The artwork titled Object That Will Be Donated to the Nitra Gallery was exhibited at Nitra Gallery’s Youth Gallery in 2013 as a part of the In Process exhibition. The main concept of the exhibition focused on making the viewer pay attention to the process of creating works of art. More about the exhibition can be found here
The object has been created with a minimum interference from the artist himself. It is a ready-made object – a heating body of a boiler that was being affected by water for 30 years. The chemical process of corrosion has been recorded in the corroded material itself. Besides its purely utilitarian function, the object also has an aesthetic value as it resembles abstract or minimalist statues of the 1960s. Matejka has even emphasised this by putting it on a stand.
An important angle of the artwork, that is also referred to by its title, is the process of the change of ownership. After the exhibition was over, it was donated and signed over to the Nitra Gallery collection fund. The act can be perceived as the final touch in the process of the artwork – it was no longer “will be” donated, but rather “was” donated. On the other hand, this artful move enabled the young artist to get his work into a collection of a prestigious Slovak gallery institution that can only have a positive effect on his professional reputation.
Lukáš Matejka (*1987) finished his doctoral studies of the Free Fine Art major program at the Faculty of Fine Arts at the Academy of Arts in Banská Bystrica in 2016. He also worked there as a freelance educator. His projects are usually signed by his artistic pseudonym “Akjetam produkt” [“Ifthereis aproduct”]. His early works were mostly based on the medium of painting, but he gradually started to lean towards motion picture, where he especially focused on videoart. In 2006, he started to use new media when he worked at the Studio of Digital Media (led by doc. Michal Murin, ArtD.) at the Academy of Arts in Banská Bystrica. The process of creation is the predominant factor in his works and it is superior even to the actual result. He mostly focuses on the current forms of media art, including video, short film, net-art, multimedia projects, interactive installations, performance, VJ-ing, but also graphic design. His themes are usually based on social research, the contrast between people and nature, intimacy, perception, but also different counterparts, like a multi-layer criticism of war and institutions. Lukáš Matejka is the founder, coordinator and curator of the Videoart Match project, he is a member of the TRAKT artist association and Association of Creatives. In 2008, he actively participated at the Cinematik film festival in Piešťany where he curated the Videoart section. He also co-operated with the Studio of Dance in Banská Bystrica and created multiple projections for theatre plays. He also works with the DigiVAF(ex) platform, the Platform for Contemporary Dance, the P.A.T. theatre, the Kremnické gagy festival, the Pôtoň Bátovce theatre and others. He lives and works in Trenčín and Banská Bystrica.
— Omar Mirza, September 2017
Inventory No.: P 452
Artist: Lukáš Matejka
Title: Object That Will Be Donated to the Nitra Gallery
Year: 2013
Technique: ready-made
Material: corroded metal
Dimensions: height 103 cm, circumference 55 cm
Signature: none