Ivan Kafka

Seeks a new identity for artefacts, one that is static but yet has potential for movement at the same time, personalised minimalist resources, lyricism but yet a non-sentimental substance.

The ability to ask timely questions about contemporary society’s relationship to nature, on personal freedom and obligations to society, a strong feeling for the creativity of cultural and geographic differences. This is how we could generally characterise the creations of Ivan Kafka. For his type he is unique but still open to a wide spectrum of interpretation. He can engage the viewer with a simple, universally understandable language – without verbose packaging, encrypted symbols, or additional explanations. Of himself he has, for a long time now, had a fixed spot in the Czech and international creative (art) scenes.

Kafka tends mostly to express himself through big installations in the countryside. He uses them to take basically utilitarian objects and introduce them in new relationships to natural happenings (i.e. the long-term project, Room for Freedom (and also Despair) / Prostor volnosti (i skleslosti) – a modified compositional set of windsocks in various parts of Europe. He is also interested in exploring the possibilities of closed, architecturally-fixed, determined space (i.e. the interior set up of ping-pong balls, battle-axes, darts, or the arms on watches that run their cycle, but do not show the time, or installations hung at precisely-defined levels from pieces of white cotton, which is an artificial transfiguration of a cloudy sky, Darkened Light).

He similarly understands the challenge of municipal bodies (i.e. Boundaries (Limitations) on Jánský vršek in Prague / Vymezení na Jánském vršku v Praze, Joyous Alarm in London and Munich / Výstraha z radosti v Londyně a Mnichově). Kafka reassesses given space to provide it a new order and through this a new purpose. He uses multiple resources which themselves have their own potential and reflect a completely different function from their original ones.

Each Kafka work is integral in its sense of unity both general and private. It is however primarily the private role that directs Kafka’s creativity. In large public installations it is there for its potential and without superfluous proclamations. However, from time to time Kafka has a need to focus exclusively on it (creativity). This concerns an in-depth research on problems that demand greater attention and focused contemplation on the paradox of the relationship between natural and artificial, public and private. In these moments Kafka chooses to use a smaller format. These are a certain type of space commentary (sketches, Plexiglas cubes), which have the same meaning for him as do larger installations. Kafka’s realisations are based on a firmly-set concept, whose important component is a clearly-formulated idea. At times it may be expressed in the title, which also becomes a fundamental part of the artistic work. Similarly it has a minimalist aesthetic, preferring rather the traditional.

2012

Ivan Kafka: Míra snesitelnosti 2009-2012

▪ Janina Ojrzyńska: v: Ivan Kafka. Objekt, fotografie, serigrafie, Galerie LTF, Lodž 1979, katalog

▪ František Šmejkal: Návraty k přírodě, 1982. v: In memoriam Albert Kutal. Praha 1984

▪ Jindřich Chalupecký: The lessons of Prague, v: Studio International, vol. 196, NR. 1003,Londýn 1982

▪ Josef Hlaváček, František Šmejkal, Ivan Kafka, v: Ivan Kafka. Ústav makromolekulární chemie, Petřiny, Praha 1985, katalog

▪ Zdeňka Gabalová: Peripeties of Czechoslovakia’s Art, v: Dialogue / Prag / Los Angeles, Santa Monica Museum of Art, LA 1990, katalog

▪ Hana Rousová: Skeptisch. Eine Positionsbestimmung der aktuellen Kunst in Prag, v: Aktuell 91, Lothringer Strasse 13 Mnichov 1991, katalog

▪ Jana und Jiří Ševčík, Ivan Kafka, v: Kunst Europa. Kunstverein, Braunschweig, 1991, katalog

▪ Josef Hlaváček, Ivan Kafka, s. 68 - 73, 1982. Promluva, s. 101 - 103, 1986., v: Výpovědi umění, nakladatelství Ústí nad Labem 1991 /

▪ Josef Hlaváček, s. 61 - 65 / 256 - 260, v: Hlaváček, nakladatelství Artefact, Praha 1999

▪ Karel Srp: Některé realizace Ivana Kafky. v: Ivan Kafka. Galerie hlavního města Prahy, Praha 1992, katalog

▪ Hana Rousová: Temné světlo, Ivan Kafka, v: ZUR.ZEIT, Kunst.Halle.Krems 1993, katalog

▪ Josef Hlaváček: Nálehavost přítomnosti v díle Ivana Kafky, v: Výtvarné umění, s. 52 - 63, 5 - 6, 1993. Praha 1993

▪ Pavel Liška: Im Bann der Vergangenheit. Zur Lage der Kunst in Prag. v: neue bildende kunst, 2 / 1994, Berlín 1994

▪ Ludvík Hlaváček: Art as Message: Greetings from Prague v: 22. Bienal International de Sao Paulo 1994, katalog

▪ Jiří Švestka: Ivan Kafka. v: Der Riss im Raum, Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlín 1994, katalog

▪ Jeff Crane: Ivan Kafka. Galerie Nová síň, v: Artforum, February 1996, New York 1996

▪ Josef Hlaváček: Příběhy (díla) I. K., v: Ivan Kafka. Galerie výtvarného umění

Litoměřice 1997, katalog

▪ Olga Malá: Ivan Kafka, v: La Biennale de Venezia 1997, XLVII Esposizione Internazionale d’Arte, Benátky 1997, katalog

▪ Alfred Nemeczek: Biennale 1997. Ein Lied vom Tod in Venedig, v: art, Das Kunstmagazin, NR 8, August 1997, Hamburg 1997, v: Kunstforum: Biennale Venedig. Bd. 138, September-November 1997, s. 454

▪ Simona Mehnert:, v: Ivan Kafka, Zwischen System und Intuition, Gestaltung in komplexen Zusammenhängen, ifa- Galerie, Berlín 1998, katalog

▪ Monika Leisch-Kiesl, Johanna Schwanberg : Ivan Kafka: „Ostrov“ volnosti (i skleslosti), v: Nexus, Künstlerische Interventionen im Stadtraum s. 122 - 129,

Springer-Verlag Wien New York, Vídeň 1999

▪ Regina Lange : Ivan Kafka / Tab. 88 / s.192, v: Das fünfte Element - Geld oder Kunst , Kunsthalle Düsseldorf 2000 (K)

▪ Ursula Zeller: Ivan Kafka, Neuchopitelná rovina, v: Werkstatt Europa, s. 70 - 85, Forum Kunst Rottweil 2000, katalog

▪ Olga Malá : v: Milano Europa 2000, s. 150 - 151, Electa, Milano 2001, katalog

▪ Karel Srp, :Prostory, místa, věci, v: Dějiny umění / 12 (José Pijoan). s. 56, Euromedia - Knižní klub a Balios. Praha 2002

▪ Jiří Valoch: Národní chrčení do prázdna, v: Ateliér, s. 4, 19 / 2003. Praha 2003

▪ Lenka Lindaurová,: Ivan Kafka - rozhovor, v: Art & Antiques, s. 52 - 63, červen 2006. Praha 2006