Oskár Čepan

Erik Sikora (1986, Košice), also known under the monikers džumelec, hrozprávkar, bazénbudhista, mesiačikár (approximately shmartist, hairy tale teller, swimming pool Buddhist, moon man, respectively) – is a phenomenon that defies categorization and whose impact reaches beyond the boundaries of the arts scene. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague (2005 – 2011), where he moved between several studios. He is known to the public as a youtuber, whose videos are probably best described as “wacky”. It is impossible to tell with any certainty whether Sikora’s identity as a “wacky youtuber” is a sophisticated marketing strategy or an authentic form of self-expression. Irony and seriousness, depth and shallowness – Sikora combines all thinkable opposites almost as convincingly as a Zen philosopher. He finds inspiration in the whole range of experience and phenomena of everyday life, from strolls in the countryside to gardening, relations with neighbors, local dialects, the world of childhood games, polystyrene-based heat insulation of buildings, or waste dumps. His multimedia outputs (videos, concerts, lectures, installations) are characterized by work with found materials and a cheap DIT aesthetic, or – to put it differently – amateurism in the best sense of the word. A typical feature of his style (he usually performs in his own videos as the main protagonist) is a certain puerility and naiveté, it therefore does not come as a surprise that he also recorded a music album of songs for children under the Džumelec moniker (Jeleň zeleň, 2015). His video with the most views is Rejoicing (Tešenie, 2014) – a manual for improving one’s mood by means of rapid skipping and waving your arms in the air. The video’s witty, almost absurdist form (here as in many others) hides an important and honest message of joy, lightheartedness, and optimism. Sikora won the Oskár Čepan Award in 2019, the finalists' exhibition Ecology of Desire took place in the East Gallery in Košice. The other finalists were Jan Durina, Dávid Koronczi, Milan Mazúr and Gabriela Zigová and it was historically the first year when the international jury selected five finalists.