Libor Novotný / Kukačka

Libor Novotný (1979, Železný Brod) had been profiling himself as an author of interventions in the public space already during his studies. Their essence is usually constituted by semantic base, yet the formal articulation of the concrete text expressions is equally important. In his intervention series Střety (Conflicts, 2007), the author has put laconic texts made of branches into treetops, frequently ironically reflecting the local context (e.g. the title SPARTA at the entrance of the football stadium of FC Baník Ostrava, SPARTA’s sworn rival, or the title WAKE UP! At the Gallery of Visual Arts in Ostrava, etc.) The author’s hobby of creating surprising stimuli for viewer’s attention was going along with his interest in the processional part of an artwork, which is, especially in a public space, exposed to several more or less predictable factors. Some of his interventions are primarily focusing on the cultivation of public space. Wherever they appear, they may, under certain circumstances, take up the role of a magnetizing fetish (based on the text by Tomáš Knoflíček).