Dominik Lang

Girl with pigeon, 2015
plaster
unique

Dominik Lang’s development from his groundbreaking Sleeping City, presented at the 54th Venice Biennale in 2011, to A Girl with a Pigeon, presented 2015 at the Monash University Museum of Art, Melbourne,we need to highlight a difference in his handling of the estate of his father, Jiří Lang. Both projects centre on one sculpture – Jiří Lang’s modernist A Girl with a Pigeon from the late 1950s – but the approaches adopted in the two installations are distinct from one another. In Venice, the artist placed fragments of his father’s sculpture in two glass showcases, which when viewed from a certain angle allowed the work to be seen as an integral whole; in the Melbourne exhibition, he has joined the two parts in a single showcase, leaving the glass cube open (previously it was closed), so that the figure of the girl can descend into the exhibition space. The girl watches the pigeon from a distance. She feeds it. She looks for the bird as it escapes to the ceiling. She and the pigeon sit face-to-face at a table. They fall asleep together on a bed. The figure, originally seated, is used to produce the mould for several plaster casts in modified positions and with changes of gesture. We see the girl sitting, standing, kneeling, lying. We watch her, with her hands falling freely along her torso, with one hand behind her back, propped against a table, propped against the wall. Often the casts are split into segments: the hand, which the sleeping girl has under her head, is fragmented into three, and even the seemingly natural upright figure has a deep rift in her belly, a consequence of the ‘righting’ procedure. The disconsolate, moribund character of the girl with a pigeon is paradoxically complemented by the numerous casts. At first glance, the repetition and the spatial insulation of the plaster figures might remind us of minimalist works of the 1960s. Even though Lang presents us with figural works rather than ‘specific objects’, their significance – as in minimalism – has an outward bent and is co-constituted by the viewer.

Text: Karel Císař

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Biography

Dominik Lang

Lives and works in Prague, Czech Republic.

1980 born in Prague, Czech Republic

Studied in Jiři Přihoda’s Spatial Art studio at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague.

2006/07 Cooper Union in New York, USA
2006 Assistent of Ai Weiwei in Beijing
2010 PhD at Jan Evangelista Purkyně University in Usti nad Labem
2007-2011 Curator of the Jeleni Gallery at Center for Contemporary Arts
2012 with Edita Jerabkova, heads up the sculpture studio at the Academy of Fine Arts Prague

Curatorial activities

2014Art and Shadow, with Edith Jeřábková, Nod Gallery and the Czech Center gallery, Prague, CZ
2013Lapidarium, with Edith Jeřábková, Betlémská kaple, Prague, CZ
2007-2011curator of the exhibition program at Galerie Jelení, Prague, CZ
2007curator of the exhibition Improved Model, Round Effect, NoD galerie, Prague
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Awards and Grants

2015Berlin-Stipendium, Akademie der Kunste, Berlin, DE
2014Residency stipend, ISCP, New York, USA
Artist of the Year, awarded by Art&Antiques Magazine, Prague, CZ
2013Winner of the 2013 Jindřich Chalupecký Award for Young Artists in the Czech Republic
2010Artist Residency, Duende Gueststudios, Rotterdam, NL
2008Artist residency, Zamek Ujazdowski, Warsaw, PL
2007Leif Rumke Preis, DE
Artist residency, IMPEX, Budapest, Hungary
2005International Summer Academy of Fine Arts, Salzburg, DE
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Solo Exhibitions (Selection)

