Vladimír Turner
audiovisual artist
I am an intermedia artist, filmmaker, performer, and author of interventions in public space. In my work I have long engaged with themes of Anthropocene civilization – the relationship between humans and the landscape, environmental devastation, urban gentrification, mass tourism, or the mechanisms of consumption and production. I seek to give these themes the form of simple but striking gestures in public space, videos, performances, or object-based installations. I am particularly interested in personal and collective responsibility toward the planet and in the possibility of more sustainable ways of living. I studied at the Center for Audiovisual Studies at FAMU and at the Intermedia Confrontation Studio at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague. I have completed a number of residencies abroad and exhibit primarily at international festivals focused on art in public space. In the field of film, I have received several awards in the Czech Republic and abroad. Recently I published the book Beranidlo imaginace: Příručka městské neposlušnosti (Battering Ram of Imagination: Urban Disobedience Toolkit), which is part of a broader project connected with my feature-length film Veřejně prospěšné práce (Urban Disobedience Toolkit).
In mentoring I can offer consultations and the development of works across media, often in relation to public space, climate justice, and current socio-political issues. I am used to working with limited or no budget, which motivates a practice that often relies on upcycling and improvisation. I have experience with different ways of “hacking” public space and addressing audiences outside gallery institutions – this kind of contact with lived reality is essential for me. I am also interested in how to remediate such actions so that their transfer into the gallery or the cinema does not become merely a neutered form of documentation. I work with a film language that moves between experimental video art, carefully crafted conceptual outputs, and documentary film. I often collaborate with active residents, civic associations, non-profit organizations, or grassroots collectives, and I consider the entire process of making the work – sometimes physically demanding or improvised – to be an integral part of the artwork. Mentoring is therefore suitable for artists who do not think rigidly within a single medium, are not afraid to step outside their comfort zone, and understand art as a form of sharing, public service, and collective learning about the urgent issues of the world.