The First and the Last Things
City gallery Prague, Colloredo-Mansfeld Palace
Curated by Sandra Baborovska
The title of Adam Vačkář's solo exhibition presented in the framework of the Intervention in the 17th century Colloredo-Mansfeld Palace paraphrases the eponymous book by H. G. Wells, and accordingly pursues the subject of a spiritually decaying society and the consequences of material overproduction. Vačkář returns to the iconographically established genre of “nature morte” which mainly became widespread in the 17th century. Vačkářʼs photographs of withering and artificial flowers, combined with fresh ones without offering a first-sight distinction between them. Adam Vačkář used the spacious ballroom of the palace for installation with ambient minimalist music and a display of musical scores, where the “notes” were executed by pistol shots. Installation entitled Water Management with glass bottles brings together on sterile white sperposed tables water from different sources - rain water, river water and source water. A metafor of natural water being turned into a comodity. It's all a Swindle is an installation with one dollar notes, the leading thread of the exhibition, where finally all aspects become reduced to financial value. This object represents fractals, mathematical theory for predicting future, used for banking systems and market prediction.
