Július Koller

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Antihappening, 1965.

Július Koller (1939, Piešťany - 2007, Bratislava) was a Slovak artist.

In 1965, the same year that the Slovak Actionist group [Alex_Mlynárčik#Works HAPPSOC] released their manifesto, Július Koller published his manifesto "Anti-Happening (System of Subjective Objectivity)", which defined the artist's anti-Happening works enacted throughout the late 1960s. Unlike Happenings, where the focus is on action, anti-Happenings concentrate on the cultural reshaping of the subject, making those who participate in the work more aware of their surroundings. During one such anti-Happening, for example, Koller repainted the white lines that defined the structure of a tennis court.

Koller's technique of imbuing simple symbols with complex meanings is explained in his Mini-Koncepcie maxi-ideí (U.F.O.) [Mini-Concepts of Maxi Ideas] (1974), a series of simple text works that play on the term "UFO". Beginning in 1970, Koller took annual self-portraits, calling himself a UFO-naut while obscuring his body with random, banal objects—for example, he held a ping-pong ball in front of his eyes with glasses. Sports, such as tennis, held appeal for Koller as symbols of playful protest—as critic Jan Verwoert put it, ping-pong "represents the possibility of a more playful society in the face of socialist standardization". Koller titled each of these self-portraits some variation of the acronym UFO: Univerzálny Filozoficky Ornament [Universal Philosophical Ornament] (1978), Underground Fantastic Organization (1975), etc. Koller also developed the fictitious gallery project titled U.F.O. Galéria – Galéria Ganku, Vysoké Tatry [U.F.O. Gallery Ganek, High Tatras], which began with a concept around a site in the Slovak mountains to later include bureaucratic documents and structures such as a Board in 1981 (its members were Milan Adamčiak, Pavol Breier, Igor Gazdík, Peter Meluzin, and Koller himself). In 2009, the Július Koller Society was established in order to preserve Koller's work. (Source)

Works

Exhibitions

  • Park kultúry a oddychu, Bratislava, 1965.
  • Galéria mladých, Bratislava, 1967.
  • Permanentná demystifikácia 1., 2., V-klub, Bratislava, 1968.
  • with Peter Bartoš, Permanentná Antigaléria [The Permanent Anti-gallery], the display window of the Komunálna opravovňa pančúch [Hosiery Express Repair] shop, Bratislava, 1968-69.
  • J.K. Ping-Pong Club, Galéria mladých, Bratislava, Mar 1970.
  • Textilné obrazy, Štátny výskumný ústav textilný, Bratislava, 1974.
  • Nová vážnosť, Kostol klarisiek, Galéria SFVU, Bratislava, 1990.
  • Post-komunikácia, Považská galéria umenia, Žilina, 1991.
  • Sondy, Slovak National Gallery, Bratislava, Nov 1991 - Jan 1992. Curated by Aurel Hrabušický.
  • Tatranská galéria, Horný Smokovec, 1993.
  • Hore-Dole, Umelecká beseda Slovenska, Bratislava, 1993.
  • Subjekty a reality z r.1968, Galéria Nova, Bratislava, 1995.
  • Cikcaková kultúrna situácia – výber z tvorby J.K., CC Centrum, Bratislava, 1997.
  • Július Koller, Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne, 2003. Review: Jan Verwoert (Frieze 2003 EN).
  • Utopia Station – La Biennale di Venezia, 50. Esposizione Internazionale d’Arte, Venice, 2003.
  • Július Koller – Kontakt, kunstraum muenchen, Munich, 2004.
  • Július Koller, Galerie Martin Janda, Vienna, 24 Jan - 24 Feb 2007.
  • Space is the Place, GB Agency, Paris, 2 Jun - 21 Jul 2007. Video interview.
  • Július Koller a jeho priatelia, Typo & Ars, Bratislava, 2008. Group show. [1]
  • Július Koller, Galerie Martin Janda, Vienna, 24 Mar - 30 Apr 2010.
  • Science-Fiction Retrospective, Slovak National Gallery, Bratislava, 23 Apr - 20 Jun 2010. Curated by Aurel Hrabušický and Petra Hanáková. Video report (Artycok TV, EN subs). Review: Daniela Čarná (Rider 2010 EN). Commentaries: Alena Vrbanová (Jazdec 2010 SK).
  • Atlas of Fantastic Science - From the Július Koller Visual Archive, Kunstraum Lakeside, 2011.
  • U.F.O. NAUT JK (Július Koller) orquestada por Rirkrit Tiravanija, Kurimanzutto, Mexico, 2012.
  • Mini-Concepts / Maxi-ideas, GB Agency, Paris, 2012.
  • Július Koler Archive: Study Room, Tranzitdisplay, Prague, 11 Sep - 11 Nov 2012. Curated by Tomáš Pospiszyl.
  • Spirits of Internationalism, Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, 2012.
  • U.F.O.–NAUT JK (Július Koller) orchestrated by Rirkrit Tiravanija, Galerie Martin Janda, Vienna, 10 Apr - 25 May 2013.
  • A. for Atlantis, GB Agency, Paris, 31 Jan - 21 Mar 2015.
  • Situaciones Culturales, Casas Riegner, Bogotá, 11 Mar - 28 Apr 2015.
  • "?", Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw, 25 Sep 2015 - 10 Jan 2016. Curated by Daniel Grúň, Kathrin Rhomberg and Georg Schöllhammer.
  • Július Koller, mumok, Vienna, 12 Feb - 16 May 2016.
  • Selected exhibitions (incl. group shows), 1968-1989.

