2024-05-09 21:24:01
Man and the mask in its various forms. Portrait photographer Vojtěch Vlk has been researching the phenomenon interwoven throughout the entire history of mankind for a long time. His latest exhibition at Prague’s Rock Café club focuses on masks in music. On large-format black and white and color images, we can find Michael Kocáb, Jana Uriel Kratochvílova or, for example, Václav Noid Bárta from the metal band Dymytra.
“I started photographing masks many years ago in Moravia, where I come from. I vividly remember all the children’s carnivals I experienced in a mask, the most probably the one I went to with my classmates dressed as the band Kiss,” says photographer Vojtěch Vlk , who, in addition to freelance work, is currently mainly engaged in portrait and corporate photography.
In addition to the phenomenon of masks, he also deals with spirituality through his photographs. In 2016, in collaboration with the Kant publishing house, he published the book TranSpiRituals, which is composed of black-and-white documentary and portrait photographs mapping spirituality and rituals across world religions.
“The latest exhibition by Vojtěch Vlk in Prague’s Rock Café thematizes the mask phenomenon in contemporary music. The collection of large-format black and white and color photographs maps solo performers, but also groups (mainly from the Czech scene) who chose to partially or completely cover their faces during their performances,” states the curator Zara Wildmoons and adds that the topic of masks is a lifelong, continuous, intense and evolving puzzle for the Wolf.
“He explores it with the childlike curiosity of an artist. This time the search led him to another topic close to him, namely music,” reports Wildmoons. According to her, the photographer sees the mask as “the visual context of the musicians’ artistic performance” or as a ritualized object that, among other things, gives “the courage not to be afraid to express yourself freely, to be crazy and to perform in front of an audience.”
In the ensemble selected for the exhibition space in Rock Café Prague, we can find, for example, Jana Uriel Kratochvílova, the industrial-folk band Kittchen, the metal band Dymytry, the alternative Kabaret Dr. Caligari, but also Peruvian DJ Cesar Chunk, Mexican Austin TV or the British duo I Monster and many others.
Vojtěch Vlk: Masked Musicians
Photo exhibition at the Rock Café Prague club, curated by Zara Wildmoons. The opening took place on May 7, the exhibition will last from May 8 to June 7. Free entry. You can find more information about the photographer and his other pictures on the website www.vojtechvlk.com, on Facebook or on Instagram.