Foto: Nationalgalerie Prag
National Gallery Prague
—
Jitka Hanzlová
Silences
The exhibition is the very first comprehensive presentation of Hanzlová’s work in her native country, covering three decades of her artistic practice and including a new series of photographs, conceived especially for the exhibition in the National Gallery Prague.
“The path that I take is a path back to look into the future”, thus Jitka Hanzlová explains her artistic pursuit and the way she perceives time and history. Born 1958 in Náchod and raised in Rokytnik in Eastern Bohemia (former Czechoslovakia), Hanzlová left her native country in 1982 for Essen, Germany where she studied photography at the visual communication department of the University of Essen. Developed in between two different cultures and political systems, her photographic *oeuvre,* at once truthful and poetic*,* reflects the recent historical transformations and elaborates an identity formation of a future emancipated subject in a post-Cold War world.
From *Rokytnik*, 1990–94 (a memory trace, time capsule) towards *Water*, 2013–2019 (a source and flow, the praise of life), through *Bewohner*, 1994–1996 (a testimony, an evidence of presence) and *Vanitas*, 2008–2012 (passing of time and disappearance), Hanzlová’s alchemy of silence labors the world of critical intimacy which foregrounds the subject matter’s social, cultural and political sense of belonging. Jitka Hanzlová’s *oeuvre* carries a silence; each image seems a vehicle of silence. It delivers a stillness; not the stillness of the photographic medium though as Hanzlová’s pictures are moments set in motion; we trace them, follow them, step by step, frame by frame, location by location. From one person to another, a collection of faces and gestures unfolds in an almost cinematic sequence of gazes in suspense and bodies in freeze. Eyes confronting eyes, quietly, in expectation. Silence appears always in plural, silence with a companion of silence in a looped sequence of absence and presence. *There are abysses of silence within me,* Hanzlová follows Clarice Lispector’s character in formation, *Silence isn’t the void, it’s the completeness*. Her silences are allies, amplifiers, as images pulsate and breathe, whispering the silence, mirroring it endlessly; these are images to be listened to, repeatedly, over and over again. *Rokytnik* is the artist’s silent dialogue with the place she comes from and belongs to while *Bewohner* confronts the difference of a new life to come. Solitude and a willingness to coexist, nostalgia and the allure of an unknown place balance one another in symbiosis and peace. *Tonga* (1993) and *Brixton* (2002) capture the Other through the lens of the Other. *Female* (1997–2000) continues the artist’s portrayal of vulnerability, exposed but not unveiled, in search of emancipation and self-empowerment. Hanzlová’s frames are relational, within them and in-between them; they construct an architecture of exchange, an uninterrupted passage, granting a mutual immersion of the portrayed one and the background, as well as of the one following the other in a cycle of photographic gestures and appearances. *Hier* (1998–2010) maps the layers of identity in a psychological vertigo of sites and personages, seasons and geographies. Difference and repetition, a role’s rehearsal, testimonies of presence – such is Hanzlová’s incessant pursuit of a personal biography in a new world. *Forest* (2000–2005) is a landscape of stillness, the nature’s mystery, its silent self. Nocturnal images simultaneously conceal and reveal, keeping the suspense of an uncanny reverie. Everything is nature in Hanzlová’s ocean of tranquillity; a human being, a flower, a horse, an open field, an urban site, a fish. But also - a memory, a history, time and the present are a nature-like, nature conditioned and liaised, in a silent conspiracy, unavoidably. *Horse* (2007–14) is a celebration of nature; a pictorial laboratory of intimacy, the utmost poetic delirium of an adored subject matter. *Vanitas* and *There Is Something I Don’t Know* (2000–2012) are the portraits of timelessness and immortality. Silence is Hanzlová’s rite of passage. It fills up the frame as we gaze down the abyss of time, reflecting the ephemerality and recurrence. Master narratives of life and death frame Hanzlová’s discourse of silence, and the passing of time. Her most recent series, *Water* crowns this pursuit, expanding it towards both the abstract territories of representation and the topical concern regarding the human condition. Perceived in the context of her entire *oeuvre* to date, *Water* is a climax and a symbolic closure of a journey towards the understanding of the essence of nature, human and non-human: a cloud as a part of the visible world, this ambiguous, elusive and ephemeral anti-matter, an ever-changing mirror, that reflects da Vincian “universal liaison” and “the mixture and ceaseless permutation of the elements” that – perhaps, silently, as a recapitulation – make us comprehend *why this* – no other – *world* is our habitat and stream of life.
