x 14.3 in (55 cm x 36.4 cm)
HESSE FLATOW is pleased to announce the opening of Conductive Fields, an exhibition of sculptural works by the Brooklyn-based artist duo Kristyna and Marek Milde, marking their first solo presentation with the gallery.
Kristyna and Marek Milde’s cross-disciplinary practice spanning sculpture, photography, and installation mines an ever-evolving, anthropocentric landscape, its systems of power and communication in relationship to the
natural world that may affect one’s connection to a place. Across its myriad manifestations, from the geographic to the architectural, the home lies at the center of their inquiry, providing a tangible framework where social, economic,
and ecological issues collide in the context of the everyday. Exploring contemporary issues of displacement, isolation, and passive consumerism, their projects foreground hidden or overlooked interdependencies between nature and urbanization, further complicating their seemingly contradictory stance.
Conductive Fields brings together two bodies of work that underscore the transference of energy lines between natural springs and the built environment.
Engaging with the gallery’s architecture is In-Tree-Net (2011-2023), a site-specific installation consisting of a tree whose stems snake in from below the concrete floor, turning sharply at a 90-degree angle, before fanning its branches at the room’s edge. Resembling plumbing and electrical infrastructures normally concealed behind walls, the work blurs boundaries between indoors and outdoors, creating a visual go-between.
Alongside this interior occupation of the organic hangs a never-before-shown body of work providing a window out into the exterior. Based on photographs of powerlines entangled by tree branches encountered on city walks, Motherboards (2023) feature interlacing line patterns that are etched onto green circuit boards with gold inlay. In creating continuities between disparate energy forces into an integrated wiring system, Kristyna and Marek remind their audience of their joint primary sources – namely the sun, water, and air.
Kristyna and Marek Milde are a Brooklyn-based interdisciplinary artist duo, originally from Prague, Czech Republic. They have exhibited internationally in institutions such as the Queens Museum, MoMA, Smack Mellon, Wave Hill, MOCA Westport, the DOX Center for Contemporary Art, Futura, and Meet Factory, Prague, Dum Umeni Usti nad Labem, among others. They have been awarded numerous prestigious residencies such as the Art Omi Residency, ISCP, Queens Museum Studio in the Park Residency, LMCC Process Space Residency at Governors Island, NYC, EFA Shift Residency, Andrea Zittel A – Z West Residency, California, and the Russell Wright Design Center Residency, Garrison, NY. The Mildes have won the Westport Art Center competition with their Homescape Tete-a-Tete design. Their work has been featured and reviewed in the New York Times, Brooklyn Rail, Flashart, Hyperallergic, Artribune, ArtClue, Artycok TV, Czech National Television, and Radio among others. Kristyna Milde studied painting at the Assenza Malschule in Basel, Switzerland. Marek Milde studied Sculpture at Atelier Dodekaeder in Germany. They received MFAs from Queens College, New York in 2007. Marek Milde currently works at the Czech Center NY, and both have worked at the Czech Cultural Institute in Manhattan, where they curated and organized a wide range of events, festivals, exhibitions, residencies, and international programs. The Mildes are currently preparing for their first museum solo exhibition at the Kunsthalle Praha, Prague which is scheduled to open in Spring 2024.
For press inquiries, please contact Emily Sussman at emily@hesseflatow.com.
For information about the exhibition, please contact Rana Saner at rana@hesseflatow.com.
info@hesseflatow.com / hesseflatow.com / @hesse_flatow
Westbeth Gallery,
55 Bethune St, New York, NY 10014
Aug 3–23, 2023
Happy to be participating again in the Whitney Museum Staff Art Show with fellow artists from the Whitney Museum showcasing our Motherboard series. From its origins in Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney’s Greenwich Village studio in 1914 to its relocation to the Meatpacking District in 2015, the Whitney Museum of American Art has always sought to support living artists at critical moments in their careers. Many of the Museum’s staff members, who make the Museum’s exhibitions, programs, publications, and day-to-day operations possible, are artists themselves. For the sixth time in its history, the Whitney Staff Art Show will be held in a public space, offering staff an opportunity to share their work and deepen connections with one another as well as a wider audience.
Opening Reception
Westbeth Gallery
August 3, 2023
6–8 pm
Gallery Hours
August 3–23, 2023
Wednesday–Sunday, 1–6 pm
Westside Exposure is organized by colleagues from various departments throughout the Museum.
Review of the exhibition SEVERAL GREEN RECORDS OF AN OVERSIZED BLACK BOX
curated by Mgr. art Katarína Balúnová, ArtD. at Galéria umelcov Spiša, Spišská Nová Ves, Slovakia
Niekoľko zelených záznamov nadrozmernej čiernej skrinky
———————-
Several green records of an oversized black box
Galéria umelcov Spiša
Zimná 46, Spišská Nová Ves, Slovakia
Barbara Benish (CZ/USA), Zdena Kolečková (CZ), Silvia Krupinská (SK/UK), Elena Martí Manzanares (ES), Agáta Marzecová (SK/EE), Lucie Mičíková (CZ),
Kristyna a Marek Milde(CZ/USA), Dagmar Šubrtová (CZ), Magda Tothova (SK/DE), Edita Vološčuková (SK), Monika Germuška Vrancová (SK)
Kurator/ Curator: Mgr. art Katarína Balúnová, ArtD.
5. 4. 2023 – 16. 7. 2023/ April 5 – July 16, 2023
Alienators, 2023, video stills from the 6min two-channel video animation, music by Michael Vignola – Bending Gravity
SLOVAK:
Premiérový medzinárodný výstavný projekt Galérie umelcov Spiša pod názvom Niekoľko zelených záznamov nadrozmernej čiernej skrinky je utopicko – dystopickým zamyslením sa nad budúcnosťou našej planéty. Diela 10-tich súčasných umelkýň a jednej autorskej dvojice reflektujú v diferentných médiách súčasný environmentálny stav aj vízie možných nových svetov. Katalog k vystave.
