Richard Loskot graduated in 2011 from the Visual Communication studio headed by Professor Stanislav Zippe at the Faculty of Arts and Architecture of the Technical University in Liberec, where he is now a lecturer in the Environmental Design studio. In 2007–2009, he studied at the Munich Akademie der bildenen Künste in the sculpture studio headed by Magdalena Jetelová, whose work deals with the question of space and extends into architecture. To an extent Loskot follows these principles: he is interested in change and likes to animate and transform spaces. He often uses modern technologies to refashion a “real” situation into sometimes absurd levels. His work could be characterised by expressions such as artificial intelligence, naturalness or the human environment,[1] the meanings of which he shifts to a level of ambiguity. The “human environment”, for example, refers to the artist’s work with architecture and its space, which he modifies and to which he adds a new dimension by means of various technologies (for example, sound or visual installations). His interest also turns to elements that we otherwise perceive quite naturally, without much interest, such as light or time, playing with the viewer’s attention and pointing out how these seemingly invisible details affect us. Loskot himself states that the environment is one of his fundamental themes: “I am most intensely concerned with the notion of environment. What is the environment? It seems obvious to many people, but who gets a clear answer? I dare say that neither an architect nor an artist designs a space, but always designs an environment.”[2]
Loskot is one of the founding members of the UAII group – the name refers to the book Tracy’s Tiger by William Saroyan, in which the tiger screams when it sees something beautiful and exciting. The letters also stand for art, architecture, intelligence and intervention, and the group brings together artists, technicians and architects who focus “on experimental spatial design and the treatment of complex environments”.[3] In line with the work being done in this group, Loskot attempts to improve the surrounding environment with the help of modern technology, “but also remembers to work with the simple physical world”.[4] These interventions include Noční cesta / Night Journey, where the group transformed the embankment of the Chrudimka River in the public space of Pardubice with a subtle intervention, the filtration of eaves water into drinking water from the Bethlehem Chapel in Prague, and a kind of “subjective encyclopaedia” called “Imaginations of the Environment” summarising individual entries relating to public space.
One could say that Loskot combines two worlds, the artistic and the technical. His work includes sound installations in which, for instance, he uses various simulations of biological growth (Mechanický růst / Mechanical Growth, 2007) and animal sounds, video installations depicting diverse physical and natural phenomena, as well as highly complex and technically sophisticated interactive installations that are usually crated for a specific place and time. What connects his work, leaving aside its technical background, is a certain unquestionable aesthetic value and economy.
Loskot has already won a number of awards. He has been selected for the finals of the Jindřich Chalupecký Award three times (2012, 2014 and 2017), and in 2007 he won the Exit competition organised by the Emil Filla Gallery in Ústí nad Labem. His work is frequently on display at international exhibitions (e.g. Biennale Giovany Monza, Rotor Gallery in Graz, Astrup Fearnley Museet in Oslo), and in 2013 he was one of the finalists of the Blumm Prize in Brussels.
His first works include Dýchání / Breathing (2003) and Cesta / The Journey (2005), which deal with the issue of engaged art, which is rather atypical of his later work.[5] His subsequent work is dominated by a desire to explore the world around him through an enthusiasm for technological possibilities, often with a metaphysical overlap. In 2007, he created an interactive spatial installation called System, for which he received the Exit Prize. The system in question comprised many electronic objects that were looped together, creating a closed and very compact system. He based this on “computer architecture, chaos theory and the related theory of systems (natural and social)”.[6]
Loskot’s works often impress with very subtle installations. In 2009, he created a transmitter that managed to capture conversations between control towers and pilots in planes flying over Prague’s Gallery 207. In a seemingly simple but very effective installation called Sky Europe, he extended or raised the gallery ceiling above the roof of the building itself and far into the sky.