The exhibition *Jitka Hanzlová. Silences* is the first substantial survey of the artist’s work in her native country and it covers over three decades of Hanzlová’s prolific career.
According to the architect of the exhibition, Pavla Melková, “the main motive of the exhibition’s architectural design is a symbolism of a journey. The visitor walks between the stations on the way – between the individual cycles of the artist’s photographs -, and thus he/she is permanently in a situation “between” – on the border between two worlds, two times, inside – outside. *„Between is probably the most important word for my work“,* underlines Jitka Hanzlová.
Jitka Hanzlová lives and works in Essen. In 1993 she was awarded the Dr. Otto-Steinert-Preis by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Photographie, in 1995 she received the DG BANK Frankfurt scholarship, in 2003 the Grand Prix Arles, and in 2007 the Paris Photo Prize for Contemporary Photography. She was twice nominee for The Citibank Photography Prize in London. Hanzlová has presented her work at collective exhibitions all over the world; her noteworthy solo exhibitions include those at the Kunstverein in Frankfurt, at Deichtorhallen in Hamburg, at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, at Fotomuseum Winterthur, at Museum Folkwang in Essen, at Fundación MAPFRE in Madrid and at the National Gallery in Edinburgh. In 2005, she was invited as a visiting professor to the Akademie der Künste in Hamburg, where she stayed until 2007. In 2012, she was invited by the ZhdK in Zürich, and lectured here until 2016.
The exhibition is accompanied by a book *Jitka Hanzlová. Silences* with the essays by Adam Budak and Urs Stahel, a conversation between Jitka Hanzlová and Zdenek Felix and a rich visual material.
Curator: Adam Budak
Biografie
geboren 1958, lebt und arbeitet in Essen
Ausgewählte Einzelausstellungen
2023
Water that dreams, Yancey Richardson Gallery, New York, NY
2022
UN'INVINCIBLE ESTATE - DOORWAY, Fotografia Europea Palazzo da Mosto, Reggio Emilia
D R I F T, Jitka Hanzlová | Marianne Mueller, Georg Kargl Fine Arts, Wien
WHEN THE WELL'S DRY with Jürgen Drescher, Mai 36 Gallery, Zürich
SHAPES OF WATER, F2 Galeria, Madrid
2021
Architectures of Life, Galeria Raffaella Cortese, Milano
Sheroes of Photography Part III: Jitka Hanzlová, KICKEN, Berlin
2020
Jitka Hanzlová: WATER, Galerie Peter Sillem, Frankfurt am Main
Mai 36 Galerie, Zürich
2019
Jitka Hanzlová, kanalidarte, Brescia
SILENCES / Tisiny, Národi Galerie Prague, Trade Fair Palace, Prag
2018
BETWEEN CONTINUUM. Fotografische und filmische Arbeiten seit 1990, Städtische Galerie Wolfsburg, Museum für Photographie Braunschweig, Wolfsburg
2017
Forest, Yancey Richardson Gallery, New York
2016
Horse, Jiri Svestka Gallery, Prag
2015
One to one, Yancey Richardson, New York
2014
Georg Kargl Fine Arts, Wien
2013
FOTOGRAFÍAS, Centro de Cultura Antiguo Instituto, Gijón
Mai 36 Galerie, Zürich
2012
Fundación Mapfre, Instituto de Cultura, Madrid
Jitka Hanzlová, Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh
There is something I don’t know, Galleria Raffaella Cortese, Mailand
There is something I don’t know, Yancey Richardson Gallery, New York
2010
Hier, Kicken Berlin, Berlin
2008
forest 2000-2005, KUB – Kunsthaus Bregenz, Bregenz
2007
Denn Bleiben ist nirgends, Kicken Berlin, Berlin
birds opening, Kunsthaus Hamburg
