Jiří Kovanda

About this book

This first complete record of Prague artist Jiri Kovanda's actions, installations and interventions over the past 30 years replicates the A4 pages (with photographs and typewritten texts attached) on which he documented his activities in the 1970s and 1980s. That first ephemeral work focused on the discoveries of new types of relationships, enacted with his friends and anonymous passersby in the streets. His installations from the 1980s were ironic responses to American Minimalism, set up in peripheral public spaces during the period of so-called "real socialism." Actions and Installations 1975-2006 covers those evolving performances and interventions up through 2005 and situates Kovanda's work in the history of Conceptualism. Among its three interviews is a talk with the artist by Hans Ulrich Obrist. Kovanda has been invited to participate in Documenta 2007.