Artlist - databáze současného umění: Darina Alster

Darina Alster belongs to the generation that spent the sensitive age of adolescence in the 1990s, which has reflected in her work in a certain way. The extent of her work is wide but the fundamental thing for her is her direct message. That is why she most often expresses herself in the form of performances or happenings. She implements her thoughts in individual presentations. She examines the topics of time, religion and the polarity of the technocratic and spiritual world.

A typical trait of her thought is presenting multi-contents through formal parallels. This stimulant specifically appears, for example, in White Cubic (2006, Sculpture Grande 06). Darina Alster, together with other co-workers, created live images based on the telephone request of passersby in a white cube 3 x 3 x 3 m, located on Wenceslas Square. The text message that the participants of the happening sent, appeared simultaneously on the display in front of the cube. The formal parallels were represented here by co-performers who, each in their own way, reacted to various aspects of one person. The main motive was to reproduce the personalities inside of oneself, as well as an intimate interconnection of random pedestrians with the performers in a distant way through the text messages. Another similar example is the installation Non Stop (2008) for the Gallery Vernon that originated on the basis of a drawing of the mutual location of words that express existential thought amplified by background scenery of cheapness. She put black plastic on the walls of the gallery and a neon sign Object – Victim – Human was simultaneously glimmering in the showcase. Darina based the trio of these words on the subconscious connection of them and their relationship determined the rhythm of the lighting up neon. The formal parallels can also be found in Darinas other examples.

Another example characterizing her work is the contrasting connection of living elements and technical elements or as she herself describes like a Fortune teller in the TV show Artmix “the media of the ancient past with the modern media”. One of them is her graduate work Personal Tarot (2007). Twenty-two tarot cards appeared on a touch display monitor and under each of them a short film or video performance gradually appeared by the form of random projection, which was the author’s interpretation of the meaning of that card. Personal Tarot was located in a panel computer for two months at Náměstí Republiky in the centre of Prague. She later developed this project into Tarot Mobiles (2008) where each mobile telephone corresponds to the title and content of the cards: “The viewer has the possibility to call a card and hear its opinion, leave a message in the voicemail, write a text message or MMS, basically just communicate.” Or in more detail in Tarot Office (2009), which she organized in the Gallery Vernon City, where she connected a PC with an interactive tarot, Tarot Mobiles and a performance of Johana Střížková who performed fortune telling figures for the client according to the card choice. Darina Alster uses cooperation in other projects – in Naked Lunch (2008) she invited her male friends to dress in the spirit of businessmen from the 1990s and to alternately read from the book Naked Lunch by William Burroughs in the castle chapel in Letovice. She put together a seven-hour recording from three perspectives. Or in the project Videoautomat (2009), within the scope of the festival Mezipatra, she built a temporary film studio and offered the visitors to cooperate with her. The incomers had the possibility to create a one-minute video according to their own script. She utilized technical collaboration with Michael Markert (D) by a TV statue, Broken TVE5 (2011) is an audiovisual installation with a flat monitor in a box where the damaged image of ČT24 is running to the background of synthetically read British News.

Her performances are connected with corporeality in, for example, Bianca Braselli (2008), Samotný Akt Performance (Actual Act of Performance) (2011) or Synchrolove (2012). In some of her work she examines the critique of the system – Treasure (2005) or Memorial for the Victims of Capitalism (2011).

Author of the annotation: Denisa Bytelová

Published: 2012

Studies:

2003-2007 Academy of Fine Arts, Prague, The School of Multimedial Art, Professor Aleš Veselý, Jiří Příhoda

1997-2003 Faculty of Education, Charles University in Prague, specialization in Art teaching.

Solo exhibitions: 2013
Darina Alster: Imago Dei, Artwall, Prague

2012
Kanibalismus, performance, kurátorka Helena Blažková, galerie Chodovská tvrz, Prague
Člověk, performance, festival Vytvrzení, kurátorka Kateřina Olivová, Brno
Electricity, Artificial life, instalace, curator Jiří Machalický, NoD, Praha
Post hoc ergo propter hoc, instalace, spolupráce s Veronikou Slámovou, Anne Frank memorial, Brno
Fairytale, fotografie ve spolupráci s Terezou z Davle, Transgender me, kurátoři Michelle Šiml a Lukáš Houdek,DOX, Praha
Hlas Času, Homo Matematicus, kurátor Milan Mikulaštik, NTK, Praha
Pomník Obětem Kapitalismu, performance, Galerie Ferdinanda Baumanna, Praha

