The Vices and Virtues of Our Time

The Virtues and Vices of Our Time/300 Years Later The provocateur, shaman, alchemist and one of the greatest eclectics of contemporary Czech art, Matyáš Chochola, once again remixes and utilizes artistic appropriation. Oftentimes reaching back into past centuries for inspiration, he now returns 300 years in the spiral of time to the iconic work of Matthias Bernard Braun and the theme of the twelve Baroque Virtues and twelve Vices at Kuks. Ever the artistic chameleon, Chochola surprises with a shift of some kind in technique, medium or subject matter in almost every presentation of his new works. And he has done it again – this time he plays with the motif and execution of allegories in unexpected material and form: he has started experimenting with 3D printing with concrete. His very first examples of parametric sculpture evoke ancient totems or menhirs, but Chochola goes even further. He seeks a contemporary equivalent to scenes that carry an inner appeal in their meaning and affect through emotion. After 300 years, he presents us with unique sculptures-mementos. ‘The sculptures were created under the direct influence of Braun’s Virtues and Vices series, which I have perceived with their suggestive Baroque atmosphere since childhood. Just as Braun created the sculptures with a team, a collective of local stonemasons, my project involves a whole team whose energy is imprinted in the sculptures,’ he says. At the time Braun created his sculptures, there were no very clear definitions of what virtues and vices each statue represented; on the contrary, the radically modern sculptures at the time were causing an uproar, breaking down prejudices and teasing the tastes of the elites of the time. They may have acquired names such as Generosity, Temperance, Chastity, Diligence, even Love and Hope, or Sloth, Deceit, Despair, Slander, but no interpretation of them has been produced. Nor do Chochola’s contemporary sculptures of the Virtues and Vices of our ambivalent, divisive and purely individualistic time have their own definition of clear archetypes. One might even say that depending on the point of view and context, vices can be virtues, and vice versa. Matyáš Chochola created twelve sculptures, a number that refers both to the ensemble of Matthias Bernard Braun and to the symbolism of the twelve, which closes cycles, our time. ‘The sculptures and their unique characters, relations and references to different historical styles, cultures or values have no clear continuity, they are incorporated freely into the sculptures. They carry both positive and negative qualities mixed in an original cocktail. In this they are similar to us humans,’ the artist notes. Matyáš Chochola leaves it up to each of us to find our individual relationship to each allegory and discover its unique cryptographic meaning. It is up to the viewer to complete the work. Of course, the sculptures have working titles: Mace I and Mace II, Windflower, Totem, Tyres, Brutalist, Cubist, Basalt, Baobab, Picasso, Spirit of a Tree and Meteor. Like Braun, Chochola from the beginning designs his sculptures for open space, installation in the landscape or urban architecture. He embarked solo on the realization of large-format land art objects, without external commission, invitation or client. ‘I felt a strong urge to go mega-scale and create works that interacted with an open environment, not primarily intended for the four walls of a gallery or interior. I gave them a year of my life and was struck by the fact that although the project had many variables, it took on a life of its own. I activated an energy that could no longer be stopped; it found its own way. Which also gave me peace of mind because I knew I had done quality work, even without an institutional anchor. Investors also had great faith in the project.’ In EPO1, then, the Virtues and Vices of Our Time is only a temporary suggestive installation; the statues were not conceived primarily for exhibition purposes. The final site for the twelve sculptural objects has yet to be found. The expressive form of the dozen sculptural verticals does not stop at 3D printing. While this technology gives specific geometric and organic shapes a distinctive expressive shortcut, each of the sculptures is complemented by manual intervention, paint or components made of other materials, such as glass. In this, too, a parallel can be found with the works of Matthias Braun at Kuks, as these were at the time of their creation in the early 18th century coloured with polychrome paints. Colour contributed to a greater impact at that time, and natural pigments play the same role in Chochola’s current project. 3D printing was only a semi-finished product. According to the character of the sculptures, the artist varied the final design and processing, the texture of the surfaces, from minimalist gestures to maximalist coverage with glass shards. Manual intervention is essential – it gives artistic meaning to the printed mass. Without these individual touches, the set would be a formal exercise in 3D printing. Chochola also relativized 3D printing itself and tested its limits. He tried to shape the material beyond the classic angles, using ceramsite sprinkling during printing. All of the sculptures were printed from several segments, but there is also a combination of printing in horizontal and vertical layers, so that the subsequent tectonics of the object is much more refined. The artist also infused the material with coloured concrete and glass, which he and his collaborators then ground and polished, sometimes adding resin to achieve a mirror-like sheen, other times not applying any at all. At the same time, he and the experts on the Voxell team experimented with several other printing options such as nonplanar printing, where layers are stacked diagonally, or algorithms that introduce an element of chance into the print trace, so that the resulting texture is much more organic. In his work, Matyáš Chochola, like Matthias Braun, often balances between irony and seriousness, between provocation and deep symbolic meaning. However, Chochola’s new project can also be compared with contemporary foreign artistic production. It seems even significant that artists who have committed themselves to working with 3D printing are very often engaged in reinterpreting mythological themes. Anish Kapoor, Damien Hirst, Thomas Demand and Daniel Arsham all, like Chochola, use modern technology to create works that evoke mysterious and timeless symbols, quoting icons from ancient cultures, exploring memory and creating modern archaeology. Matyáš Chochola and his futuristic reinterpretation of allegories exposing the negative and positive nature of humanity holds up a mirror to our time, which is undergoing tumultuous changes and is searching for new forms of expression and new icons. Danica Kovářová, Exhibition curator