Tereza Fišerová

When describing the work of Tereza Fišerová one cannot speak about only one media or topic. Rather, we can say that she works in an intuitive tempo based on personal experiences, which she shares with the viewer in various forms.

Tereza Fišerová studied in Adéla Matasová’s Studio of Three-dimensional Production in Plzen for three years, which helped her work on her own topics and work techniques. She then transferred to Prague to the Studio of Supermedia to complete her Master’s Degree, where she was greatly influenced by teacher Federic Díaz. This change of schools is only slightly perceptible in the artist’s work. From the very beginning two streams can be detected in her work – one dealing with the actual media, which she uses (primarily video), and the second works with the relationship of an active participant of the artistic event, space and object. The actor here is either the artist herself (at a moment when she tests her own limits), or the visitor of the gallery (whom Fišerová exposes to various situations). We can find several works in her production that either directly reflect or require the relationship of the participant. This is illustrated, for example, on the interactive object Overalls (2012), which one can enter and hide in with the help of a simple mechanism. At that moment the artwork becomes complete but since the visitor is inside it, he/she cannot see the final image. Tereza Fišerová is working here with a metaphoric commentary to the perception of art and playfulness between the artwork and the actor whose relationship is closely dependent on one another. Similarly this applies to the object Co vidíš ty, já nevidím (What You See, I Don’t See) (2012) where he visitor pulls out four black cloth walls around him/herself.

Tereza Fišerová worked with her own physical body already with her first school project in Plzen when she created a tin can, which she closed herself in. The viewers were able to observe the action inside the objects through live video and at the same time the artist resounded the cube by moving inside. She worked with video and performance also later in her works Vystoupení (Performance) (2010), Neruš mé kruhy (Don’t Disturb My Circles) (2012) and |AB| |BC| |AC| - Fyzikální roviny subjektivních vztahů (Physical Planes of Subjective Relationships) (2013). In the last situation mentioned, she made the position of the visitor uncertain when she exhibited a projection capturing the artist holding a pole with a camera on one end and a projector on the other end opposite a mirror. The viewer was limited to only one angle of view offered by the position of the camera, which was located in the same spot where the viewer was then standing. His/her role in space is strictly dictated according to what is being captured. At the same time the visitor realizes this fact much more intensely than is common with ordinary films because he/she physically finds him/herself in the same spot visible on the video. The entire installation treats the relationships between the artist herself (A), who is present in the video filmed by the instrument, which creates the projection (B) and the position of the viewer (C). In her video Don’t Disturb My Circles Tereza Fišerová sets in motion an object from steel-wire ropes, which when spun creates a fast rotating and dangerous sphere. The foundation here was the technical possibility to create an interactive object, which reacts to the human voice, as well as the conception of the object, which in its final form represents a spherical object, which, however, every time lasts only for a certain moment until it is still in motion.

 In each of the mentioned artworks an important role is played by the actual medium of video, which locates the viewer. Tereza Fišerová’s works do not only treat the mere awareness of one’s position within a certain relationship or institution, the participant is simultaneously encouraged to experience a situation that will change his/her perception of perspective. A good example of this approach is the exhibition Parallel Universe, which Fišerová prepared for the Start up project organised by the City Gallery Prague. This consisted of one room where the viewer could look through a partially glass door into a short hallway at the end of which was a mirror. The visitor first experienced a moment of surprise from seeing his/her image in the mirror which was followed by a feeling of estrangement resulting from the interfusion of the roles of the subject and the object. Tereza Fišerová’s work should be perceived precisely through this second (modernistic) discourse, which works with the actual position of the viewer and so much with his/her self-identification as is common for classical art.

Ever since Tereza Fišerová studied with Evžen Šimera in the Studio of Supermedia, she has been working with him and they prepared several exhibitions together. One of these was the exhibition Pozice (Positions) for the Gallery UM (2014) for which they made a serious of minimalistic objects that actively worked with the motions of the visitors. Perception of the space and of the actual artwork is a topic that penetrates all joint exhibitions of Tereza and Evžen. They put an installation in the Gallery Kostka that consisted of three cubical speakers and a projection that captured a quasi-constructivist object. Female voices were coming out of the three blocks describing the object according to a subjective way of perception. One voice spoke about a man’s face, second about a large mountain and the third about a garden bench.

The work of Tereza Fišerová does not lack fine humour especially when she works with “big” topics such as the expansion of the universe or the passing of time. On the one hand her artworks appear to be very poetic but when examined more closely the artist’s effort to provide the viewer with her vision of the world is revealed. Her media includes mostly simple materials which she puts together into primary forms in order for her to negate their inner structure, which would distract the viewer’s attention.

Starpoint Prize 2013 (katalog výstavy) 7. Zlínský salon mladých 2015 (katalog výstavy)

Artyčok.tv: Táborová hra / Entrance Gallery Praha / 8. 11. 2014 Dostupné z: artycok.tv/lang/cs-cz/26446/taborova-hracamp-game Artyčok.tv: Pozice / Galerie UM Praha / 16. 10. 2014 Dostupné z: artycok.tv/lang/cs-cz/26329/poziceposition Artyčok.tv: PLESO / Galerie Meetfactory / 21. 7. 2011 Dostupné z: artycok.tv/lang/cs-cz/7914/pleso Česká televize: Mladý talent, Artmix, březen 2011 Dostupné z: www.ceskatelevize.cz/porady/10123096165-artmix/212562229000003/