Vladimír Ambroz: Actions

Vladimír Ambroz’s virtually unknown activities in the field of performance art, interventions in the public space and actions related to staged photography lasted only a few years. In the late 1970s he was part of the Brno art scene, which operated outside the official institutions of the time. Ambroz’s work from this period erases difference between life and art, is open to conceptual tendencies and explores general civilizational themes while responding to the atmosphere of ascendant normalization. In the milieu of Czechoslovak performance art, his work is unique for its emphasis on the expressive power of photographic documentation.

The exhibition Vladimír Ambroz: Actions has been installed by the artist himself; in hindsight, it is looking for what from this creative period can be considered more general. Since almost no authentic photo enlargements of Ambroz’s activities have been preserved, they are mostly presented through modern prints from original negatives. In addition to them, the exhibition includes a torso of the period exhibition, film documentation of performances and Ambroz’s work Video Habitation of 1981 realized thirty-five years later.

press release

view to the exhibition Vladimír Ambroz: Actions, House of Photography, 2018. Photo by Jiří Thýn
view to the exhibition Vladimír Ambroz: Actions, House of Photography, 2018. Photo by Jiří Thýn
Vladimír Ambroz, Shapes, 1979. Foto Marie Kratochvílová
Vladimír Ambroz, Shapes, 1979. Foto Marie Kratochvílová
Vladimír Ambroz, Highway, 1978. Foto Marie Kratochvílová
Vladimír Ambroz, Highway, 1978. Foto Marie Kratochvílová
Vladimír Ambroz, Car, 1977, Foto Miroslav Ambroz
Vladimír Ambroz, Car, 1977, Foto Miroslav Ambroz
view to the exhibition Vladimír Ambroz: Actions, House of Photography, 2018. Photo by Jiří Thýn
view to the exhibition Vladimír Ambroz: Actions, House of Photography, 2018. Photo by Jiří Thýn