ZEIT LOS, FO.KU.S. Foto Kunst Stadtforum, Innsbruck
bewohner, Art Foyer DZ Bank, Frankfurt
2006
Forest, Georg Kargl Fine Arts, Wien
Forest, Galeria Raffaella Cortese, Mailand
Galerie Edition 20.21 Kunsthandel, Essen
Forest, Museum Folkwang, Essen
Forest 2000-2005, Mai 36 Galerie, Zürich
2005
Forest, Jiri Svestka Gallery, Prag
Kunstverein Arnsberg, Arnsberg
Forest, Museum Folkwang, Essen
2004
Rokitnik, Moscow House of Photography, Moskau
2003
Brixton, Angel Row Gallery, Nottingham
Jahresgaben 2003 – Jitka Hanzlová, Ingar Krauss, Kunstverein Arnsberg e.V., Arnsberg
2001
Fotomuseum Winterthur, Winterthur
Female, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam
Female, Jiri Svestka Gallery, Prag
Galerie-Edition 20.21, Essen
2000
Goethe Institut, Prag
Grant Selwyn Fine Art, Bewerly Hills, Los Angeles
Raffaella Cortese Galerie, Mailand
Klemens Gasser & Tanja Grunert, Inc., New York
Deichtorhallen, Hamburg
1999
Klemens Gasser & Tanja Grunert, Inc., New York
Galerie Patrick De Brock, Knokke
Photomuseum Argazki Euskal Museoa, Zarautz
Galerie Le Lieu, Lorient
Galerie EFTI, Madrid
1998
Galerie db-s, Antwerpen
Goethe Institut, Budapest
Galerie Marie-José van de Loo, München
Universidad de Salamanca, Salamanca
1997
Museum Schloß Hardenberg, Velbert
1996
Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt
1995
Galerie db-s, Antwerpen
La Maison de la Photographie, Lectoure
1994
Galerie Lichtblick, Köln
Ausgewählte Gruppenausstellungen
2025
Touch Nature, Lentos Kunstmuseum Linz, Linz
2023
THIS IS ME, THIS IS YOU. The Eva Felten Photography Collection, Museum Brandhorst, München
Sheroes of Photography Part V, Kicken, Berlin
TOUCH NATURE #2, Austrian Cultural Forum, Prag
2022
Wire, Line & String, Mai 36, Zürich
2021
Sheroes of Photography Part I: From Lady Hatton... to Tata Ronkholz, KICKEN, Berlin
ESSERE UMANE, Musei San Domenicao, Fiorli
2020
Portrait II & Inverventionen, Museum Neuhardenenberg, Neuhardenberg
Neue Welt. Die Entdeckung der Sammlung #1, Museum Folkwang, Essen
Subjekt und Objekt, Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf
Beyond the image: Bertien Van Manen and Friends, Stadelijk Museum, Amsterdam
2019
Unfolded Matters. Nature as Culture, Culture as Nature, Georg Kargl Fine Arts, Wien
2017
mit anderen augen - das portrait in der zeitgenössischen fotografie, Kunsthalle Nürnberg, Nürnberg
Das Abenteuer unserer Sammlung II, Kunstmuseen Krefeld, Kaiser Wilheln Museum, Krefeld, Germany
Portraits, Fundación MAPFRE photography collection, Madrid
Notions of Home, Yancey Richardson Gallery, New York
MADE IN GERMANY, German Photography from the 19th Century to Today, XieZielong Photography Art Center, Changsha
Umbrüche: Industrie - Landschaft - Wandel, MuT - Museum unter Tage, Stiftung Situation Kunst, Bochum
2016
Faces, European Portrait Photography since 1990, Thessaloniki Museum of Photography, Thessaloniki
Human Nature, Art Collection Deutsche Börse, NRW-Forum Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf
Faces, European Portrait Photography since 1990, CentroCentro Madrid, Madrid
VISAGES/FACES, Panels, quays of the Seine/ Musée d'Orsay, Paris
Landscapes & People. From the Photographic Collection of the Albertina (edited by Monika Faber), Albertina, Wien
LUX: The Radiant Sea, Yancey Richardson Gallery, New York
MADE IN GERMANY, German Photography from the 19th Century to Today, Shenzhen International Photography Week 2016, Shenzhen Art Museum, Shenzhen
