Dílna Mikulov - Art symposium

Video - MAS “dílna” – special, Mikulov 8th–15th of August 2009

The symposium “dílna” in Mikulov has a unique position in the Czech lands as one of the most traditional and balanced summer events. 2 When this year Libor Lípa and his team temporarily opened the collection’s depository with works created since the symposium’s first year, many visitors found out that the collection follows the changes of visual art to the extent of creating a map of the Czech visual art of the last fifteen years, with international reference.  

Jiří Ptáček, theoretician of MAS 2009


The organizers of the Mikulov Art Symposium decided to hold a special “dílna” in its 16th year that for the first time exclusively focused on art in electronic media. 

Technological development nowadays affects all areas of human activity and electronic media have changed not only our everyday lives but also the way of perceiving the world and the reality. Naturally, technological innovation and new know-how has always provoked reactions from artists around the world, ever since the Renaissance. The beginnings of contemporary media art go back to the 1960s, and it has now become an integral part of art history.

For the Mikulov symposium, I chose artists both from the Czech Republic and abroad, both middle-aged and young who work mainly with these media. I was choosing from among my friends, whose work I have been following for years, as well as artists whom I met more or less by coincidence and whose work has captured my interest. An important aspect was also the differences in their approach, regarding both the technique and the contents of their works. I wanted to present in Mikulov the widest possible range of attitudes to the new media (with regards to the technical and financial possibilities of the symposium).   

The works were presented mostly in public space of the town and after dark, as required by the nature of electronic media. The character of the pieces, the time consumption and other production demands prevented some of the authors from creating their works on the site (which was the custom). Instead, they brought with them the pieces or projects they made beforehand. Each author was briefed about the space and the atmosphere of the event and also received written and image documentation about the town of Mikulov.

This DVD offers short profiles of participating artists and their works, and it captures some of the atmosphere of the 16th year of the symposium.

Petr Zubek