Ztohoven, Media Reality, television still, 2007


Artist talk with Ztohoven member Prokop Bartoníček following the screening and German premiere of the documentary On Media Reality, by Vladimir Turner (2008)




Opening of Art and Law II: Ztohoven - Media Reality, 29 May, 2009

The Prague based artist collective Ztohoven use their work, often interventions in public space, to scrutinise the creditability of mass media and advertising. In their action Media Reality, which took place on 7 June, 2007, they ‘hacked’ into the Czech weather channel ČT 2 and added the image of an atomic explosion to the live image of a mountain valley. The channel pressed charges under laws against “indecent behavior” and the “diffusion of false information”. In two separate legal actions members of the group were acquitted. At the same time, Ztohoven were awarded the first NG 333 prize for contemporary art from the Prague National Gallery, in connection with Media Reality.

Besides showing the work Media Reality and related court documents, Art Laboratory Berlin will present the German premiere of the film On Media Reality, which documents the legal and artistic aftermath of the action. (more information)


Vladimir Turner, video still, On Media Reality, 42', 2008.

Artists in Dialog: Paola Yacoub

Paola Yacoub's Presentation is the first of Art Laboratory Berlin's new series of artists talks, presentations, performances and events:
Artists in Dialog

Paola Yacoub will present a running thread through various works, mainly photographs and montages, produced in different geographical areas ranging from Southern Lebanon to Berlin via Sweden and China.The common point is skepticism as it was introduced in visual arts in the U.S.A. at the beginning of the 20th century.

In a fast food restaurant 'Beautifull Heart' in Shenzhen, China, a flat screen continuously transmits news and entertainment channels. Information becomes like decoration. One looks at the screen only from time to time, often not at all, and rarely with attention. We do not know if we agree on postures in front of the screen and on what we see.

A dialogical encounter between two video clips of the same screen in the same fast food restaurant but at different moments were made by Paola Yacoub and by Yao Zhiyan.These plasma screens in fast food restaurants and cafés show the social modality of a contemporary gaze.

Paola Yacoub is a graduate of the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London, and currently a PHD candidate in visual arts at Goldsmith's college, London. Among other venues she has exhibited in the 2002 Sao Paulo Biennale, the 2003 Venice Biennale and was part of the DAAD artists program in 2004/2005 in collaboration with Michel Lasserre. She lives and works in Berlin.

Lecture by Maksim Neroda (CAT)











The exhibition Monstration shows video works and documents of this and other actions and reflects the public reaction by legal documents and mass media reviews. Maxim Neroda, one of the founders of the group, presents in his lecture the series of 'monstrations' and also additional actions by CAT.

Art and Law I: CAT -Monstration

Art and Law I: CAT -Monstration

Opening 20.02.2009, 8PM
21.02.2009 - 29.03.2009
Sat. und Sun. 2-6PM
(also Fri. 27.02. and 27.03., 8-11PM)

The CAT (Contemporary Art Terrorism) collective from Novosibirsk creates situations in public space, which lay bare the absurdity of the way in which political power functions. Unprepared passers-by were drawn into the process of creating critical artistic statements. For organizing a May Day monstration - a counterpart to a classical May Day demonstration - in which marchers carried individual banners with apolitical, often poetic or non-rational slogans, the artists were sentenced to pay a fine. The exhibition Monstration shows video works and documents of the public reaction by means of legal documents and mass media reviews.

29.11.2008 - 04.01.2009
Curators from East and Central Europe III:
Mari Laanemets
Hier wäre das Leben leicht
(There, Life Would Be Easy)

Opening: Friday 28.11.2008, 8PM
Hours: Sat. and Sun. 2 - 6PM;
closed 27.12 and 28.12.2008

Hier wäre das Leben leicht (There, life would be easy) The exhibition revolves around issues of design, of the construction of surfaces we are surrounded by in everyday life: from textiles to texts, to street and city. One of the underlying intentions of the exhibition is to reflect on how these formal constructions organize our behaviour, give our lives a scheme, a program, and on the sedimentation of ideology in forms.
Participating artists: Kadi Estland, Anton Koovit, Sirje Runge, Killu Sukmit, Tere Recarens and Florian Wüst.(more)

Curators from East and Central Europe II: Elena Sorokina
Subjective Events, Sometimes Recorded

curator's talk and workshop (Elena Sorokina) 24.10.2008

24.10.2008 - 16.11.2008
Curators from East and Central Europe II:
Elena Sorokina
Subjective Events, Sometimes Recorded

Opening: 24.10.2008, 8PM
Sat. and Sun. 2 - 6PM;
also open 31 October from 8PM -11PM
Tour of the exhibition: 02.11.2008, 3PM
Workshop 24.10.08

In everyday language, an event is a notion that embraces two different meanings - a happening violating limits or, in the opposite, invigorating them. One is destructive, the other restrictive; one is closer to the chaos of a revolution, the other to a meticulously performed ceremony with a set of rules. The work in the exhibition focuses on the second meaning: initially, it comments on contemporary rituals or pronounced interest in social codes, which often re-emerge in times of crisis and insecurity. Through recording, staging, or enacting some examples of today's ritualistic behavior the artists examine how the so-called "flexible personalities" engage in a performance of specific and mainly self-imposed rules. (more)