Milena Dopitová│Next Time at Your Place

The Příště u vás (Next Time at Your Place) exhibition introduces the current works of the multimedia artist Milena Dopitová. As well as with her previous projects, even this exhibition’s theme is closely related to her personal life. Throughout the years, her work gained various attributes. Some call it feminist, committed or social, and although such interpretations offer themselves when it comes to Dopitová’s work, her current works’ essential intention is no different from her first projects she did in the nineties. The core of her inquiries is ordinary life, the way individuals experience it, and its ordinariness. The artist approaches the topics intuitively: her works are not trying to comment, analyse, nor call for action. Dopitová is an empathic observer recording her findings. With her own means, she investigates the same issues as the artists of the coming generation, whether it is identity, ecology, the presage of apocalyptic scenarios, or the desire for a different and better world.

Dopitová approaches the exhibition created for MeetFactory as a cohesive installation, starting with its title and ending with the moment the visitors leave the gallery. “The titles are integral and irreplaceable part of the projects. They analyse, shift, explain, doubt, and emphasise the topics. Words have great power, and I enjoy combining the way we perceive them with looking for their multiple interpretations,”1 says the author. The title phrase “Next Time at Your Place” poses as a threat, creating a feeling of uncertainty - the state on the border between the threat becoming reality and staying latent.

This “space poet”, as art historian Martina Pachmanová refers to her2, builds her large-format galvanised sculptures into a shiny formation, and it is not clear whether its position is offensive or defensive. The objects seem familiar to us, and we know the shapes well: after a brief examination, we recognise a door hinge, cookie cutter and other ordinary objects found at home. We cannot be sure whether the presented cavalry represents a threat or just innocently demonstrates its superiority with its dominant proportions and noble shine of the metal. There is tension and worry about what is coming in the air.

The unmistakable aesthetics of Milena Dopitová’s works are famous for its almost cold precision which she immediately denies by a warm feature. Similarly to the author’s works from the nineties and the noughties distinctive by contrasts in materials (metal sculptures wrapped in fabric, unit furniture covered in crocheted shawl etc.), in MeetFactory, she also abolishes the cold dogmatism of galvanised sculptures with colourful fabric and video installation accompanied by soft music composition using aliquot voices.