Magdalena Jetelová
Location
Artist
Magdalena Jetelová
(1946, Semily), Czech
Original Title
Location
Date2017
Mediumlightbox, japanese pigment ink print, Röhm Plexiglas Optical HC, plexiglass, black aluminum frame
Dimensions150 × 200 cm
Classificationslight art
Credit LineKunsthalle Praha
DescriptionMagdalena Jetelová is an internationally renowned artist of Czech origin who has predominantly lived in Germany since emigrating in 1985. Her often ephemeral, unstable, monumental projects combine element of land art and object; they work with space, which Jetelová approaches both as a physical and a mental entity. These artworks address societal problems, which are visualized using natural substances such as water, fire, smoke, and ashes. An important dimension of her work is experimenting with linguistics, lasers, computer technologies, and findings from the natural sciences. Jetelová’s early work, still created while she was living in totalitarian Czechoslovakia, conveyed a critical commentary on the communist political system. At the time, she was forced to situate these projects outside of classical gallery spaces, in urban space or in nature, which helped her develop a talent for understanding disciplinary overlaps and working with the landscape in a holistic manner. Her iconic works from this period include monumental wood sculptures of chairs and stairs, thematizing the motif of absurdity. A prominent motif in Jetelová’s work during this time was red signalling smoke, which she incorporated into her performances as a symbol of the red marking of states under the Soviet sphere of influence. A highly critical subtext also underpinned an unrealized project on the boundary of architecture and land art, prepared by Jetelová for Prague’s South City, which was meant to form a counterpart to the problematic architecture of the neighbourhood’s socialist housing estates. Since emigrating to Germany in 1985, Jetelová has primarily focused on global social and environmental issues. Her interactive projects incorporate light and acoustics, exploring mnemonic landscapes and spotlighting irreversible human-made environmental changes.
These lightbox photographs are the output of Jetelová’s project Fire Ring (2019), which examines the topic of natural, geological borders, drawing on a previous project which she realized in Iceland in 1992. The photographs document the barren landscape of the South American region of Patagonia, capturing the meeting of ocean and land in a region belonging to the Pacific Ring of Fire—a belt of volcanically and tectonically active land, formed by the movement and collision of tectonic plates, which surrounds the Pacific Ocean. Using a laser beam, Jetelová demonstrates the movement of tectonic plates and visualizes the drastic geological transformations taking place as a result of climate change. The installation further incorporates messages such as “Essential is visible”, lasered onto the crumbling icebergs. These momentous environmental transformations are illustrated by visually neat, large-format photographs, with their meticulous lighting and black-and-white aesthetic portraying remarkable instances of inevitable environmental destruction.
Magdalena Jetelová (born 1946, Semily) was born into a Czech-German family and spent her youth in Prague. From 1965 to 1971, she studied sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague and, due to the loosening of the regime’s political control during the 1960s, was able to spend two semesters abroad at the Academia di Brera in Milano, where she studied under Marino Marini, a leading figure of the Italian arte povera movement. After returning to Czechoslovakia, Jetelová took part in the unofficial exhibition events such as Lesser Town Courtyards in Prague (1981) and Chmelnice in Mutějovice (1983). In 1983, she announced herself on the international art scene as the only artist from the Eastern Bloc whose work featured in the exhibition New Art at the Tate Gallery in London. Shortly before her emigration to Germany in 1985, she exhibited at the Project Room of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. From 1990 to 2004, she taught at the Staatliche Kunstakademie in Düsseldorf and subsequently, from 2004 to 2011, at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Muncih. Jetelová has received several awards, including the Lovis Corinthe Prize (2006), the Jill Watson Prize, Pittsburgh (1999), and the Prize of the Philip Morris Dimension V Competition (1985). Since the mid-1980s, her work has featured in numerous international institutions and exhibitions, such as the Tate in London, the Biennale of Sydney, and documenta 8, as well as in solo exhibitions at the Riverside Studios in London and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Her work is held in the collections of institutions such as the Kunsthalle Hamburg, the Hamburg, Ludwig Forum für Internationale Kunst in Aachen, the Museum für Angewandte Kunst in Vienna, the Vulpinum Kunstsammlung in Vienna, the Henry Moore Foundation in Leeds, the ZKM in Karlsruhe, the Musée National d’Art Moderne – Centre Pompidou in Paris, the National Gallery Prague, and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington D.C.
These lightbox photographs are the output of Jetelová’s project Fire Ring (2019), which examines the topic of natural, geological borders, drawing on a previous project which she realized in Iceland in 1992. The photographs document the barren landscape of the South American region of Patagonia, capturing the meeting of ocean and land in a region belonging to the Pacific Ring of Fire—a belt of volcanically and tectonically active land, formed by the movement and collision of tectonic plates, which surrounds the Pacific Ocean. Using a laser beam, Jetelová demonstrates the movement of tectonic plates and visualizes the drastic geological transformations taking place as a result of climate change. The installation further incorporates messages such as “Essential is visible”, lasered onto the crumbling icebergs. These momentous environmental transformations are illustrated by visually neat, large-format photographs, with their meticulous lighting and black-and-white aesthetic portraying remarkable instances of inevitable environmental destruction.
Magdalena Jetelová (born 1946, Semily) was born into a Czech-German family and spent her youth in Prague. From 1965 to 1971, she studied sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague and, due to the loosening of the regime’s political control during the 1960s, was able to spend two semesters abroad at the Academia di Brera in Milano, where she studied under Marino Marini, a leading figure of the Italian arte povera movement. After returning to Czechoslovakia, Jetelová took part in the unofficial exhibition events such as Lesser Town Courtyards in Prague (1981) and Chmelnice in Mutějovice (1983). In 1983, she announced herself on the international art scene as the only artist from the Eastern Bloc whose work featured in the exhibition New Art at the Tate Gallery in London. Shortly before her emigration to Germany in 1985, she exhibited at the Project Room of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. From 1990 to 2004, she taught at the Staatliche Kunstakademie in Düsseldorf and subsequently, from 2004 to 2011, at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Muncih. Jetelová has received several awards, including the Lovis Corinthe Prize (2006), the Jill Watson Prize, Pittsburgh (1999), and the Prize of the Philip Morris Dimension V Competition (1985). Since the mid-1980s, her work has featured in numerous international institutions and exhibitions, such as the Tate in London, the Biennale of Sydney, and documenta 8, as well as in solo exhibitions at the Riverside Studios in London and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Her work is held in the collections of institutions such as the Kunsthalle Hamburg, the Hamburg, Ludwig Forum für Internationale Kunst in Aachen, the Museum für Angewandte Kunst in Vienna, the Vulpinum Kunstsammlung in Vienna, the Henry Moore Foundation in Leeds, the ZKM in Karlsruhe, the Musée National d’Art Moderne – Centre Pompidou in Paris, the National Gallery Prague, and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington D.C.
