Tamara Moyzes

She uses art as an instrument for the activation of society. Her case specific topics usually have political basis. She uses irony and parody to downplay her acts against neoconservative tendencies; she criticizes racism and the culture of political representation. She has been recently re-evaluating the essence of her procedures by clarifying the notions: ARTIVISM (notion, which she uses to describe her work usually created with groups that she founded: “5 Kolona” 2009, "ROMA KALE PANTHERA" 2013 (Gypsy Black Panthers), searching for the border between art and activism) and ARTPOPULI (a new project that she has been working on for the past several years).

During her studies she went through the studios of Rudolf Sikora, Jiří David, Michael Bielicky, Avi Mograbih, the Art Institute in Tel Aviv and the Academy in Jerusalem. She uses new media, most often video and performances, to communicate her messages. Her productions are straightforward, based on good quality dramaturgy of individual performances and sensitive timing.

In her work she often utilizes cooperation and her trans-cultural experiences from living with her husband Shlomi Yaffe, originally from Israel, with whom she has lived alternately in Slovakia, Israel and the Czech Republic. For example, in the video Protocol (2009) she shows a reconstruction of two parallel interviews by the Czech foreign police of them as a married couple, or in the project Redemption of Zion / Inte(g)race (2011, + Shlomi Yaffe) with a more politically developed topic, where they deal with the hypothesis of Israel’s integration into the European Union. They develop this speculation in the form of mystifying documents that verify the Israeli-European agreement or by modifying the Euro to contain Israeli motifs (accompanying text: Zuzana Štefková, youtube, 28. 4. 2011). Welcome to Prague (2008, + Shlomi Yaffe) is another project that presents the experience of “foreigners” who would like to prolong their official stay in the Czech Republic. The procedure that the visa applicants have to undergo to be able to stay in this country is simulated in an info kiosk located in the centre of Prague at Náměstí republiky square. Two “polished” moderators guide through the situation of waiting in front on the embassy. The picture is based on the contrast of a perfect TV studio and the reality of the undignified waiting conditions. The moderator gives the following friendly advice: “And please don’t bring any drinks because we don’t have any public toilets.”

She treats the questions of commonly accepted racism in the Czech Republic in the videos Miss Roma (2007) or Mamko moja / Folk Song (2007, + Shlomi Yaffe), where they recorded the singing of a choir made up of Romany students at a secondary school who were ironically taught a song with explicitly racist content against their own race.  The instructions to understanding the work of Tamara Moyzes are contained in her own conduct – which is straightforward and realizes that “Silence is Consent” (2011).

2015
„Umění a teorie post-1989 střední a východní Evropy: Kritická antologie“, MoMA.
(zahrnuje práci Tamary Moyzese „Muzeum etnologie III, 2015“)

2005
Keiko Sei, Bangkog, Thailand, 2005. 

2003
Rozhovor s J. X. Doležalem o happeningu při zahájení školního roku na AVU, Reflex, 2003.

2006
Špinavé prádlo, Umělec, 1/2006, s. 82–85.
STV - zpravodajství výstava Amnesty International, 2006
ČT2- Kosmopolis, 7min. medailon Tamary Mozyes, 2006

2005
STV- Vatkerty talk show, Provokatývne umenie, 2005

2003
ČT2- zpravodajství, Galerie Václava Špály, "281m2", 2003
 

Secondary archive: https://secondaryarchive.org/artists/tamara-moyzes/

Residency Unlimited (RU) NYC: https://residencyunlimited.org/residencies/tamara-moyzes/

Roma archive: https://www.romarchive.eu/en/collection/p/tamara-moyzes/