Zbyněk Prokop: “Graphic scores”

The selection of works showcased at the exhibition form part of an extensive series of graphic scores which represent a visual record of various sound processes which are a crucial element of Prokop’s work and which shape his artistic expression. Graphic scores are both time-lapse records and visual diaries; they are an expression of free creativity, supremely non-commercial, and stand as a testimony to the status of a creative and free artist.

Zbyněk Prokop is one of the key representatives of the older generation of artists who molded the cultural milieu of both Košice and east Slovakia as a whole. Together with Marcel Strýko and Juraj Bartusz, he was present when the idea of establishing the Faculty of Arts at the Technical University of Košice was first broached, an institution which has since gone on to nurture dozens of talented artists who are now active on the Slovak and international cultural scene. Prokop has been lecturing at the Studio of Graphic and Experimental Work at the Faculty of Arts since 1999. His teaching activities are focused on sound art and other intermedia intersections, and this is also true of his art which is characterised by symbiotic connections within visual art in the form of traditional graphic approaches combined with new media.

Depicted in the traditional media of graphics and combined techniques, the graphic scores represent visual records which are close to Prokop, intimate or often even therapeutic. The graphic scores reflect the sounds of different physical and natural processes through their transition onto the paper medium, with the works subtly employing musical notation as a primary means of emphasising the connection with sound. The scores possess a lyrical-poetic expression; they attest to the state of mind and soul in the pursuit of autobiographical reflexions. The assemblage-like nature of the works draws attention to the careful work with a wide range of materials and techniques and forms a comprehensive body of work which stands as something of a speculative archive of the artist’s work documenting more than forty years of explorations of perception and the intersections of visual and sound art.

The work of Zbyněk Prokop has a markedly intermedial character which has been shaped to a considerable degree by the cultural circles in which the artist has moved. In the 1980s he was a member of the unorthodox musical-intermedia art collective Lesní Speváci & The Nace, an underground group led by the renowned Košice philosopher and artist Marcel Strýko. Since 1989 he has also been active in the sound art collective Transmusic Comp. which emerged from the unofficial art scene centred around the personality of Milan Adamčiak. Prokop presented the activities of the unofficial art scene at so-called “apartment exhibitions”, societies which sought out and created oases of freedom in the totalitarian regime. In addition to his teaching and artistic activities, Prokop is also involved in organising cultural life (for example, the Genius Loci Levoča multimedia festival in cooperation with Peter Machajdík or the Levoča Forum which he organises together with friends). He is also active in graphic design and book design.

PhDr. Miroslav Kleban, exhibition curator