Monologika - Yoyo 1.,2. (U.F.O.)

1982 - Photography (Photography)

8,1 x 11,6 x 2 cm

Julius Koller

location: Pieštany, Slovenská Republika
year born: 1939
gender: male
nationality: Slovakian

The photograph Monologic – Yo-Yo 1, 2 (U. F. O.), (1982), shows Koller playing with a big white Yo-Yo in a drab concrete building among a group of tower blocks. For him, games like ping-pong or the yo-yo representsed the possibility of a more playful society in the face of socialist standardization. Koller’s semiological manipulations of landscape and topography, of places and (his own) faces, investigate the possibilities of shifting meaning by the simplest alterations. In deadpan-humorist fashion, most poignantly displayed in a series of photo-portraits that cover a period of more than four decades, he systematically explores the relationship between art and alienation, or the idea of art as alienation. “U. F. O.-naut J. K.” becomes the artist’s altered ego, an extraterrestrial maker and distributor of universal signs: question marks, Ping-Pong balls, or wave lines, a more recent signature symbol, formed by tennis balls in a swimming pool in 1992 or drawn on the floor in the “antiperformance” Nova vaznost’, 1991.” (Tom Holert, Artforum, October, 2004).


In its stringency, obsession and peculiarity, the oeuvre of Julius Koller is one of the most idiosyncratic and consistent in European art since the 1960s. Yet Koller is not only a seminal figure in the history of the neo- and post-avant-garde; his work has long been a critical inspiration for artists and intellectuals. In the most recent past, Koller’s concepts of the Anti-Happening, the Anti-Picture, the Universal-cultural Futurological Operation (U.F.O.), his actions, objects, texts and the enormous referential archive he built up, have attracted growing interest on the part of a broader art public. From around 1960, in response to the modernist mainstream in Slovak art, Julius Koller began to develop his aesthetic position of the “antihappening.” His strategy consists in using real objects and everyday life as the predefined program for an aesthetic operation: from 1965, in texts rubberstamped on paper that refer to the context of the “anti-happening,” and then in 1967/1968 in pictures for which Koller used white latex paint instead of oils and which saw the first appearance of the question mark—the symbol of Koller’s brands of naming, or “making known,” that was later to undergo many mutations in various media and states of aggregation. The “invitation cards for an idea”—as Koller called the text works relating to the “anti-happenings”—and the palimpsests and serial arrangements of the “anti-pictures” set themselves apart from the academicism of Modernism in more than just formal terms. Koller foregoes every form of technical mastery. The “anti-pictures” are amateurish in style, ensuring that they fulfill their task, defined by Koller as “engaging rather than arranging.” Julius Koller was born in 1939 in Piestany, Slovakia. He died in 2007 in Bratislava.


Colors:



Related works featuring themes of: » Performance Art, » Slovakian  
» see more

Slowed-down Journey
© » KADIST

Roman Ondak

2003

As the caption purposely admits, these drawings were made by friends of Ondák’s at home in Slovakia asked to interpret places he has journeyed to...

The Stray Man
© » KADIST

Roman Ondak

2006

“A man wanders near the windows of a gallery, situated adjacent to the street...

Awaiting Enacted
© » KADIST

Roman Ondak

2003

This work needs to be considered in relation to one of his performances during which people were made to queue in front of the Kunsthalle of Frankfurt in 2003 (Tate Collection)...

Mickey Mouse
© » KADIST

Paul McCarthy

2010

To make Mickey Mouse (2010), Paul McCarthy altered a found photograph—not of the iconic cartoon, but of a man costumed as Mickey...

Other related works, blended automatically  
» see more

Slowed-down Journey
© » KADIST

Roman Ondak

2003

As the caption purposely admits, these drawings were made by friends of Ondák’s at home in Slovakia asked to interpret places he has journeyed to...

The Stray Man
© » KADIST

Roman Ondak

2006

“A man wanders near the windows of a gallery, situated adjacent to the street...

Mother Pig, Shushi Gallery, San Diego Performance
© » KADIST

Paul McCarthy

1983

McCarthy’s Mother Pig performance at Shushi Gallery in 1983 was the first time he used a set, a practice which came to characterize his later works...

Related works sharing similar palette  
» see more

Anatomy of Landscape - Jos 25
© » KADIST

Abraham Oghobase

2018

This series of photographs is inspired by the artist’s travels to Jos, Nigeria...

ALICEGAVINSERVICES™
© » SLASH PARIS

ALICEGAVINSERVICES™ — La MABA — Exposition — Slash Paris Connexion Newsletter Twitter Facebook ALICEGAVINSERVICES™ — La MABA — Exposition — Slash Paris Français English Accueil Événements Artistes Lieux Magazine Vidéos Retour ALICEGAVINSERVICES™ Exposition Design, graphisme, techniques mixtes Derniers Jours Alice Gavin, ALICEGAVINSERVICES™, sans titre Crédit photo : Léonard Méchineau ALICEGAVINSERVICES™ Encore 6 jours : 14 septembre → 17 décembre 2023 Cet automne, dans le cadre de sa saison dédiée au design graphique, la MABA présente, du 14 septembre au 17 décembre, une exposition consacrée à ALICEGAVINSERVICES™...

