Accessibility note no 4
Gallery of Academy of Fine Arts in Prague
February 25th – March 21st, 2019
Curator: Magdalena Jadwiga Härtelova
Photos by Radek Dětinský, Dávid Brna
multimedia installation, collaborative practice
February 25th – March 21st, 2019
Curator: Magdalena Jadwiga Härtelova
Photos by Radek Dětinský, Dávid Brna
multimedia installation, collaborative practice









In the gallery, Brna created an acutely material and, at first,
unsettling environment. Indeed, the How to Talk to Your Body
installation is about unease – of watching yourself, of witnessing one’s
own mind and body, of being seen by others in a society that still
values normality and attempts to shape individuals by comparing.
Figuratively and literally, Brna uses the slogan-like language of
neo-liberal Internet. Through it, he comments on the contemporary
discourse around mental health and neurospecificity, especially as it
manifests on popular online platforms. Undoubtedly, the openness of the
internet has contributed to de-stigmatization of mental illness in
significant ways. However, in the same gesture, the content presented
online most visibly often times banalizes neurospecificity, mixing up
anxiety over job interviews with psychiatrically diagnosed, paralyzing,
anxiety attacks. Browsing through this complex and ambiguous space that
provides resources and platforms for discussion but also normalizes,
excludes and is always, always, hyper self-observing, Brna looks at the
moment of diagnosis. Doing so, by a parallel, his exhibition project at
GAVU draws connection between the mechanism of diagnosing and
institutionalization of art.
On one hand the liberal discourse around mental health democratized
access to information on neurospecificity. Doing so, it challenged many
of the stigma of the past around mental illness and made more widely
available some resources, such as self-help tools. On the other hand, as
we said, the popularity-focused content creating of the internet age
banalizes many complex issues. The wide-spread self-diagnosis, often
presented as a type of entertainment, may make it seem like there is no
need for devising real strategies of inclusion for neurospecific people.
Similarly, most art institutions have adopted the buzz words taken from
feminism, post-colonialism, queer theory and other philosophies working
towards radical change in inclusion, representation and power
hierarchies. However, material changes are still sparse and practical
implementations of the proclaimed values are mostly oriented towards
those already included in/around institutions. One example for all is
the exploitation of neurospecific people by the Art Market in what has
been the trend of Art Brut. Brna’s exhibition project doesn’t resort to a
gestural or mocking commentary on the situation. He belongs to the new
generation of artists that can include humor in their vocabulary but are
post-irony. He acknowledges the weight of his and others stake in the
matter, acts in practical ways, share. He decided to have a, at the
academy quite unprecedented, Get-Together about what is on his mind.