01 december 2023, Flor Linckens
The living road: where imagination and reality converge
Until 10 December, Art Gallery O-68 in Velp is presenting a solo exhibition by Dutch artist Tony Dočekal. Today, the 1st of December, the artist will receive the Burgemeester de Bruijnprijs 2023.
"The Living Road," the project that Dočekal has been focusing on for three years now, is inspired by the American West, specifically the challenges of a nomadic existence. The artist's practice, primarily consisting of photography and video, centers around individuals who live off the beaten path, often people without a permanent roof over their heads. Dočekal captures them without idealising their lifestyle; she always considers the poverty, trauma, and inequality that underlie their situation and portrays them not as "the other" or as victims, but rather as equals. As complex individuals who experience both highs and lows but are often overlooked by our society. The artist is interested in how social and economic forces can shape individual identities.
At the same time, she questions what we consider the norm, prevailing conventions in our society, and, by extension, what we perceive as 'home.' Dočekal uses the journey here as a metaphor for a quest for maturity. Much like road movies, the focus is not so much on the destination but rather on the transformative journey itself and everything you experience along the way. Her slow, analog work process gives her the time necessary to connect with the people she captures. She makes them visible and empowers them.
For instance, Dočekal received a Zilveren Camera Portrait award for her portrait of Chad, a piece also featured in the exhibition at Art Gallery O-68. Chad is a man from Los Angeles without a permanent address. One day, he woke up to find his clothes had been stolen. In this photograph, we see his cheerful solution to the problem: a festive pink dress. Simultaneously, the work implicitly alludes to the problematic homeless shelters in Los Angeles during the pandemic, which resulted in large encampments due to reduced shelter capacity and a lack of alternatives.