Mit anderen Augen – Das Porträt in der zeitgenössischen Fotografie, Kunstmuseum Bonn und der Photographischen Sammlung/SK Stiftung Kultur Köln, Köln
2015
Faces.European Portrait photography since 1990, Nederlands Fotomuseum, Rotterdam
Beastly/Tierisch, Fotomuseum Winterthur, Winterthur
2014
Orte, Galerie Wilma Tolksdorf, mit Laurenz Berges und Bernhard Fuchs, Frankfurt
Orte, Fotohof Salzburg mit Laurenz Berges und Bernhard Fuchs, Salzburg
Structures and Surfaces, Galerie Kicken Berlin, Berlin
2013
No place like home, Kunsthalle HGN Duderstadt, Duderstadt
Artists for Tichy – Tichy for Artists, Collection Foundation Tichy Ocean, GASK Kutna Hora, Kutna Hora
2012
Language Games, Centro de Artes Visuales Fundacion Helga de Alvear, Cáceres
Heimat - Fotografien aus der DZ Bank Kunstsammlung, Kunstverein & Stiftung Springhornhof, Neuenkirchen (bei Soltau)
Der Mensch und seine Objekte, Museum Folkwang, Essen
best of ruhrgebiet, Galerie Frank Schlag & Cie., Essen
2011
Photography Calling, Sprengel Museum, Hannover
AIRES DE JEUX, CHAMPS DE TENSIONS, Pavillon Populaire Galerie d'art photographique de la Ville de Montpellier, Montpellier
2010
Ruhrblicke, SANAA-Gebäude (Welterbe Zollverein), Essen
Landschaft ohne Horizont, Stiftung Museum Schloss Moyland, Bedburg-Hau
World-Images 3, Heimhaus, Zürich
2009
Das Porträt. Fotografie als Bühne, Kunsthalle Wien, Wien
Natures, Galerie Ilka Bree, Bordeaux
Degress of Stillness, Kicken Berlin, Berlin
Life is stranger than fiction, FO.KU.S Kunst Stadtforum, Innsbruck
Faces, Fondazione Ragghianti, Lucca
Sehnsucht nach dem Abbild. Das Portrait im Wandel der Zeit, Kunsthalle Krems, Krems an der Donau
2008
Collection Reggio Emilia, Hôtel de Sauroy, Paris
Stille Landschaften, Städtische Galerie Lüdenscheid, Lüdenscheid
Storie immaginate in Luoghi Reali, Museo di Fotografia Contemporanea, Mailand
2007
What does the jellyfish want? Fotografien von Man Ray bis James Coleman, Museum Ludwig, Köln
Hauptstrom. When The Clock Strikes Twenty, Kunstraum im Gewerbepark-Süd, Hilden
The World as One. Photography from Germany after 1989, Galeria Miejska Arsenal, Posen
Der Kontrakt des Fotografen, Akademie der Künste, Berlin / Museum Morsbroich, Leverkusen
Hauptstrom. When the clock strikes eighteen, zone B, Berlin
Die Liebe zum Licht. Fotografie des 20. und 21. Jahrhunderts, Kunstmuseum Bochum, Bochum
Blicke, Passanten - 1930 bis heute. Aus der Fotosammlung der Albertina, Albertina, Wien
The World as One. Photography from Germany after 1989, Galeria Miejska Arsenal, Posen
2006
In the Face of History: European Photographers in the 20th Century, Barbican Art Gallery, London
Die Liebe zum Licht - Fotografie im 20. und 21. Jahrhundert, Städtischen Galerie Delmenhorst, Delmenhorst
Portrait und Menschenbild - Sonderschau der Photographischen Sammlung anläßlich der diesjährigen ART COLOGNE, Die Photographische Sammlung / SK Stiftung Kultur Köln, auf der ART COLOGNE, Köln
The Photogeny of Identity / Memory of Czech photography, PHP - Prague House of Photography, Prag
Could Have Been the Weather, Tatar Gallery, Toronto
European Eyes on Japan, Kunstmuseum Gifu und Hida Museum, Takayama
ART’FAB - Women of Europe / Femmes d’Europe à Saint-Tropez (part of the first edition of «The Cultural Summer» of Saint-Tropez), La salle „Jean-Despas“, Saint-Tropez
