Podpořte našeho jarního rezidenta! Please donate our spring residency artist!

Tom Pazderka on Kickstarter:

Help me fund a residency in Prague! 20 years ago I left the Czech Republic for the US. This year, I’m going back.

In 1994, when I was 12 years old I left the Czech Republic and moved to the US. This year, it is exactly 20 years since I left. A lot has happened since that time, here and there. For the month of April, I have been offered a residency at the Trafacka Studios in Prague, Czech Republic with a two week show in May at the end of the residency. I am really excited to go back to live, even for a short while, in the country that I still call home and make new work inside the Prague studio. When I left home, I left a large part of myself there, a part which I may or may never recover, and eventually adopted a new, American part. These two sides constantly push and pull on each other in a never ending tug of war, one which pushes me to drive toward the new American future and the other which pushes me to rediscover my Czech past, because they are equally represented in me.

I make work that is challenging, visually and conceptually. Materials and process are components of the work that are as important as the image and what the work is about. Hidden and suppressed history, power relations and cultural critique are a few of the subjects that I explore in my work. Each piece is also a dialogue between contemporary art and philosophy.

I plan on making drawings based on historical events of the past 20 years that occurred either in the US or in the Czech Republic, anything from Czech joining the EU, the Czechtek debacle, or Oklahoma City bombing. I am not sure what will make the cut, but I am sure that it will be a great and strange ride. I plan to make these drawings on book paper that is assembled in a grid, burned and then drawn upon. The books themselves will also have some historical or cultural significance to both countries (I am thinking of the 9/11 Commission Report, or of the English translation of “The Good Soldier Svejk”, a classic Czech novel).

With your help, this personal dream of mine will come true. Help me make the trip and the work. For further references visit these links

http://tompazderka.com/home.html

Thank you and with gratitute

Tom P

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1170852527/czech-out-a-prague-spring-residency