Over the next few years, the artist’s interest in physical and astral processes, such as the movement of the sun, the changes of light during the day (Dvě Slunce / Two Suns, 2010, Asynchronizace / Asynchronisation, 2010), and the experimental creation of the universe (Podstata věcí / The Essence of Things, 2011) increased. In 2014, he created a work called Moje oko / My Eye, a fast motion projection in the Prague planetarium, where four days and nights were presented in a short moment, accompanied by a simulation of the change of space through a commotion created by Johana Švarcová. Loskot also demonstrated his fondness for the laws of physics in an exhibition at the Regional Gallery Liberec entitled Základní výzkum / Basic Research (2017), which referred to “the scientific research of the individual in society”.[7] The exhibition teetered on the edge of theoretical physics, where seemingly small objects, such as a feather flying in the air or a coin bouncing on a loudspeaker, demonstrated scientific knowledge, which the author presented as “a dialogue between the knowledge of science and lived experience”.[8]
As mentioned above, Loskot has reached the final of the Jindřich Chalupecký Award three times. The first time, in 2012, he created a sound installation called Hledej / Search, which invited participants to search for hidden sounds in the park behind the Brno House of Arts, using a small radio to create the atmosphere of the place. In 2014, during his second nomination, he created an installation at the Trade Fair Palace that was meant to unsettle observers and question whether what we observe is really what we observe. In doing so, Loskot presented the viewer with hidden sounds and images in a system of devices “that, like dominoes, move sounds, movements, images through a cycle of flow to an output that appears to be a coincidence”.[9] For his third nomination in 2017, he exhibited an installation entitled Odkazy věcí / Links of Things, which threw the viewer into a completely unnatural environment in the gallery, evoking the near future and referencing a kind of secondary nature of our artificial world.[10]
Loskot’s work is very diverse. In addition to his own artistic projects, which range from playing with physical phenomena and viewer attention in a gallery or public environment (Jednoduchá věc / Simple Thing from 2012, which he followed up with an installation for the Broumov Monastery called Světlo v obraze / Light in the Picture in 2014) via theatre productions (as the author of a light painting he collaborated on the performance Sabre in 2010 and on other art shows such as Designblok, NextWave, PAF, etc.)[11], and light and audio installations (Signal festival: Nebe na Zemi / Heaven on Earth from 2018, Působení neviditelného / The Action of the Invisible from 2010), Loskot is also behind the renovation and operation of the Hraničář Gallery and Cinema in Ústí nad Labem, and founded the Procházka pod skutečností (Walk Under Reality) gallery in the underpass, and is a very active initiator of cultural events in an effort to elevate and increase the appreciation of public space. His most recent exhibition project so far took place in the TIC gallery in Brno and consisted of eight exhibitions on the theme of the “spiral”, which ran over the course of one year. In eight steps, the artist changed the gallery environment and developed interrelated principles responding to the specific space. The theme of the spiral was evoked by the spiral staircase in the gallery, where “in this simple and unprepossessing spatial constellation he then comments on complex concepts of human perception, such as time, progress, learning, improvement or even evolution.”[12]
The effect and effectiveness of Loskot’s installations often lie in the simplicity of the physical principle, which we are not usually aware of. He gives his works a form that is not fixed, but can change based on the technologies used, which awaken a new world of their own.[13] However, technology is not the main theme of Loskot’s works. Rather, it is a vehicle for information that points to a particular problem or idea, which he then continues to evolve in our minds.
[1] Jan Vidlička, CJCH 2017 – Richard Loskot, https://artycok.tv/39694/finaliste-cjch-2017 [vyhledáno 25. 9. 2020]
[2] Nikol Vlčková, Hledá, co nás přesahuje. Umělec Richard Loskot připravuje se svými studenty instalaci do Londýna, Czech -Design, https://www.czechdesign.cz/temata-a-rubriky/hleda-co-nas-presahuje-umelec-richard-loskot-pripravuje-se-svymi-studenty-instalaci-do-londyna [vyhledáno 24. 9. 2020]
[3] Informace na facebooku skupiny https://www.facebook.com/UAIIstudio/about/?ref=page_internal [vyhledáno 25. 9. 2020]
[4] Ibidem [vyhledáno 25. 9. 2020]
[5] Barbora Šedivá, Richard Loskot, https://www.works.io/richard-loskot/texts [vyhledáno 30. 9. 2020]
[6] Eva Mrazíková – Anna Vartecká, Exit 2007 (katalog k výstavě), Teplice 2007
[7] Terezie Záchová, Richard Loskot – Základní Výzkum, https://www.ogl.cz/richard-loskot-zakladni-vyzkum [vyhledáno 30. 9. 2020]
[8] Filip Šenk, Základní výzkum ve vědě může jen chvějící se peříčko, Lidovky.cz, https://www.lidovky.cz/kultura/zakladni-vyzkum-ve-vede-muze-byt-treba-jen-chvejici-se-pericko.A170505_124631_ln_kultura_jto [vyhledáno 26. 9. 2020]
[9] Cena Jindřicha Chalupeckého Finále 2014 https://www.sjch.cz/cena-jindricha-chalupeckeho-finale-2014/ [vyhledáno 25. 9. 2020]
[10] Viz Jan Vidlička, pozn. 1.
[11] Viz Barbora Šedivá, pozn. 5.
[12] Kurátorský text výstavy, https://galerie-tic.cz/autor/richard-loskot/ [vyhledáno 30. 9. 2020]
[13] Eva Jiřička, Richard Loskot rozhovor, https://artycok.tv/8179/loskot-richard [vyhledáno 25. 9. 2020]