ALICEGAVINSERVICES™
© » SLASH PARIS

ALICEGAVINSERVICES™ — La MABA — Exhibition — Slash Paris Login Newsletter Twitter Facebook ALICEGAVINSERVICES™ — La MABA — Exhibition — Slash Paris English Français Home Events Artists Venues Magazine Videos Back ALICEGAVINSERVICES™ Exhibition Design, graphic design, mixed media Closing Alice Gavin, ALICEGAVINSERVICES™, sans titre Crédit photo : Léonard Méchineau ALICEGAVINSERVICES™ Ends in 6 days: September 14 → December 17, 2023 Cet automne, dans le cadre de sa saison dédiée au design graphique, la MABA présente, du 14 septembre au 17 décembre, une exposition consacrée à ALICEGAVINSERVICES™...

Other works by: » Julius Koller  
» see more

Anti-Happening
© » KADIST

Julius Koller

Anti-Happening refers to Koller’s 1965 manifesto, ‘Anti-Happening (System of Subjective Objectivity)’...

UFO-Expedition (U.F.O.)
© » KADIST

Julius Koller

1982

Wordplay was a central focus of Koller’s work, in particular the acronym U...

Demonstrative Cultural Situation 1,2 (U.F.O.)
© » KADIST

Julius Koller

1989

Wordplay was a central focus of Koller’s work, in particular the acronym U...

The Making of Monster
© » KADIST

Douglas Gordon

1996

In Monster (1996-97), the artist’s face becomes grotesque through the application of strips of transparent adhesive tape, typical of Gordon’s performance-based films that often depict his own body in action...

AUTOTROFIA
© » KADIST

Anton Vidokle

2020

Shot in Oliveto Lucano, a village in the south of Italy, AUTOTROFIA (meaning self-eating) by artist Anton Vidokle is a cinéma vérité style film that slides fictive characters into real situations, and vice-versa, to draw a prolonged meditation on the cycle of life, seasonal renewal, and ecological awareness...

XXX…I had arranged to meet some friends at 7:40pm
© » KADIST

Jiri Kovanda

1977

All Kovanda’s artistic practice poses the question of visibility...

The Stray Man
© » KADIST

Roman Ondak

2006

“A man wanders near the windows of a gallery, situated adjacent to the street...

Related works found in the same semantic group  
» see more

This Bay Area Filipino Streetwear Is a Favorite Among Rappers and Rebels
© » KQED

This Bay Area Filipino Streetwear Is a Favorite Among Rappers and Rebels | KQED Skip to Nav Skip to Main Skip to Footer Arts & Culture This Bay Area Filipino Streetwear Is a Favorite Among Rappers and Rebels Dario McCarty Dec 13 Save Article Save Article Failed to save article Please try again Facebook Share-FB Twitter Share-Twitter Email Share-Email Copy Link Copy Link Jaden Yo-Eco (left) and Humbert Lee pose for a portrait at Lee’s home in Daly City on Nov...

Incense Burners
© » KADIST

Yo Daham

2020

Yo Daham has been knitting, which he initially took up as a daily pastime, to produce objects that function as an incense burner by releasing smoke...

Frequencies of Tradition at Incheon Art Platform
© » KADIST

Frequencies of Tradition at Incheon Art Platform, Curated by Hyunjin Kim With works by Sooryeon Choe, Chung Seoyoung, Yoeri Guépin, Ho Tzu Nyen, Chia Wei Hsu, siren eun young jung, Jane Jin Kaisen, Alexander Keefe + Ashoke Chatterjee & Liz Phillips, Tomoko Kikuchi, Ayoung Kim, Gala Porras-Kim, Seulgi Lee, Young Min Moon, Hwayeon Nam, Part-time Suite, Ko Sakai & Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Lieko Shiga, Simon Soon + Roger Nelson & Stella, Stephanie Spray & Pacho Velez, Erika Tan, Fiona Tan, Evelyn Taocheong Wang, Wang Tuo, Ming Wong, Yo Daham, and Zheng Guogu Frequencies of Tradition departs from an understanding of tradition as a space of contestation, where one can critically reflect on Asian modernization and pluralize our comprehension of the regional modern...

Lisl Steiner, Photographer Who Glimpsed Luminaries Up Close, Dies at 95
© » NYTIMES LENS

Lisl Steiner, Photographer Who Glimpsed Luminaries Up Close, Dies at 95 - The New York Times Arts | Lisl Steiner, Photographer Who Glimpsed Luminaries Up Close, Dies at 95 https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/18/arts/lisl-steiner-dead.html Give this article Share full article 5 Advertisement SKIP ADVERTISEMENT Lisl Steiner, a flamboyant photojournalist who was celebrated for her intimate, emotive images of history-tilting figures like Fidel Castro, John F...