2017Dominik Lang, “Girl with pigeon and its copies”, Krobath Wien, 2017.
2016Dominik Lang: Haus der Wohnirrtümer / Dům bytových omylů. Tschechisches Zentrum Berlin.http://berlin.czechcentres.cz/programm/event-details/dominik-lang3/11.02. – 09.04.2016.
2015Dominik Lang: Girl with Pigeon, Monash University Museum of Art | MUMA, Caulfield East, Melbourne
Dominik Lang: Bone Collectors, Hunt Kastner, Prague
Dominik Lang, Difficulties of the Chess Composer, Elba Benitez,Madrid, ES
Naked Figures, Dressed Figurines, The Gallery Apart, Rome, IT
2014Dominik Lang. Winner of the Jindřich Chalupecký Award 2013, Veletržní Palace, Prague
Wasteland, with Eva Koťátková, Projects Art Centre, IR
Desks and Boards, curated by Charlotta Kotik, Gallery Czech Centre, New York, USA
Waiting Room, Prague National Gallery at The Trade Fair Palade, Prague
Opravář | Repairman, with Eva Koťátková, Lednička Miry Gáberové, Prague
2013“Dominik Lang – Procházení Zdí”, House of Art, Budweis
“Dominik Lang. Missing Parts”, The Gallery Apart, Rome
“Dominik Lang. Expanded Anxiety”, Secession, Vienna
2012“Humble Objects”, Kunsthaus Dresden
Images from Exhibition, Galerie Caesar, Olomouc
“The Lovers”, Krobath Wien
“Dominik Lang: Investigation the Cause”, Veletržní Palace, National Gallery, Prague
“Working Model – Art Statements”, Art Basel
Hunt Kastner, Prague
2011“Private Collection”, Krobath Berlin
“Sleeping City”, Czechoslovak Pavilion, 54th la Biennale di Venezia, Venice
Local Museum, Galerie Kabinet T, Zlin
2010Wall, Gallery 99, DUMB: Brno House of Arts, Brno
2009“Storage”, Karlín Studios, Prague
“Architect (a selection of works)”, Gallery 99, DUMB: Dům umění v Brně, Brno
“Visitor”, Galerie Na bidlýku, Brno
“Place for a Viewer, the Atrium at the Moravian Gallery, Brno
“Three-Dimensional Geometry”, GNF, Ústí nad Labem
2008“Between”, (artist residency project), Zamek Ujazdowski, Warsaw
2007“Things for Viewing and Walking Around”, (artist residency project), IMPEX, Budapest
2006“Space Imagination”, etc. galerie, Prague, CZ Give Me the Brick, WNOD gallery, Prague
2005“Czech Republic”, Gallery Jelení, Foundation and Center for Contemporary Art Prague, Prague
“We Did Almost Everything” (with Jiří Thýn), Entrance Gallery, Prague
“Shopping Bag”, Preproduction space – gallery, Berlin
“If this Procedure Should Fail, We Will Try Another” (mit Eva Koťátková), Galerie im Alcatraz, Hallein
“VAU !”, Gallery Jeleni, Foundation and Center for Contemporary Art Prague, Prague
“Cottage Settlement”, Gallery of Young Artists, Brünn
2004“Dyzajn blok”, Goethe-Institut, Prague
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Group Exhibitions (Selection)

