Ján Mancuska’s first solo exhibition in London erases the boundaries between filmic, performative, and sculptural practices, an endeavor that has characterized much of the Czech artist’s previous work. The installation, Sorry for being so late (all works 2007), comprises an oversize light box illuminating sixty-four filmstrips, hung vertically from a square grid of points. These 35-mm color strips depict part of a park in Prague frequented by the artist. Formally sophisticated although direct in its concept, the piece fluidly combines time, space, and personal experience. By incorporating imperfect compositions and idiosyncratically individual memories, Mancuska adds a sense of warmth to the rigid physical equations that govern time and space. Though it escapes narrative, Sorry for being so late expresses the morbid attention often directed at an artist’s private life. Because the filmed action is presented through these hanging stills, aspects such as rhythm and sound are missing, encouraging viewers to create their own stories. The descriptively titled installation I asked my wife to blacken all the parts of my body which I cannot see, displayed in the gallery’s second room, explores the boundary between public and personal spheres. The piece’s constituent parts—filmstrips hung in front of a light box—remain the same as in the other work, although this installation offers a less haptic experience than the first one, into which a visitor can enter. The linear arrangement of the black-and-white filmstrips further emphasizes the juxtaposition of a meticulous, serialized process and a poetic, nonsensical gesture.
