-
- PROGRAMME
- KM MAP
- EVENTS CALENDAR
For Remap 03, gb agency presents a solo project by Július Koller (Born in 1939 in Piestany, Czechoslovakia. Died in 2007. Lived and worked in Bratislava, Slovakia).
Július Koller worked in the margins society, offering a utopic and poetic message that aimed at restoring freedom of thought, subjectivity and communication in a place where the individual was outweighed by the impositions of social order of the communist regime. Over the course of years, Július Koller transformed himself into a symbol, connecting with situations and configurations of everyday life through minimal actions and gestures.
«I’m interested in the transformation of everyday situations in life into “cultural situations”, which I, as an individual, turn in a ‘non-studio’ way into an objective reality through a subjective intervention. (…) I think I’m a situationist because I don’t organize my performance in places set aside for that purpose, but in everyday surroundings and in normal situations». (Július Koller interview with Hans Ulrich Obrist)
In 1970, at the “Gallery of the Young” in Bratislava, Július Koller set up a ping-pong club for one month in place of an exhibition, inviting visitors to play and meet. Like in other of his demonstrative moments, such as positioning a question mark on his face or manually inscribing, marking and outlining this sign in various contexts and places as a constant and recurring motif, this was an act of transformation intended as active representation and interrogation – a momentary existential creativity that expresses itself in a cultural situation.
Here the work becomes a place for exchange, a game table of both action and potential dialogue – a metaphor for fairness and a level field of social interaction. For the third edition of ReMap, gb agency reactivates Koller’s ping pong club.
In Július Koller’s obituary published in Frieze in November 2007, Jan Verwoert writes: “The unruly optimism that Koller articulated in his Conceptual art practice and embodied as a person were a source of inspiration that I now can’t do without: they constituted an irrefutable argument for making art and pursuing criticism and for the joy that could be gained in doing so, no matter how marginal such activities should appear to the society at large.

JÚLIUS KOLLER, « J.K. Ping-Pong Club » (U.F.O), 1970, Exhibition in gallery of Young Artists, Bratislava, Photo : Milan Sirkovsky

JÚLIUS KOLLER, « Anti-Ping-Pong Player » (U.F.O.), 1980, Performance, Bratislava,

1980, « Theory Versus Praxis » (U.F.O.), Performance,, Bratislava

JÚLIUS KOLLER, Ping Pong Cultural Situation, 2007, Performance, gb agency, Art Basel

JÚLIUS KOLLER, Ping Pong Cultural Situation, 2007, gb agency, Art Basel

JÚLIUS KOLLER, Up and Down, 2007, Performance, gb agency, Art Basel
Július Koller
28 Kerameikou, ground floor
gb@gbagency.fr
+33 (0)1 44 78 00 60
www.gbagency.fr
18 rue des 4 fils, 75003 Paris
GB Agency
Július Koller: Ping Pong Club
For Remap 03, gb agency presents a solo project by Július Koller (Born in 1939 in Piestany, Czechoslovakia. Died in 2007. Lived and worked in Bratislava, Slovakia).
Július Koller worked in the margins society, offering a utopic and poetic message that aimed at restoring freedom of thought, subjectivity and communication in a place where the individual was outweighed by the impositions of social order of the communist regime. Over the course of years, Július Koller transformed himself into a symbol, connecting with situations and configurations of everyday life through minimal actions and gestures.
«I’m interested in the transformation of everyday situations in life into “cultural situations”, which I, as an individual, turn in a ‘non-studio’ way into an objective reality through a subjective intervention. (…) I think I’m a situationist because I don’t organize my performance in places set aside for that purpose, but in everyday surroundings and in normal situations». (Július Koller interview with Hans Ulrich Obrist)
In 1970, at the “Gallery of the Young” in Bratislava, Július Koller set up a ping-pong club for one month in place of an exhibition, inviting visitors to play and meet. Like in other of his demonstrative moments, such as positioning a question mark on his face or manually inscribing, marking and outlining this sign in various contexts and places as a constant and recurring motif, this was an act of transformation intended as active representation and interrogation – a momentary existential creativity that expresses itself in a cultural situation.
Here the work becomes a place for exchange, a game table of both action and potential dialogue – a metaphor for fairness and a level field of social interaction. For the third edition of ReMap, gb agency reactivates Koller’s ping pong club.
In Július Koller’s obituary published in Frieze in November 2007, Jan Verwoert writes: “The unruly optimism that Koller articulated in his Conceptual art practice and embodied as a person were a source of inspiration that I now can’t do without: they constituted an irrefutable argument for making art and pursuing criticism and for the joy that could be gained in doing so, no matter how marginal such activities should appear to the society at large.
Page link has been copied to clipboard.