Barbora Šlapetová & Lukáš Rittstein
13th of March - 13th of July 2015
DOX Centre for Contemporary Art
Rytířská 31, Praha 1Admission: Adults: 180 Czk, Students 90 Czk, Art students 40 Czk
Open: tue: closed
mon + sat + sun: 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.
wed + fri: 11 a.m. - 7 p.m.
mon + sat + sun: 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.
wed + fri: 11 a.m. - 7 p.m.
This exhibition, which takes place in the spirit of journeys to the stars, records an encounter between two absolutely different worlds – that of native culture and contemporary civilization. It is the continuation of a project of more that 15 years by sculptor Lukáš Rittstein and photographer Barbora Šlapetová, who worked with the last Papuan tribe, the Yali Mek and in recent years also with two NASA astronauts.
The skills and experiences of Papuan cannibal tribes have been documented by anthropologists, missionaries, and geological explorers, but never through the eyes of artists. Starting in 1997, Barbora Šlapetová and Lukáš Rittstein undertook several expeditions to remote areas of western Guinea and Papua-New Guinea, where they investigated local native tribes and their culture.
Papuans believe that the eyes of living things that sleep at night travel to theHeavens and observe their sleeping bodies. This is why the stars shine. Some members of local tribes also have the ability to travel by smoke to the upper reaches of the world, to the Heavens. Astronauts symbolically manifest the natives’ notions – they were in the Heavens and their eyes watched them from there. In 2012 and 2013, both artists arranged a meeting between several members of the Yali Mek tribe and two NASA astronauts, Leroy Chiao andKoichi Wakata.
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