V ramci vystavy Kristyna a Marek Milde prezentú novú videoanimácia Alienators, 2023, ktera je vstupom do utopicko – dystopického vesmírneho priestoru zaplneného lietajúcimi fantasktnimi družicami a kozmickými loďami vytvorenými s foto kolazii modernistických stavieb. Toto 2-kanálové video sa premieta na dve protiľahlé steny v galérii a vytvára tak vesmírnu čiernu skrinku. Dielo vychádza z rovnomenných autorských koláží, v ktorých umelci uvažovali o vplyve odcudzenej modernistickej architektúry na mestský priestor. Niektoré budovy totiž vyzerajú ako mimozemské stavby, ktoré náhodne pristáli v krajine našich miest bez zmyslu pre gravitáciu a pre to, čo je hore a, čo dole.
Habitat ako biotop, urbánne prostredie či obytný blok sa tak stáva nosnou konštrukciou pre diferentné naratívy. Autori poukazujú na častú necitlivosť projektantov voči ekologickým a historickým kontextom miesta, čo narúša krehkú sieť spoločenských aj mimoľudskýchv vzťahov. Video prehodnocuje minulosť a budúcnosť architektúry a skúma monstrozitu modernistických stavieb. Ako by vyzeralo možné presídlenie našej civilizácie na iné planéty? Obdobie moderny bolo presiaknuté vesmírnym optimizmom, ktorý sa ani po niekoľkých desaťročiach nenaplnil. Preto vo videu umelci satiricky transformujú modernistické stavby v kozmickej lode, ktoré môžu voľne odplávať do vesmíru.
Názov výstavy odkazuje k vymedzeným ekologickým umeleckým projektom a snahám v čase masívnej deštrukcie prírodného prostredia. Čiernou skrinkou sa v prenesenom význame stáva celá naša planéta, ktorá neľútostne zaznamenáva každú našu akciu. Čierna skrinka je rakvou, ale aj utopickým čiernym Malevičovým štvorcom, kozmologickou budúcnosťou s (Kollerovským) otáznikom. Čierny štvorec / skrinka môže byť smrťou aj znovuzrodením sveta a umenia, môže a nemusí byť finálnou bodkou za nenásytnou ľudskou civilizáciou. Podľa behaviorálnych psychológov je aj ľudský mozog čiernou skrinkou. Ľudská myseľ reaguje na podnety – ak chceme zmeniť správanie, musíme zmeniť podnety, nie myseľ, ktorá na podnety reaguje. Práve k tomu môže slúžiť umenie, ktoré má jedinečnú schopnosť premieňať informácie na emócie. Jednotlivé diela či projekty vybraných umelkýň a umeleckej dvojice, sú snahou o hľadanie lepšieho, „zelenšieho“ sveta. Sú náčrtom ekologicky zameraných ideí, možných východísk, lokálnych revitalizácií, či environmentálnych akcií v diferentných médiách, od prác na papieri po objekt, video a inštaláciu, s využitím nájdených a recyklovaných materiálov. Aj keď sa tieto snahy môžu zdať menšinové a zanedbateľné, majú svoj význam v distribúcii myšlienok, ktoré stoja na začiatku každej zmeny.
Projekt z verejných zdrojov podporil Fond na podporu umenia.
Mgr. art Katarína Balúnová, ArtD., autorka a kurátorka projektu
ENGLISH:
The international exhibition project of the Spiš Gallery of Artists entitled Several green records of an oversized black box is a utopian – dystopian reflection on the future of our planet. The works of 10 contemporary female artists and one author couple reflect the current environmental state and visions of possible new worlds in different media. Katalog is available for the exhibition. The project was supported by public funds by the Art Support Fund.
As part of the exhibition, Kristyna and Marek Milde present the new video animation Alienators, 2023, which is an entry into a utopian-dystopian outer space filled with flying fantastic satellites and spaceships created with a photo collage of modernist buildings. This 2-channel video is projected on two opposite walls in the gallery, creating a cosmic black box. The work is based on the author’s collages of the same name, in which the artists reflected on the alienating influence of modernist architecture on urban space. Some buildings look like alien structures that accidentally landed in the landscape of our cities without a sense of gravity and what is up and what is down.
Habitat as a biotope, an urban environment, or a residential block thus becomes a supporting structure for different narratives. The authors point to the frequent insensitivity of designers to the ecological and historical context of the place, which disrupts the fragile network of social and non-human relationships. The video revisits the past and future of architecture and explores the monstrosity of modernist buildings. What would a possible relocation of our civilization to other planets look like? The modern period was imbued with cosmic optimism, which was not fulfilled even after several decades. Therefore, in the video, the artists satirically transform modernist buildings into spaceships that can float freely into space.
The name of the exhibition refers to specific ecological art projects and efforts at a time of massive destruction of the natural environment. Our whole planet becomes a black box in a metaphorical sense, which mercilessly records our every action. The black box is a coffin, but also a utopian black Malevich square, a cosmological future with a (Kollerovsky) question mark. The black square/box can be both the death and the rebirth of the world and art, it may or may not be the final dot behind the insatiable human civilization. According to behavioral psychologists, the human brain is also a black box. The human mind responds to stimuli – if we want to change behavior, we must change the stimuli, not the mind that responds to the stimuli. This is precisely what art, which has the unique ability to transform information into emotions, can serve. Individual works or projects of selected female artists and the artistic duo are an effort to find a better, “greener” world. They are sketches of ecologically oriented ideas, possible solutions, local revitalizations, or environmental actions in different media, from works on paper to objects, videos, and installations, using found and recycled materials. Although these efforts may seem minor and insignificant, they have their importance in the distribution of ideas that stand at the beginning of every change.
