Satellite lives

In summer 2011 K.A.I.R. (Košice Artist in Residence) hosted artists Anne Peschken and Marek Pisarsky from the Urban Art formation. Their three months residency was an opportunity to study and interact with the local art scene as well as the city itself.

 

Both artists participated in several cultural events and quickly became familiar with the capital of Eastern Slovakia. Their attention was aimed on the multicultural past of Košice and the contrasts present in the city – old and new, nature and man, rural versus the enormous socialist concrete tower-blocks (panelaks). Their interest was also in the unique location of Košice on the edge of the Schengen area, a border region between Slovakia, Poland, Hungary and Ukraine.

 

Space life in Košice

The name of the exposition of their three months stay in Košice, Satellite Lives, sounds mysterious, but has a very simple explanation. As they have stated in the publication of their work on Košice: “To begin a residency feels like being catapulted into a new orbit. It’s a bit like beginning a journey into unknown territory, an exploration of a new cosmos, a hyperspace.” In addition, several of the city districts are named after the Russian Lunar Space Mission – Luniks I-IX. These districts are mostly made by blocks of flats built in the 60s and 70s when Košice rapidly grew as a steel centre of Czechoslovakia.

 

(R)evolution of the city

The stodgy grey tower-blocks were enliven by various art pieces. Most of the steel sculptures are present still today. Nowadays the blocks are being reconstructed from the outside and painted with vivid colors. “Košice is a very interesting place to live and work in. You can really see how the city grew. You see the old parts with houses in the valley, further on, there are the socialist tower-blocks and right next to them is the nature, woods that have been there before the tower blocks,” said Marek Pisarsky.

The socialist boom and city change is the theme of another output of their stay - a video called Flying Panelaks. The Urban Art formation tried to describe the process of changes in the environment when a city is being built. Their way of expressing the change is to see the panelaks as some sort of landing spaceships, something unnatural that suddenly appears in the nature as the city extends.

“The residency was a very interesting experience. It gives you freedom to observe, to know new places and meet new people. We got to know the local art scene and have met many artists, who we are willing to collaborate with us in the near future,” pointed out Anne Peschken.

The work of the Urban Art duo can be seen in the East-Slovakian Gallery in Košice until May 6^th 2012.