Czech sculptor Kristof Kintera twists aluminum barriers into 'Paradise'

"Paradise Now!" by Kristof Kintera at Art on Lake Photograph by Stefan van Drake (2011)

“The art object does not mingle with the everyday object, but rather distinguishes itself by its non-functional character. The artist thus draws the viewer´s attention to those characteristics which are not related to tangible usefulness.”

--Kristof Kintera, July 2011

Czech contemporary artist Kristof Kintera loves twisting reality into new perceptions.

“I am trying to bend and warp reality, sometimes using minimum effort, sometimes with a lot of effort,” he said online about one of his shows.

One of Kintera´s latest reality-warping works is nestled as an ominous but friendly barrier to viewers of the Museum of Fine Arts Budapest current show, Art on Lake.

Prague-based Kintera joins 24 other European Union contemporary sculptors in Art on Lake, which started 22 May and ends 4 September at City Park Lake, Budapest.

He calls it “Paradise Now!”: aluminum antlers welded onto the kind of aluminum barriers Budapest riot police (and others) used on 18 June at Oktogon Square to fence in protesters against a gay pride parade.

In an interview with Csilla Regos, printed in early Art on Lake literature, Kintera said:

“In the case of the stags born of railing, for instance, the structure, the combination of individual elements comes across much better.

“The whole thing acts as a structure rather than a figure.”

Curators--Krisztina Jerger, Dr. Alexander Tolnay and Peter Fitz (or just one of them)--wrote in the Art on Lake Catalogue, released earlier this month, noting the deer have appeared in previous shows:

“Their removal (“Paradise Now!”) to the open air and water is something completely different, tender and ironic, turning the cold and unmoving nature of the barriers into a ridiculous and laughable phenomenon.”

It wouldn´t be the first time that Kintera´s works evoked laughter.

He´s got YouTube videos of an electric drill having apparent sexual intercourse with a vacuum cleaner; in another, a saw makes mad passionate love with a real melon.

In “I am sick of it all!”—Kintera, in an exhibition he called, “Gross Domestic Product,” displays a poster of a shoe box with a turd inside it.

“I was just trying to be provocative and to take this everyday object – after all each of us produces these things every day—and juxtapose it with the most well known symbol of Czech economic success. It´s a provocation,” the artist wrote.

He also said of “I am sick of it all!”: “Well, it´s simple. Basically it´s a kind of provocation. I´m also a very big fan of shit because it´s a kind of taboo.”

Yet, the 37-year-old artist, in his interview with Csilla Regos, denies he´s a provocateur.

Q. So, you´re not provocative?

A. (Kintera) “I´m not. But I don´t mind if my works set the senses in motion.”

Kintera concluded by telling Regos: “Believe it or not, despite the examples cited here, I prefer fine and gentle things….that minute distinction.”

Kintera works in a variety of media: spray pint, video, photography, installations, moving or speaking objects and performances, “pondering the various levels of the reality which surround us: advertising, consumerism, design, symbols of communication.”

(Kintera in artist´s statement, UNDABDIEPOST2002 –Fifth Festival of Contemporary Art, “Insideout”, Berlin 10 October 2002.)

"Paradise Now!" by Kristof Kintera at Art on Lake Photograph by Stefan van Drake (2011)

Rock on and practice peace and love.

Stefan, the ArtTraveler ™

ArtTraveler notes:

After living at the Hotel Queen Mary in Budapest (3.5 stars), I heartily recommend it: old on the outside, otherwise totally modern (23 rooms); 

The owner and staff are affable and speak English and German. Tel: 0036-1-413-3510; www.hotelqueenmary.hu; info@hotelqueenmary.hu.

Visit Andalusia for a walking holiday or week-long sculpture or mosaics workshop. 

See: www.spanjeanders.nl and www.competafinearts.com.

"Spanish Life Stilled," photograph by Stefan van Drake (2009)

You may reach me at stefanvandrake@gmail.com or by calling (34) 915 067 703 or from the UK at BT landline rates, 0844 774 8349.