Mgr. art Katarína Balúnová, ArtD., author and curator of the project
Katalog for the exhibition available here:
Uryvek z eseje
Mgr. art. Katarína Balúnová, ArtD.
Kristyna a Marek Milde sa vo svojej tvorbe programovo venujú environmentálnych témam, pričom poukazujú na odcudzenie sa človeka prírodnému svetu. Pracujú na pomedzí viacerých médií, vytvárajú inštalácie, ktoré často reagujú na špecifické prostredia in-situ. Prostredníctvom umenia vo verejnom priestore sa zapájajú do spoločenského diania, skúmajú ľudské správanie a vyzývajú diváka na aktívnu spoluúčasť. Kristyna Milde študovala maľbu na Assenza Malschule v Bazileji vo Švajčiarsku, kým Marek Milde navštevoval odbor sochárstva v Ateliéri Dodekaeder v Nemecku. V roku 2007 obaja úspešne obhájili magisterský titul na Queens College v New Yorku. V rokoch 2008 – 2015 pracovali v Českom kultúrnom inštitúte v New Yorku, kde organizovali kultúrne programy.62
Dôležitou súčasťou práce Kristyny a Mareka Milde je komunikácia s ľuďmi a prostredím. Habitat ako biotop, urbánne prostredie, či obytný blok, sa stáva nosnou konštrukciou pre diferentné naratívy súčasnej kultúry. Veľkomestské problémy vykorenenia, strata pevných oporných bodov v živote a pasívny konzum marketingom starostlivo predpripravených receptov na šťastie, spôsobuje fragmentáciu identity. Umelci hľadajú spôsoby, ako prostredníctvom umenia otvoriť nové perspektívy vnímania, ktoré by viedli k pozitívnej zmene. Využívajú pritom osobnú skúsenosť s prírodnou krajinou, ktorá im otvára poznanie seba samých a tým aj sveta: „Utopická ekologická krajina evokuje predstavu rajskej záhrady ako harmónie rastlín, zvierat a človeka… V ideálnej budúcnosti by sa mala nájsť rovnováha medzi kultivovanou produktívnou krajinou a divokou prírodou. Dôležité je, aby ľudia mali možnosť priameho vzťahu k prírode. Jednak vďaka osobnej možnosti pestovať a kultivovať rastliny a stromy a zároveň mať možnosť krajinu fyzicky objavovať a pohybovať sa v nej. Dôležitosť vidíme tiež v integrácii prírody v urbánnom priestore. V poslednej dobe sa tieto tendencie stále zlepšujú a už vopred sa v plánovaní a dizajne myslí na ekologickú stránku priestoru.“63
Autori aktívne pracujú v odbore dizajnu a navrhujú zelené riešenia pre architektonické celky. V projekte Plantarium: Circles and Constellations, 2021 vytvorili živú skulptúru vo forme rastlín zasadených v oceľovej platforme ako mikrokozmos odzrkadľujúci okolité prostredie. Dielo prepája dom s otvorenou krajinou a stáva sa tak mostom medzi privátnym a vonkajším priestorom, pričom pozýva na rozjímanie o sezónnych premenách a plynutím času. Táto práca nadväzuje na projekty Homescape, 2014, Plantarium, 2017, či Plantarium – Tea Garden, 2018, kde umelci spájajú ideu záhrady, interiérového dizajnu a pestovania, pričom sa sústreďujú na sprostredkovanie telesného prežitia prírody. Site-specific participatívne inštalácie otvárajú otázky, nakoľko sme ovplyvnení postindustriálnou realitou, kedy väčšinu svojho času trávime v interiéri, obklopení civilizačnými produktmi. Produktom sa stáva aj jedlo, ktoré kupujeme naaranžované a zabalené v lákavých farebných plastových obaloch.
V dielach Dinner Garden, 2013 a à la cart, 2014 autori skúmajú možnosti založenia komunitnej záhrady v mestskom prostredí, aby upozorňovali na kontext a proces produkcie potravín. Projekty pritom nemali ambíciu byť profesionálnych kurzom záhradníctva, ale skôr fungovali ako ihrisko, ktoré povzbudzovalo nové zážitky a zároveň prehodnocovalo hranice konzumu – účastníci si vo finále mohli pripraviť jedlo z vlastnoručne dopestovaných surovín. Umelci pritom nevyzývajú k plošnému návratu k agrárnemu spôsobu života, možným riešením sú aj technologické inovácie: „Podľa našej skúsenosti je dobré veci individuálne posudzovať. Inovácia môže pomôcť vyriešiť mnoho súčasných problémov a otázok, nakoľko vytvára nové zdroje cez ľudskú vynaliezavosť. Ale je dobre veci testovať v malom, aby sme videli celkový dopad. Na druhej strane jednoduché riešenie môže byť často to najlepšie. V matematike sa napríklad teórie a rovnice posudzujú aj z hľadiska svojej jednoduchosti a harmónie, v konečnom dôsledku sa totiž práve tie ukazujú ako pravdivé.“64
Jedným zo spôsobom ako sa postaviť k súčasnej ekologickej kríze je recyklácia. Kristyna a Marek Milde často vo svojej práci používajú nájdený a vyradený materiál, ktorý vnímajú aj ako súčasť výskumu kultúrnych javov. Zaujímavým fenoménom sú často vyhodené tropické rastliny, ktoré sa kvôli svojej veľkosti stávajú nepohodlnými. V rámci projektu Carpetorium, Lost and Found Gardens of Manhattan, 2021 zhromažďujú tieto rastliny, aby upozornili na konzumný vzťah, ktorý k nim prechovávame. „Lietajúci“ koberec sa stáva metaforou transkontinentálnej vynútenej migrácie a zároveň upozorňuje na zánik prirodzených biotopov, ako sú tropické pralesy.