Portrait und Menschenbild, SK Stiftung Kultur, Köln
2005
Yes, Yes, Yes, Yes, Sammlung Olbricht, Museum Morsbroich
Donna Donne, Palazzo Strozzi, Florenz
Japan Today, Kanagawa Prefectural Gallery, Kanagawa Art Foundation, Kanagawa
Nach Rokytník. Die Sammlung der EVN, MUMOK Museum of Modern Art, Ludwig Foundation, Wien
Der Traum vom Ich, der Traum von der Welt, Fotomuseum Winterthur, Winterthur
Femme, Musée Carouge, Genf
Czech Photography of the 20th Century, Museum of Decorative Arts, The Prague City Gallery, Prag
2004
2004 Pingyao International Photography Show, Pingyao photography festival, Pingyao
Photobienale Moscow 2004, The Moscow Museum of the Contemporary Art, Moskau
Secrets of the `90s, Museum voor Moderne Kunst Arnheim, Arnheim
Die Welt als Ganzes, Centro de la Imagen, Mexico City
Yet Untitled. Sammlung Bernd Kunne, Det Nationale Fotomuseum, Kopenhagen
2003
Portrait Photography, Mai 36 Galerie, Zürich
Citibank Photography Prize 2003, The Photographer`s Gallery, London; Kunstpalast Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf; Fundación Carlos de Amberes, Madrid
Afternoon Delight, Caren Golden Fine Art, New York
INNATURA, X Bienale Internazionale di Fotografia, Turin
2002
Contemporary Art Project, Seattle Art Musem, Seattle
Menschen-Bilder, Galerie Monika Reitz, Frankfurt
Fusion Cuisine, Deste Fondation, Athen
About Face, Gallery Yencey Richardson, New York
Overnight to many cities, The Photographer´s Gallery, London
The Brixton Studio, The Photographer’s Gallery, London
2001
I Love New York, Benefit Exhibition WTC, Klemens Gassser, Tanja Grunert, Inc., New York
Instant city, Museo Pecci, Prato
About the Bayberry Bush, The Parrish Art Museum, South Hampton
2000
There is something you should know. Die Sammlung der EVN, Österreichische Galerie Belvedere, Wien
Schnitt 2000, Kunstverein Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf
Die Welt als Ganzes, SK Stiftung, Köln
The City Bank Privat Bank Photography Prize 2000, The Photographer´s Gallery, London
Das Versprechen der Fotografie, Akademie der Künste, Berlin
1999
Positionen der 90er Jahre aus der Sammlung Künne, Städtische Galerie Wolfsburg
Another Girl, Another Planet, Lawrence Rubin, Greenberg Van Doren Fine Art, New York
Schön ist es auch anderswo, Rheinisches Industriemuseum Oberhausen, Oberhausen
near and elsewhere, The Photographers Gallery, London
Stadtluft, Kunstverein Hamburg, Hamburg
1998
Women, Galerie Klemens Gasser und Tanja Grunert, Köln
Portrait, National Technical Museum, Prag
1996
de jeunes, Galerie Poirel, Nancy
European Photography Award 1995, Fotografie Forum Frankfurt, Fotografie-Festival, Arles
Manifesta I Rotterdam, Museum Chabot, Rotterdam
1995
Traingonales, la Galerie du Chateau d´Eau, Toulouse
European Photography Award 1995, Englische Kirche, Bad Homburg
1994
im fremden land, Goethe Institut, São Paolo
1993
Europese Ofenningen, Galerie db - s, Antwerpen
1992
Czech Photography in Exil, Mánes, Prag
Preise und Stipendien
2007
Paris Photo Prize for Contemporary Photography
2003
Grand Prix Award - Project Grant 2003, Arles, France
1998
Scholarship, Stiftung für Kunst und Kultur des Landes NRW, Düsseldorf
1995
European Photography Award 1995
Scholarship DG BANK Frankfurt
1993
Dr.-Otto-Steinert-Preis by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Photographie
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