Oskár Čepan

I am a graduate of the Intermedia Studio at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Brno, co-founder and one of the key members of the interdisciplinary association INSTITUT INSTITUT. I operate on the contemporary art, dance and music scene (here under the pseudonym Panáčik - means something like a little toy boy/figurine). Together with Tereza Sikorová, also as an authorial duo, we have long been engaged in a series of projects developing the concept of the so-called post-clown, manifesting itself through site-specific performative interventions and short films. We named and notarized the post-clown genre in 2019 during a public performance that included, among others, an invited audience of regular clowns. I also frequently appear in the work of other artists as co-producer, dramaturg, technician, editor and in rare cases as a freelance curator. Currently I am also a PhD student at the Department of Theory and History of Art at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Brno. My works have been shown in more than sixty galleries, festivals, theatres, magazines and radio in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, as well as in Germany, Austria, Bulgaria, Poland and the UK. For example, most recently I had a billiard table massaged in the National Gallery in Prague. I have participated in residencies at institutions such as Banská St a nica contemporary (2023); Egon Schiele Art Centre (2022), Czech Center, Sofia (2019); Brno House of Art (2019). In 2024, for our intervention "Dead in the Pool," a five-hour performance in which nothing happens except for the presence of a clown as a lifeguard and paranoid people swimming, I was announced as a finalist for the prestigious Art Grand Slam art prize of the Sport in Art platform, for which the work will be exhibited during the upcoming Summer Olympics in Paris (boom!). Since my high school days, I have received numerous awards and nominations in the fields of moving image and popular music. The truth is, I started this "art" stuff before I even started touching myself, and without anyone forcing me to do it. From time to time, through someone else's doing, I win something within the group, not that it matters (guilt!). After all, we all won from among so many sperm.

Statement

I've been called a renaissance man. I would call myself rather the McGyver of contemporary art. My work is typical for its media variability and adaptability to the presented situation, often with elements of subversion and humour. I have long been involved in the use of choreography to explore human behaviour in relation to the shaping of socio-cultural space. In doing so, I draw on insights from the fields of social psychology, biological evolution, everyday experience of reality and pop culture. This is further reflected in my gallery and site-specific projects, interventions in public (and private) space, choreographic experiments, audio/visual works and texts. A specific aspect of my activities is the frequent inclusion and bridging of significant personalities and institutions across the cultural spectrum. In my spare time I like to cook, read, exercise, feed balcony pigeons, play various musical instruments, write, people watch, listen, debate, clean, watch movies (in that order). I'd like to travel more and get rid of my last unhealthy addiction (social media).