Autori veria v transformatívnu silu umenia: „Umelec môže vyzdvihnúť a poukázať na rôzne aspekty súčasnosti, ktoré sú buď zakryté alebo neviditeľné. Zároveň vďaka umeleckému tvaru reči a vyjadrovacích foriem, ako je metafora či nadsázka, môže diváka doviesť ku kreatívnym a novým pohľadom na skutočnosť. Tie sa potenciálne môžu premietnuť aj v budúcom rozhodovaní. Myslíme si, že umenie by malo viesť vnímanie diváka nad to každodenné a otvoriť mu dvere do nových svetov… Utópia sa môže potenciálne stať realitou. Samozrejme musí byť nosná a praktická, aby sa dala skutočne aplikovať. Slovo utópia už v sebe nesie sľub neuskutočneného, nedosiahnuteľného ideálu. Môžeme ju teda vnímať skôr ako kompas podľa ktorého sa riadime na ceste do budúcnosti. Bez vyšších ideálov strácame orientáciu a zmysel života.“
62 Kristyna and Marek Milde. http://www.mildeart.com/about (10.12.2021)
63 Kristyna a Marek Milde. Interview, 07.03.2022
Zde cele PDF eseje Esej Ekologicke umenie
Excerpt from the essay by Mgr. art. Katarína Balúnová, ArtD.
SOME GREEN OVERSIZED BLACK BOX RECORDS
ECOLOGICAL UTOPIAN IDEAS IN CZECH ART
In their work, Kristyna and Marek Milde, address environmental topics while pointing out the alienation of culture from the natural world. Their work is at the interface of multiple media, creating installations that often respond to specific in-situ environments. Through art in public space, they engage in social events, explore human behavior, and invite the viewer to active participation. Kristyna Milde studied painting at the Assenza Malschule in Basel, Switzerland, while Marek Milde studied sculpture at Atelier Dodekaeder in Germany. In 2007, both successfully defended their master’s degrees at Queens College in New York. In the years 2008-2015, they worked at the Czech Cultural Institute in New York, where they organized cultural programs.62
Communication with people and the environment is an important part of Kristyna and Marek Milda’s work. Habitat as a biotope, urban environment, or residential block becomes a supporting structure for different narratives of contemporary culture. Urban problems of uprooting, loss of fixed points of support in life, and passive consumerism by marketing carefully prepared recipes for happiness, cause fragmentation of identity. Artists are looking for ways to open up new perspectives of perception through art that would lead to positive change. In doing so, they use their personal experience with the natural landscape, which opens up their knowledge of themselves and thus of the world: “A utopian ecological landscape evokes the idea of a paradise garden as a harmony of plants, animals, and man… In an ideal future, a balance should be found between a cultivated, productive landscape and wild nature. It is important that people have the possibility of a direct relationship with nature. On the one hand, thanks to the personal opportunity to grow and cultivate plants and trees, and at the same time to have the opportunity to physically explore the landscape and move around in it. We also see the importance of the integration of nature in the urban space. Recently, these tendencies have been improving and the ecological side of the space is already being thought of in advance in planning and design.”63
The authors work actively in the field of design and propose green solutions for architectural units. In the project Plantarium: Circles and Constellations, 2021, they created a living sculpture in the form of plants planted in a steel platform as a microcosm reflecting the surrounding environment. The work connects the house with the open landscape, thus becoming a bridge between private and outdoor space while inviting contemplation of seasonal transformations and the passage of time. This work follows on from the projects Homescape, 2014, Plantarium, 2017, či Plantarium – Tea Garden, 2018, where the artists combine the idea of a garden, interior design, and cultivation while focusing on mediating the physical survival of nature. Site-specific participatory installations open up questions about how much we are influenced by post-industrial reality, when we spend most of our time indoors, surrounded by civilizational products. Food, which we buy arranged and packaged in attractive colorful plastic packaging, also becomes a product.
In the works Dinner Garden, 2013 a à la cart, 2014, the authors explore the possibilities of establishing a community garden in an urban environment to draw attention to the context and process of food production. At the same time, the projects did not have the ambition to be a professional gardening course, but rather functioned as a playground that encouraged new experiences and at the same time re-evaluated the limits of consumption – in the finale, the participants could prepare food from their own hand-grown ingredients. At the same time, the artists do not call for a general return to the agrarian way of life, technological innovations are also a possible solution: “According to our experience, it is good to assess things individually. Innovation can help solve many current problems and questions as it creates new resources through human ingenuity. But it’s good to test things on a small scale to see the overall impact. On the other hand, a simple solution can often be the best. In mathematics, for example, theories and equations are also judged from the point of view of their simplicity and harmony, because in the end, it is precisely those that prove to be true.”64
One of the ways to deal with the current ecological crisis is recycling. Kristyna and Marek Milde often use found and discarded material in their work, which they perceive as part of research into cultural phenomena. An interesting phenomenon is often discarded tropical plants, which become inconvenient due to their size. As part of the Carpetorium, Lost and Found Gardens of Manhattan,, 2021 collect these plants to draw attention to the consumer relationship we have with them. The “flying” carpet becomes a metaphor for transcontinental forced migration and at the same time draws attention to the disappearance of natural habitats such as tropical forests.
The authors believe in the transformative power of art: “An artist can highlight and point out various aspects of the present that are either covered or invisible. At the same time, thanks to the artistic form of speech and forms of expression, such as metaphor or exaggeration, it can lead the viewer to creative and new perspectives on reality. These can potentially be reflected in future decision-making. We think that art should lead the viewer’s perception beyond every day and open the door to new worlds… Utopia can potentially become reality. Of course, it must be load-bearing and practical in order to be really applied. The word utopia already carries the promise of an unrealized, unattainable ideal. So we can perceive it more like a compass according to which we are guided on the way to the future. Without higher ideals, we lose orientation and the meaning of life.”