2011
Love is love, Luciferův efekt, kurátor Leoš Válka, DOX , Praha
Video-automat, Utopia on the Abyss, Inhabited sculpture, kurátor Mark Divo(CH), NG, Veletržní palác, Praha
Samotný akt performance, performance, instalace, kurátorka Tereza Rullerova, Umakart, Brno
Passion Electric:dark angel revelation, performance na Reset Night, kurátor Michal Marianek, Cross club, Praha
Once upon a time…, audiovizuální instalace, výstava Coming soon, kurátorka Tamara Moyses a Zuzana Štefková, NoD, Praha
Rozbitá televize E5, multimediální instalace ve spolupráci s Michaelem Markertem, festival Enter 5, kurátor Pavel Sedlák, NTK, Prague

2010
Na památku mrtvé performance THLMTRX, výstava Art in Box, kurátorka Zuzana Horvatovičová, Dům Pánů z Kunštátu, Brno
C/DL, multimediální instalace ve spolupráci s Michaelem Markertem , kurátorka Tereza Velíková, galerie Entrance, Praha
Bianca Braselli, video a performance, výstava Body Limits, kurátor Milan Mikulastik, galerie NTK, Praha

2009
Bianca Braselli-Vystoupení živé umělkyně, performance, festival TINA B. Galerie U Zvonu,Ph
Videoautomat, interaktivní videoinstalace, festival Mezipatra, Špálova galerie, Praha
Nahý oběd, videoinstalace, etc. galerie, Praha
Tarot Office, interaktivní instalace a řada výkladových performancí,spoluprace:Johana Střížková, Anja Kaufmann, galerie Vernon City, Praha
Personal Tarot Mobiles, Enter 4 festival, DOX, Praha
Miška, videodokument, Rodinná pohoda, Ministerstvo kultury, Praha

2008
Non Stop, instalace z neonových zářivek,Vernon Project, Prague
Nahý Oběd, performance, Nonstop workshop, Letovice u Brna
ADDsoundsystem, spolupráce s Radim Labuda, Galerie Ciant, Praha
Potraviny, videoinstalace, galerie Potraviny Brno

2007
Personal Tarot Mobiles ver.0.1,TINA.B.,Vernon Fine Art, Praha
The Hermit,performance, Dům Pánů z Kunštátu, Brno
Personal Tarot Automat, Náměstí Republiky, Sculpture Grande, Gallery Art Factory, Praha
Technovoices, Pieta, Galerie FaVut, Brno

2006
The Enormous space, C2Cgallery, Prague
Eraser Head, Interview s dvojníky, performances, Galerie NoD, Praha

2005 / 2006
performances Poetry, Zpovědnice, Komunikační centrum Školská28, Prague
Skulpture grande-cyklus of performances Gold Treasure and White Cube, Galery Art Factory, Praha

2005
Treasure costum, Cigarette tree, Prague Biennale, Divo Institute, Kinsky Palace, Praha
performance Negativní a pozitivní roh, Zpovědnice, Galerie AVU, Praha

Group exhibitions not included in ARTLIST.: 2012
Analysis of forgiving, Cut up noir, performance, kurátorka Valentina Veil(DE), King Kong Club, Berlin(DE)
Synchrolove, Useless projekt, kurátoři Ivan Mečl a Lenka Klodová, Pavillon am Milchhof, Berlin(DE)
Golden Treasure, kurátor Mark Divo(CH), Perla Mode gallery, Zurich(CH)
Bianca and Benedictus, What a material!, kurátor Ladislav Zikmund Lender(CZ), Hoofzaak gallery, Amsterdam(NL)

2011
Shadow, videoperformance, Art in Box, Porta Blu Gallery, Roma (I)

2010
What is Czech Art?, kurátoři Petra Pětiletá(CZ) a Ivars Gravleis(LT), cultural centre IGUCIEMS, Riga (LT)
Transgression,kurátorka Gabriela Jurkovič (CZ), Videotage gallery (Honkong)
Thelematrix, performance , European Dream/ Culture knockout II.,Z- bar, Berlin(DE)
TV Engram, multimediální instalace, kurátor Venzha Christ (IND) Cellsbutton festival, Yogyacarta (Indonesia)

2009
Electricity.Obsession, performance at Cellsbutton festival, Yogyacarta (Indonesia)

2008
Spectrum of Extasy, Nahý Oběd, Městská galerie Banská Bystrica (SK)
Personal Tarot mobiles, Hotel Carleton, Cannes (FR)
HACK.Fem.EAST. Chocolaps, Kunstraum Kreutzberg, Berlin (DE)