Josef Duchan draws everything he sees around him. Visual sensations flow through it in a continuous stream straight to the paper. Like a tomograph, he captures in thin sections the surrounding world and its changes over time: a pulsating street with the approaching panorama of Hradčany in the background, passing trams and cars, flashing traffic lights...

Exhibiting Artist: Josef Duchan

Curators: Terezie Zemánková

December 20, 2023 - February 9, 2024

If one, without exaggeration, may be described as a distinctive solitary figure of the contemporary arts, who pushes against the latest trend and follows his own unique path, then it is without a doubt that of Josef Duchan. He is unmissable on the Czech and Prague art scene especially - not only thanks to the originality of his work, but also to the very process of its creation, which enboldens it with a quirky performative constituent. He is often seen at openings, concerts, or at clubs with a strap around his neck and a board with paper attached to it serving as a mobile work table. He seems oblivious to his surroundings as he is completely engrossed in drawing. He draws in rapid movements with both hands at the same time, giving an impression of performing a mysterious ritual. Duchan appears to draw continuously in all imaginable places, come rain or shine. He draws while riding his bike, in the metro, in the car, on foot in the city and in the countryside – and apparently he even draws in the dark. He draws on miniature cards, on scratch cards, on quarters and on the reverse side of printed banners, on translucent foils, on metal sheets, on broken mobile phone glass covers and on car windshields. He draws everything he sees around him, visual sensations flow through the paper in a continuous stream. Like a tomographer, he captures the surrounding world and the way it constantly changes in slices: a pulsating street with the panorama of Hradčany closing in against the background – passing trams and cars, flashing traffic lights... on other occassions, the subject matter striking his interest are passing gallery visitors, actors and musicians on stage, or the landscape flashing by through the train window. Each layer of the drawing represents one temporal plane of reality, which is immediately covered by another, and then another up to the current one. It is as if he moved through space with a camera, pressed the shutter button with each step, and then folded the resulting photos, printed on transparent foil, on themselves. This chronicling of reality in motion in space and time plays on the surface of a single piece of paper. The layered plans create a dense web of vibrating lines in which the original scene is barely decipherable. Occassionally, the artist stops after two or three layers, in which specific motifs still remain legible.

Terezie Zemánková