62 Kristyna and Marek Milde. http://www.mildeart.com/about (10.12.2021)
63 Kristyna and Marek Milde. Interview, 07.03.2022
GARDENING OF SOUL
Dům umění Ústí nad Labem
Exhibiting artists/ Vystavující umělci:
Daniela Brasil (AT/BR), Jiří Černický (CZ), Hrvoje Cokarić (CRO), Alexis Dworsky (DE), Hannes Egger (IT), Hafnargarður Community Garden (ICE), Benjamin Hao Lap Yan (HKG),
Kristyna and Marek Milde (USA/CZ), Lukas Kühne (UYU/GER), The Trinity Session (SA), Sam Van Aken (USA)Daniela Brasil (AT/BR)
Curator/ Kurátor: Michal Koleček
Exhibition open from December 8, 2022 m- March 11, 2023
Termín konání výstavy 8/12/2022 – 11/3/2023
We are excited to announce that we will participate in the exhibition Gardening of Soul at the
Dům umění Ústí nad Labem / Ústí nad Labem House of Arts opening December 7, 2022. The show features international artists that use gardening and different forms of gardens as a strategy in their work.
We will be creating a new installation
Carpetorium: Wilderness of Home, that will take a form of a garden created with house plants borrowed from different people’s homes. These plants are planted into a flying carpet to create a platform, a community garden, where people can sit and contemplate our relationship with nature.
It is a continuation of our project Carpetorium: Lost and Found Gardens of Manhattan, 2021 at MoCA Westport.
You can participate in the project by lending us your house plant. More info is in Czech below.
Milí přátelé
Radi bychom oznamili naši účast na výstavě Gardening of Soul v Dům umění Ústí nad Labem / Ústí nad Labem House of Arts, která bude zahájena 7. prosince 2022. Tato mezinárodní výstava představuje umělce, kteří ve své tvorbě používají zahradničení a ruzné formy zahrad jako strategii. Pro vystavu připravujeme novou instalaci
Carpetorium: divoká krajina domova, která bude mít podobu symbolické zahrady vytvořené z pokojových rostlin zapůjčených z různých domácností. Tyto rostliny jsou zasazeny do ornamentálního létajícího koberce, aby vytvořily platformu, komunitní zahradu, kde mohou lidé sedět a rozjímat o našem vztahu k přírodě. Projekt koumá, jak nám naše běžné pokojové rostliny, které často hýčkáme po mnoho let, někdy i po generace, vytváří pocit domova, zakořenění s místem a sounáležitost s přírodou. Projekt propojuje příběhy rostlin s příběhy lidí, ornament koberce se zde prolíná s živou květinou a připomíná, že spojení s přírodou je v nás hluboce zakořeněné.
Můžete se účastnit projektu tím, že zapůjčíte svou pokojovou rostlinu, aby se stala součástí této unikátní zahrady.
Kristyna and Marek Milde, Carpetorium: Wilderness of Home, House of Arts Ústí nad Labem, 2022,
site-specific installation, oriental carpet, houseplants borrowed from people’s homes, dimension variable
Kristyna a Marek Milde, Carpetorium: divoká krajina domova, Dům umění Ústí nad Labem, 2022,
specifická instalace, orientalní koberec, pokojové rostliny zapůjčené účastníky, 3m x 2m x 2m
VÝZVA K ÚČASTI:
Milovníci květin a přírody!
zde je unikátní příležitost se zúčastnit našeho uměleckého projektu Carpetorium: krajina domova v Dům umění Ústí nad Labem / Ústí nad Labem House of Arts
Máte doma pokojovou rostlinu, která si zaslouží vyniknout? Dopřejte jí “pět minut slávy” a přineste ji do Domu umění do 28.11. 2022. Stane se součástí umělecké instalace, které bude vystaveno na mezinárodní výstavě Gardening of Soul. Dáte jí tak novou roli a dovolíte jí zazářit.
V případě zájmu prosim kontaktujte Zuzanu Dolezalovou email: Zuzana.Dolezelova@ujep.cz
Uvítáme, když nám napíšete i osobní příběh Vaší rostliny, co pro Vás znamená a symbolizuje.
Prosíme účastníky, aby emailem sdělili nasledujicí informace.
jméno:
město kde bydlíte:
název rostliny:
přibližné stáří rostliny:
příběh rostliny a co pro Vás symbolizuje:
fotku rostliny v domácím prostředí:
Informace budou použity v rámci projektu. Pokud chcete aby Vaše jméno zůstalo anonymní dejte nám vědět.
Art and Architecture TV episode Transboder Art
Excited to share the episode about Art and Architecture produced by the Transboder Art, where we talk about our work in relation to architecture. It is being screened on various TV channels (see details below) and is now available to watch online.
42-Art and Architecture
Emireth Herrera, Kristyna and Marek Milde, Maddy Rosenberg, Giandomenico Pellizi describe their quest to connect nature with the architectural spaces we inhabit. Architecture ground us, persons of very different backgrounds, countries, and experiences find a balance between the marvel of architecture and the beauty of nature.
WHERE TO WATCH
on TV – Stay Tuned!
SUNDAY: 10/9/22 @ 6:30 PM
TV Channels: 68 Optimum/Cablevision, 2134 Verizon FIOS
WEDS 10/12/2022 @ 5:30 PM
TV Channels: 34 Spectrum/Time Warner, 67 Optimum/Cablevision, 42 Verizon FIOS, 82 RCN
FRIDAY 10/14/22 1:30 PM and 5:30 PM Optimum 67; Spectrum 34;Verizon FIOS 42; RCN 82; WEB: BRIC Channel 1
Plantarium: Circles and Constellations (2021), S-A House, Upstate NY,
corten steel plates, metal frame, soil, local plants and stones, pond, 32’x 7’x 4′
Plantarium: Circles and Constellations (2021) by Kristyna and Marek Milde is a permanent living sculpture developed as a site-specific private commission for the new S-A house by the architects LevenBetts in upstate NY.