2022Curated by “KELET”, Gallery Krobath Vienna
2016“LABOR RELATIONS. FROM THE INTERNATIONAL CONTEMPORARY ART COLLECTION OF WROCŁAW CONTEMPORARY MUSEUM”, Wrocław Contemporary Museum, Polen
Printemps de Septembre, Toulouse, FR
2015The Structural Geology of Memory / Tektonika paměti, curated by Lucie and Anna Vartecka, Brno House of Arts, Brno
Silver Lining – 25 Years of the Chalupecky Award, Prague National Gallery, Trade Fair Palace, curated by Adam Budak and Jen Kratochvil
The Structural Geology of Memory / Tektonika pameti, curated by Lucie and
Corridor, curated by Lydia Pribisova, Tranzit.sk, Bratislava
public art project: Station Heaven, with Eva Kotatkova, Plzen Main Train Station
Notes on Sculpture, curated by Friederike Nymphius, Krobath, Vienna, AU
2014The Structural Geology of Memory / Tektonika paměti, curated by Lucie and Anna Vartecka, Galerie Emil Filla, Ustí nad Labem
Kdo na moje místo | Who in my place, curated by Zbyněk Baladrán and Marek Pokorný, galerie Gong, Ostrava City Gallery
Ce que raconte la solitude, curated by Elena Lydia Scipioni, Art-orama, Marseille, FR
Bílá tma | White Darkness, curated by Radim Langer, Galerie Etc, Prague
Beginning of the Century, curated by Pavlina Morganova, Ostrava Regional Gallery
Dominik Lang, Sao Paulo Bienal 2014, Galeria Lago, Inhotim, Brazil
“EVA KOTATKOVA & DOMINIK LANG”, Project Arts Centre – Gallery, Dublin
2013I Salute the Potter’s Clay, with Tom Godfrey, Karol Radziszewski, Marie Lund, Yonatan Vinitsky, curated by Eve Smith and Gemma Lloyd, Czarna Gallery, Warsaw, PL
„From Now On Everything Will Be Beautiful… „- Kisterem, Budapest
„Artists for Tichy – Tichy for Artists“, GASK – Galerie Středočeského kraje, Kutná Hora
Collection Joseph Kouli – Mains d’oeuvres, Saint Ouen
“émoi & moi”, MAC/VAL Musée d’art contemporain du Val-de-Marne, Vitry-sur-Seine
2012The Beginning of the Century, curated by Pavlina Morganová, Pilsen Regional Museum, Pilsen
Intense Proximity, La Trienniale, curated by Okwui Enwezor, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, FR
Islands of Resistance: Between the First and Second Modernity, 1985-2012, curated by Edith Jeřabková, and Jiří & Jana Sevčik, Prague National Gallery at the Trade Fair Palace, Prague
2011“Auxiliary Constructions – Behilfskonstruktionen”, Kunsthaus Dresden – Staedtische Galerie fuer Gegenwartskunst Dresden
“Finalists of the 2011 Jindřich Chalupecký Award”, Dox, Prague
“Les amis des mes amis sont mes amis, hommage a Ján Mančuška”, Galerie Jocelyn Wolff, Paris
“Sculpture in the Street”, DUMB: Dům umění v Brně, Brno Zentrum (mit M. Geiger & M. Mazanec), Czech Center Vienna & Austrian Cultural Forum, Prague
“The Art of Urban Intervention”, Emil Filla Gallery, Ustí nad Labem
2010“Don’t Forget the Flowers”, Moravian Gallery, Brno, CZ
“One Day You Will Lose It All”, 4+4+4 Days in Motion Festival, Prague
“5th Biennale of Young Artists”, House of the Stone Bell, Prague City Gallery City, Prague
“Dziewiec tytulow”, BWA Zielona Gora
“Boundary”, Gallery NoD, Prague
2009After Velvet, Prague City Gallery, House of the Golden Ring, Prague
White Paper, Black Bride, curated by Jiří Kovanda & Edita Jeřabková, Flashart Biennale 4, Karlín Hall, Prague
Zlin salon of Young Artists, Zlín
Easy Actions Without a Clear End / Azioni molto semplici senza uno scopo preciso, Artra, Milano, IT
Lived In Spaces, Krajska galerie Zlín
Memories of the Future, curated by Karel Císář, Galerie Vacláv Špála, Prague
Brno Art Open 2009, DUMB: Dům umění v Brně, Brno
“Vides (Empty spaces)”, Centre Pompidou, Paris
2008“Bewohnte Orte, Illusionen über die Stadt und das Land”, Kunstverein Springhornhof, Neuenkirchen, Neuenkirchen
“Love at First Site”, Gallery Futura, Prague
“MANUAL CC, Instructions for beginners and advanced players”, CSW Centrum Sztuki Wspolczesnej / Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw
“Contemporary Czech Cubism”, Old Town Hall, Prague City Gallery, Prague
“Move On”, Galley Futura, Prague, CZ Výstava Humhala, Galerie Jelení – Center for Contemporary Art, Prague
“Archive”, (mit Jiří Hůla), inaugural exhibition of DOX – Centre for Contemporary Art, Prague
2007“GNP2”, Mars Gallery, Moscow
“Hygiena”, Galerie Puda, Jihlava
“The Collectors: Live Re-Edit”, Dům panů z Kuštát, Brno
Glocal Outsiders, curated by Jiří David & Vasil Artamonov, Praguebiennale 3, Karlin Hall, Prague
“Leif Rumke Award”, ZKMax, Munich, DE Praguebiennale 3, Karlin Hall, Prague
“GNP”, Municipal Library, Prague City Gallery, Prague
“Invisible Things”, Trafo Gallery, Budapest
“Essl Award Finalists”, Gallery at the Academy of Fine Arts, Prague
2006“Sell Me Buy Me”, galerie U dobrého pasťye, Brno
“Finalists of the 2006 Jindřich Chalupecký Award”, DUMB: Dům umění v Brně, Brno
“I Invited a Few Friends to Come and Watch”, Galerija Nova / Galerija M. Kraljevice, Zagreb
“Indikace”, 4+4+4 Days in Motion Festival, Prague
“Martian Fields”, Galerie Mars,Moscow
“Eternal States”, Karlín Studios, Prague
“Gorkiewicz, Cheek, Lang, Meduna, Petiletá, Wolff”, Austrian Cultural Forum, Prague
“Office Art”, galerie c2c, Prague
Gallery Continua, 798, Peking, China Tannoy, Terrace, London, UK
“The Enormous Space”, Galerie C2C, Prague
2005“1811197604122005”, Plan B, Cluj
“Essl Award Finalists”, Academy of Fine Arts Gallery, Prague
“Fear in the City”, Galerie kritiků, Prague
“Contact 2005”, Galerie Klatovy, Klenová
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Publications, Catalogues

2012“Der heimliche Raum”, Tagesspiegel, Berlin
Revue 29-30 Labyrint, Praha
2011Dominik Lang – Private Collection, Berlin Art Jourmal
Dominik Lang – The Sleeping City, Praha
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