Catalogues

  • Július Koller: Sondy (Probes), ed. Aurel Hrabušický, Galéria súčasného umenia Slovenskej národnej galérie, 1992, [38] pp. (Slovak)/(English)
  • Julius Koller: Univerzálne Futurologické Operácie, eds. Kathrin Rhomberg and Roman Ondák, Cologne: Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, 2003, 248 pp. With texts by Georg Schöllhammer and Vít Havránek; conversations with Hans Ulrich Obrist and Roman Ondák. [2] (English)/(German)/(Slovak)
  • Július Koller a jeho priatelia, ed. Peter Čepec, Bratislava: Typo & Ars, 2008, DVD. (Slovak)
  • Július Koller: vedecko-fantastická retrospektíva / Science-Fiction Retrospective, eds. Petra Hanáková and Aurel Hrabušický, Bratislava: Slovak National Gallery, 2010, 366 pp. With texts by Petra Hanáková, Katarina Bajcurová, Kvetoslava Fulierová, Aurel Hrabušický, Alexandra Kusá, Georg Schöllhammer. (Slovak)/(English)
  • Daniel Grúň, Tomáš Pospiszyl, Július Koller Archive. Study Room, Prague: tranzit.cz, 2012, 24 pp. (Slovak),(Czech)/(English)

Literature

  • Klaus Groh, Aktuelle Kunst in Osteuropa, Cologne: Dumont, 1972. (German)
  • Tomáš Štraus, "Three Models of Contemporary Slovak Art Actions", in Works and Words: International Art Manifestation, Amsterdam, Amsterdam: Galerie de Appel, 1980. [3] (English)
  • Jana Ševčikova, Jiři Ševčik, "Theraphie in ernste kulturelle Situation", in Sirup, Munich: Galerie Stadt Prag und Passinger Fabrik, 1992. (German)
  • Marian Dzúrik, Ann Stephen (eds.), After the Spring: Contemporary Czech and Slovak Art, Sydney 1994. (English)
  • Kathrin Rhomberg, Aussgeträumt… Secession, Vienna, 2001-2002. (German)
  • Jan Verwoert, "Július Koller, 1939-2007", Frieze 111 (Nov-Dec 2007). (English)
  • Piotr Piotrowski, In the Shadow of Yalta: Art and the Avant-Garde in Eastern Europe, 1945–1989, London, 2009. (English)
  • Daniel Grúň, "Archivovať U.F.O. Július Koller ako zberateľ 'kultúrnych situácií' z tlačových médií", Romboid 7 (2010), pp 56-63. (Slovak)
  • Aurel Hrabušický, "O zrozumiteľnom Kollerovi a nezrozumiteľnom Filkovi", Jazdec 4:3, Bratislava: Galéria Cypriána Majerníka, Jul-Sep 2012, pp 2-5. (Slovak)
  • Daniel Grúň, "Július Koller: Dialectics of Self-Identification", trans. Jana Krajnakova, in L'Internationale. Post-War Avant-Gardes between 1957 and 1986, ed. Christian Hoeller, Zurich: JRP Ringier, 2012, pp 196-202. (English)
  • Klara Kemp-Welch, "Doubt", ch. 2 in Kemp-Welch, Antipolitics in Central European Art: Reticence as Dissidence under Post-Totalitarian Rule 1956-1989, I.B.Tauris, 2013, pp 57-100.
  • Daniel Grúň (ed.), Július Koller. Galéria Ganku, trans. John Minahane, Vienna: Schlebrügge, 2014. [4] (English)/(Slovak)

Links

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