Designed to create an immersive experience of nature Plantarium is a steel sculpture and a garden connecting the atrium of the house to the open landscape. It takes the form of a rusted Corten steel platform dotted with laser-cut circular openings that host living plants. Its design is based on emerging circular patterns in nature, mapping the complex relationships in the ecosystem. The piece is a microcosm mirroring the surrounding environment, reflecting natural diversity on site. It features a selection of local plants and stones transferred from the property. A small pond in a form of water droplets represents the local wetland, ferns and mosses recall the shady woodlands, and the arrangement of stones echoes the dry and sunny environment of a gravel quarry. More
Bagnare le rose, Cambiare le cose
Curated by Jose Ramon Ais
Galleris Cavo, Trieste, Italy, November 16 – 25, 2021
Join us for the show about roses and fictional nature Bagnare le rose, Cambiare le cose curated by Jose Ramon Ais at Galleris Cavo, Trieste, Italy, November 16 – 25, 2021. For the exhibition, we created a series titled Herbarium Funeralis, where we document a new type of roses growing on the graves in an old Linden Hill Cemetery in Queens. These flowers are resisting the change of seasons eternally commemorate the departed loved ones.
Between the Ground and the Sky
MoCA Westport
19 Newtown Turnpike | Westport, CT 06880
Kristyna and Marek Milde, Donna Forma, Anne Burmeister, and Ashley Skatoff
On view August 27 – October 17, 2021
www.mocawestport.org
Kristyna and Marek Milde, Carpetorium, Lost and Found Gardens of Manhattan at MoCA Westport, 2021
rescued discarded house plants, carpet, 8’x10’x7’
The exhibition Between the Ground and the Sky features two of our new site-specific installations: Carpetorium, Lost and Found Gardens of Manhattan, showcasing tropical houseplants we found discarded on the streets in Manhattan. And In-Tree-Net an installation made of trees and branches.
Between the Ground and the Sky also includes natural, organic works of artist Donna Forma and more than 50 photographs of local farms by Anne Burmeister and Ashley Skatoff.
In conversation with Christelle Havranek, Chief Curator of Kunsthalle Praha
Friday, 1 October 2021 at Kunsthalle Praha
By invitation only
On the occasion of the unveiling of CABINET OF ELECTRICAL CURIOSITIES, a new permanent site-specific installation by Mark Dion at Kunsthalle Praha we will be talking together with the artist and Christelle Havranek, the Chief Curator of Kunsthalle Praha about our recent projects, and our common inspiration in the art that engages the natural world.
Mark Dion & the Czech artist duo Kristýna & Marek Milde, all three based in New York, are long-time friends. Although working in different media, Dion and the Mildes share number of approaches and strategies. As explorers of the natural world, rescuers of found objects, observers of human behavior, they share a comparable artistic vision. In conversation with Kunsthalle’s Chief Curator Christelle Havranek, the artists will present some of their recent projects and discuss their practices, influences, and preoccupations. They will also talk about their experience at Mildred’s Lane, innovative visual art education and residency program co-founded by Mark Dion in Narrowsburg, Pennsylvania, and often visited by the Mildes.
The event is by invitation only and will take place on Friday, 1 October 2021 at the soon-to-be-completed Kunsthalle Praha, in presence of the artist Mark Dion and Kunsthalle Praha’s founders PavlÃna & Petr Pudil.
Cabinet of Electrical Curiosities: A permanent site-specific installation created by Mark Dion for Kunsthalle Praha. Using industrial objects collected on the site of the former Zenger electrical substation, Dion’s work tells the story of the Kunsthalle’s building, from its construction in the 1930s to its current conversion into a modern cultural space.
Field Guide: Accompanying Mark Dion’s installation, the publication includes an interview with the artist, a timeline, and a selection of objects with descriptions penned by the Czech technical historian Milan GuÅ¡tar.
Mark Dion
A mixed-media artist whose eclectic work spans installation, sculpture, curation, assemblage, and more. His interdisciplinary approach appropriates methods taken from archaeology, archiving, ecology, and the sciences to probe the construction of knowledge across many different fields. The recipient of many awards, Dion has exhibited his work extensively and collaborated with major international institutions. Some of his well-known works include Neukom Vivarium (2006), a permanent outdoor installation and learning lab for the Olympic Sculpture Park in Seattle, WA, and Tate Thames Dig (1999) which displayed a range of relics discovered at Thames River locations near London’s Tate Gallery (now Tate Britain) and future Tate Modern. Dion rarely works with the same materials twice and has worked with everything from industrial factory components to taxidermy animals. His works can be found in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Tate in London, the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, and the Seattle Art Museum, among others. © Dallas Morning News
Kristyna & Marek Milde
Brooklyn-based interdisciplinary artists duo, originally from Prague, Czech Republic. In their practice, they investigate the shifting relationship between culture and environment, often using natural and man-made found materials to create interpretative archives, sculptures, and site-specific installations. The Mildes have been awarded numerous residencies and awards and have exhibited internationally in institutions such as the Queens Museum and MoMA in New York, the DOX Center for Contemporary Art, Futura, and Meet Factory in Prague, among others. They won the Westport Art Center collaborative competition and their work is part of private and public collections. Kristýna Milde studied painting at Assenza Malschule in Basel. Marek Milde studied sculpture at the Atelier Dodekaeder in Germany. They both received MFAs from Queens College, CUNY, New York, in 2007.
