For Art Rotterdam 2021 we will prepare a duo presentation of work by
Martin Lukáč (1989, Slovakia) and Maarten Nico (1990, The Netherlands). Artists with very contrasting practices, who nonetheless share a common mission: to use ironic elements of style to surpass irony itself, in an attempt to arrive at a sincere artistic message. In the months leading up to the fair, Maarten Nico will use a mobile, sculptural stage for recitation to give impromptu performances throughout the Netherlands. Documentation of these performances will be presented in the booth as a video piece. The stage itself will occupy different roles during the fair. It will be mounted on the wall as an autonomous piece and it will be placed on the floor as a platform
for poetic engagement.
Through painting, Martin Lukáč tries to find out what morally ambiguous ideas like pride, strength, and masculinity still have to offer to a young, ambitious contemporary artist living in Prague. The self-aware, hesitant machismo one can find in his often large-scale paintings will emphasize the fragile heroism of Maarten Nico's work by contrast. The works presented in Rotterdam will be his first pieces in a horizontal format.
Both artists will make new works for the fair and will use the
booth for performative actions. Martin will strike a pose for his social media accounts while Maarten will be there to connect the everyday with the cosmic connotations of images and language. The way of least resistance versus the exhausting ascent of mount Olympus, captured in deliberately banal but energetic acts of painting and the philosophical experience of keepsakes.