Karel Koplimets’ personal exhibition in Kanal gallery at first glance takes us to an artificial urban space, which observes our daily (precisely: nightly) surroundings, this time focusing on light pollution, machines and the relationships between them and humans.
Exhibition “The Unbearable Brightness of Artificial Light In the Nocturnal Urban Darkness” consists of two artworks: “Untitled” (2021) and “ Your Order Is on Its Way” (2021). Also, this is their premiere in Estonia.
Video work “ Your Order Is on Its Way” is a dance video, in which a bicycle courier and a parcel robot meet. This artwork studies the relationship between humans and machines in a new robotisation age and at the same time, asking, if humans and machines can coexist or has it changed the current definition of work.
While an intricate machine dances in the video, whose inner operation is quite hard to understand for an ordinary person, the work “Untitled” is showing lightboxes with laser cut openings in their front sides, so “machines”, whose mechanisms are quite simple. The work refers to oversaturation of ads and light pollution in cities and hints at the (commercial) history of lightboxes and their wide usage in photo art.
Exhibition will be open until the 22nd of October.
Karel Koplimets (1986) is a photographer, video and installation artist, working with notions like urban space, fear, paranoia, prejudice and criminality. In his latest projects, Koplimets explores travelling and migration caused by economic and geopolitical realities, expressed in phenomena like shopping tourism and commuting. One of the most notable traits of Koplimets’ work is the psychological aspect – his large scale installations influence the viewers’ sense of space.
Karel Koplimets has studied photography in the Estonian Academy of Art (BA, 2009; MA, 2013). In 2007 and 2008 he studied in Prague at FAMU (with Viktor Kolař). He has participated in a group exhibition at the Riga International Biennial of Contemporary Art (2018) and has been nominated for the Köler Prize (2013). His works belong to the collections of Kumu Art Museum, Tartu Art Museum, Kiasma, Contemporary Art Museum, Estonia, and Musée de l’Elysée (Switzerland). In 2019 he was awarded the Eerik Haamer Art Prize. Karel Koplimets is one of the laureates for the artist’s salary 2020–2022.
Graphic designer: Henri Kutsar.
Supporters: Estonian Cultural Endowment, Võru City, Taevas Guesthouse.
Thanks: Tartu Art Museum, Kaisa Maasik, Starship Technologies, Tanel Asmer, Indrek Kits, Mari Škerin, Jaan Škerin, Henri Kutsar, Verner Teder.
KANAL GALLERY
Liiva 11a, Võru city, Estonia
Mon–Sat 12–18
www.liivaate.ee
Photography: Karel Koplimets