© mildeart.com
DOPROVODNà PROGRAM K VÃSTAVÄš ZDENA KOLEÄŒKOVÃ: V KŮŽI ROBINSONA
TopiÄův Salon, Narodnà 9, Praha 1, 1. patro
Středa 25.3. 2020 od 18h
Postponed due the COV-19
Zdena KoleÄková, Kristýna a Marek Milde
Moderátorka: kurátorka výstavy Anna Vartecká
foto: Zdena KoleÄková, „V kůži Robinsona 16“
V rámci výstavy “V kůži Robinsona†Vás zveme na diskuzi o kulturnÄ› environmentálnÃch tématech odrážejÃcÃch se v tvorbÄ› Zdeny KoleÄkové a pÅ™izvaných hostů Kristýny a Marka Milde.
Kristýna a Marek Milde, Äeské umÄ›lecké duo žijÃcà v New Yorském Brooklynu, budou mluvit o svých nejnovÄ›jÅ¡Ãch projektech jež se zabývajà problematikou odcizenà souÄasného životnÃho stylu od Å¡irÅ¡Ãho environmentálnÃho kontextu. Jejich interdisciplinárnà práce zahrnuje sochy, instalace, a situaÄnà intervence. Ve své tvorbÄ› Mildovi Äasto zkoumajà specifická mÃsta a situace, sbÃrajà informace a materiály, které pak interpretuji do formy netradiÄnÃch archivů. PÅ™ezkoumávajà souÄasná enviromentálnà témata jako je vztah k mÃstu, domovu, a veÅ™ejnému prostoru a fokusuji na navázánà ztracených spojenà běžné dennà reality s pÅ™Ãrodou a Å¡irÅ¡Ãm kontextem životnÃho prostÅ™edÃ.
Kristýna a Marek Milde působà mezinárodnÄ›, vystavovali na Å™adÄ› samostatných i skupinových výstav napÅ™Ãklad v MoMA Studio, Queens Muzeum, NURTURE art, EFA Project Space, Smack Mellon Gallery, MOCA Hudson, Temple Contemporary. V ÄŒeské Republice napÅ™ v DOX, Galerie Futura, Meet Factory a KarlÃn Studios. V roce 2019 Milde vyhrali prvnà cenu v kolaboraci v Tete-a-Tete v MOCA Westport, NY. Byla jim udÄ›lena Å™ada prestižnÃch umÄ›leckých rezidencà Art Omi, ISCP, Queens Museum, LMCC Process Space NYC, EFA Shift, A – Z West Residency v Kalifornii, a Russell Wright Design Center, Garrison, NY. Jejich práce byly prezentovány v mediÃch jako New York Times, Brooklyn Rail, Flashart, Hyperallergic, Arttribune, Designboom, ArtyÄok TV, ÄŒeská Televize a ÄŒeský Rozhlas.
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Unison Arts Center, New Paltz, NY
Sunday, January 19, 4 – 6 pm
Exhibiting thru March 8th, 2020
Joann Alvis, Kathleen Anderson, Michael Asbill, Alan Baer, Jebah Baum, Amy Benedict, Jeff Benjamin, Matt Bua, Amy Crews, Mary Anne Davis, Tim Dehm, Tasha Depp, Alexis Elton, Kate Farrington, Mimi Graminski, Beth Haber, Jan Harrison, Amanda Heidel, Sam Horowitz, Maxine Leu, Maria Lupo, James Lynch, Michael McDonough, Kristyna and Marek Milde, Ilse Schreiber-Noll, Joel Olzak, Carol Padberg, Todd RaderLaurie Sheridan, Anne-Katrin Spiess, Patricia Tinajero, Susan Togut, Moira Williams, Millicent Young
Curated by Linda Weintraub and Michael Asbill
In all vital ecosystems, organized structures – living and dead, biotic and abiotic, manufactured and grown – ultimately succumb to disorder. This imperative served as the inspiration for the artworks in this exhibition. They celebrate the natural process by which organized matter becomes dismantled so the molecules can be rearranged to form new generations of living entities.
Exhibition curated by Linda Weintraub and Michael Asbill connects to “Composed to Decomposeâ€, an innovative outdoor art exhibition in the Unison Arts center Sculpture Park, in which artists dispense with conventional art practices and adopt ecosystem dynamics as the model of ecologically responsible human behaviors. This exhibition opens at Unison Arts Center in New Paltz, New York on July 21st at 4 pm. We welcome the community to come and explore the installations and meet the artists.
Co-curators Michael Asbill and Linda Weintraub explain, “This exhibition invites artists to challenge the widespread social, personal, and economic desire for material stability, and demonstrate that humans disturb ecosystem functions when they attempt to defy biodegradability. Forty-five artists have composed installations that are intentionally designed to decompose over the course of an entire year. They demonstrate that it is through decomposition that fertility is replenished, ecosystems are revitalized, and life is renewed.â€
This significant frontier of contemporary culture is identified as “Eco-Materialism.†The concept is explored in a popular new book by Linda Weintraub entitled “What’s Next: Eco-Materialism and Contemporary Art.†Like this text, “Composed to Decompose†advocates for humans to respect non-human systems and functions. This entails inviting the effects of weather, season, and wildlife. By July 2020, when the exhibition year ends, the vitality of each site will be enlivened and enhanced by these decomposed artworks.
In addition to the individual year-long installations, a companion exhibition, entitled “Composed to Decompose: Sequential Responsive Transformations,†will include twelve artists working on a single site, sequentially, over the course of the year. The curators explain, “Each month a new artist will enter the site to add to and/or alter the remains of previous artists’ installations, contributing to an ongoing sequence of interactive interventions. In this manner, artists emulate the responsiveness that prevails among wildlife, instead of the domination that prevails in contemporary industrial practices.â€
Kristyna and Marek Milde in collaboration with Valerie Tomaselli and Brian Carey, Where Things Go (Rock Hill Library of Overdue Books), 2020, books, W18 1/2†x H18 1/2†x D 6 ½â€
Books from a private property in Rock Hill, where they have been intentionally placed in the woods for a number of years to naturally deteriorate and transform. The project explores the ephemerality o human culture versus the cycles in nature. It asks a question: What will happen to the ideas, stories, and information written in the books, once they can’t be read? Is there a place where they go? Similarly, what will happen to our digital footprint once we are gone?
