Katerina Vincourovŕ
DAAD Galerie, Berlin
Through July 7
In her installation Hobbyraum, Katerina
Vincourovà transforms the gallery into an enormous terrarium for humans.
As one enters the gallery space, the viewer finds him/herself inside a hermetically
sealed environment, without windows and strictly lit by artificial lighting.
Within the environment that constitutes the gigantic terrarium, the walls are
covered with plasticized wall paper on which the artist has meticulously simulated
the tracks of a trapped "human animal" who is forced to walk around in circles.
Sounds coming from the adjacent room invite the viewer to crawl into a tunnel-cave.
Between experiment and playfulness, Vincourovà
forces the public to acknowledge the physical proportions and the non human
bodily movements within a "habitat", a living environment. She creates this
environment by following the instructions from a book that guides one to build
terrariums for hamsters. The other room which can be entered through the tunnel
has no opening either: in each corner, a monitor shows "loops" in changing colors
of hamsters and guinea pigs that are constantly running in their turning-prison-wheels.
One of the recurrent themes of the Prague artist is domesticity
and diverse typologies of living spaces. While living in Berlin, Vincourovà
visited and photographed a large number of animal stores. She was particularly
interested in terrariums and aquariums as miniature environments ("habitats")
as well as specific spaces as imaginary environments.
In another room of the gallery, Vincourovà presents
the series of photographs realized in Berlin. She simulates the tridimensionality
of the reproduced terrariums and the aquariums by applying plastic covers to
the images. The physical dimension is emphasized by ventilators blowing and
swelling the covers.
The artist ironically places an enlarged index of a book
that explains how to take care of hamsters in their artificial "habitat". The
photographs show various typologies of small tanks for fish, spiders and hamsters.
They testify the imagination of those who decorate these small worlds by combining
such elements as plastic skulls, running wheels, fake caves and plants and artificial
molds in psychedelic colors.
Marina Sorbello
Translation by Holly Miller
