Michal Šiml in the Prague Karlin Studios

Michal Šiml in the Karlin Studios As the artist (member of the art group Pode Bal) himself claims, the title of his exhibition – “Some Places in an Anthropological Museum Witness the Shift of the Connection Point” – is a sentence quoted from the book by Carlos Castaneda. It concerns the Anthropological Museum in Mexico City which Šiml had a chance to visit in 2002, coping with the pre-Columbian sculpture as well as with a very specific museum space. He made photographs of the displayed sculptures, but the medium of photography did not suffice to understand them. The captions under the works, provided by the museum, did not satisfy him either. He eventually decided to deal with the objects in the medium of painting in order to grasp their message in full. The collection simulating the contents of the Anthropological Museum, exhibited in the Karlin Studios, thus turns into a peculiar interpretation of the pre-Columbian sculpture expressed via painting. The expressive painting style is almost monochrome and focuses on grey shades. And why Michal Šiml decided to exhibit solo, outside his art group? He explains that he again wants to be responsible for his own work. Michal Šiml, Some Places in an Anthropological Museum Witness the Shift of the Connection Point Karlin Studios, Prague 4 December 2008 – 4 January 2009