Kristyna and Marek Milde, Where the Things Go (Bookworm Library); 2019, pencil on paper, 14†x 11â€,
Sketch of an installation consisting of a metal bookshelf placed in the wood and filled with books, that would deteriorate and compost over time.
Science Fictional Thinking
Storefront Practices in the Social Realm
Opening December 7, 3 – 7pm
Open thru March 14, 2020
2 Post Hill Road and Main Street / Mountaindale, NY 12763
Vincent Castro / Jorge Colombo / Mark Dion / Joy Feasley / Sophie Friedman-Pappas / Hope Ginsburg / Norberto Gomez / Heather Greene / Jeffrey Jenkins / Alex A. Jones / Cameron Klavsen / Samantha Lopez / Abby Lutz / Kristyna Milde / Marek Milde / J Morgan Puett / Rebecca Purcell / Ryan Rennie / Alexander Rosenberg /Alex Schechter / Matthew Solomon / Paul Swenbeck / VIROSA / Allison Ward / Natalie Wilkin / Amy Yoes
Cocurated with Alex A. Jones and Cameron Klavsen
Image: Alex A. Jones and Cameron Klavsen
It is the year 2020. You are living in the future, and it is nothing like you imagined.
This show asks how science fiction can be a tool for artists to anticipate meaningful notions of the future. Sci-fi is not simply a genre, but a vehicle for expressing collective dreams and fears about our ever-changing world. Nor are the aesthetics of sci-fi limited to the space age, for we do not seem destined for a future of technological salvation. The varied works in this exhibition are therefore grounded in trans-historical thinking. They are imaginative leaps, speculative propositions, compromises, and even fantasies. The curatorial premise of their grouping is this:
Imagine a future world…what object sits beside you? If sci-fi is a tool for thought, what does that tool look like?
Kristyna and Marek Milde, Alienator No.2, 2019, detail, collage on blackened aluminum, cut out photographs from a book about modernist architecture, 41″x32″
HOMESCAPE 
Kristyna and Marek Milde, Plantarium – Tea Garden, Flux Factory/Windmill Community Garden, 2018,
Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC)
LMCC’s Open Studios event is a window into the process of making our newest project Sitings, a series of site-responsive sculptures functioning as furniture exploring the phenomena of unconventional domestication of public space. During the residency we explore and study non-conformist behavioral situations of diverse individuals such us workers on break, homeless people, tourists, children etc. creating unique and personal forms of interaction with architecture and public space by sitting, lying, reading or eating in undesigned places. The project Sitings replicates sites and specific places found in use for sitting or lying in the form of sculptures functioning as chairs and couches that incorporate architectural fragments such as street corners, stairs, and pavement. While Sitings questions the limits and conventions of the private and the public it amplifies the gesture of choosing freely, where to sit as a creative, performative act transforming the highly defined urban environment.
This summer Holes in the Wall Collective presents a group-curated show Exquisite Corpus: The Maize. Seven artists/artist groups making an exquisite visual dialogue inspired by the immediate landscape, its history and the role of CORN.
The residency is located at Governors Island, in a former Army warehouse (Building 110) embedded in the midst of picturesque landscapes, expansive waterfront views, and unique historic architecture. The Arts Center at Governors Island includes 20 studios for visual artists, two rehearsal spaces for performing artists, and a Gallery space. From March to December, the Arts Center functions as a shared, multidisciplinary space where artists can experience a retreat-style residency just a short ferry ride from the frenetic buzz of the city. While on the Island, artists develop their practice and create new works, drawing inspiration from the unique location, as well as the community of fellow artists-in-residence that forms in the space.
-channel video documenting performance made in various natural and forest environments. In the project, we engage in the activity of cleaning normally reserved to the realm of domesticity here misplaced in to the nature involving cleaning trees, stones, grass and riverbank while using domestic tools such as brooms brushes mops etc. We are interested in how the cleaning taken from its context is reduced to a very basic gesture with an edge of absurdity but at the same time it represents an elemental mechanism of claiming and controlling space. Natural Cleaners looks at cleaning as a form of primeval cultural statement, that draws on the premise of declaration of a space by selecting and eliminating.
The installation Cabinet of Smells (2015), explores idea “What is the smell of a home?†It engages our relationship to smells inherent to our daily surroundings that encompass our bodies, homes and living environments. It examines the boundaries between aroma and odor and the cultural norms that define the pleasant, odd and acceptable. It presents the modern tools that produce constructed landscape of artificial smells such as perfumes, cleaners and air fresheners and their function to blur the distinction between natural and artificial. While the perfume industry attempts to construct fictional scent identity that usually covers the actual context the Cabinet of Smells engages revisit the idea of seeking what actually the real smell of a home is. The project includes a laboratory station, which is used to distill scents of various household objects such as old books, socks or debris etc. Our attempt is to produce a perfume that would represent its origin and identity of a place inclusively.
Brooklyn based artists Kristyna and Marek Milde present their projects engaging culture of living and domesticity . Looking at what is “swept under the carpet,†their work investigates how the comfortable interior environment of our homes produces a culture of alienation from nature. Their projects often take the form of DIY home improvements, and revisit the role of furnishing, cleaning and decorating and its function inside of a white cube to produce the feeling of home. Their work explores ways of transforming our spaces of dwelling, revealing its connection to a larger environmental context of culture, geography and nature.Participants at MoMA Studio will have the opportunity to share their ideas about the elements that contribute to their sense of home. Additionally, participants are encouraged to be part of a 
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