Although Hofmann {*93} works mainly in the field of performance, his artistic practice reaches out to various other fields and media: he relates to the artistic milieu as well as the world of fashion, where he is occasionally active as a stylist and model, and he is also busy as a curator.
As an artist who grew up in Prague during the 90s and who is now staging performances across the countries of an increasingly unstable European Union, contingency and informality are reoccurring elements in the narrative of his life. He spends his time moving from place to place, leaving behind drops of lavender oil on the bedsheets he sleeps in. A nature child living within urban surroundings, he uses performance as a means to create archipelagos of increased presence that block out the feelings of desensation and dissociation awaiting outside the gallery door.
Hofmann’s works involve a carefully curated group of actants chosen from his immediate social surroundings. While he does take a leading role during the preparation of the pieces, he blends in with the crowd as soon as the performance starts. Along with his peers, he slides down museum handrails, deforms his face by pressing it against panes of glass and forms a red line between his body and theirs using thread and a sewing needle. At some point, the group stands still in formation as if posing for a fashion editorial, pretty and unbothered faces clad in deconstructed garments.
At a glance, this gasping and drenched clan enact separation issues, fears for the future, feelings of ineptitude and desensitization. However, within what appears anxious and strained, the artist provides a counterbalance effect of amusement and explorative play. These movements analyze the limits of a constructed reality and sense of self in order to reveal or will an alternate in which we have the power to act.
Exhibitions/ Projects:
2019 Project with S A V V Y Contemporary, Berlin; 2019 Project with Art in General, New York; 2018 Jindrich Chalupecky art award exhibition, National Gallery Prague; 2018 A guiding dog for a blind dog curation, Futura Gallery Prague; 2018 Casting direction for Prague fashion week; 2017 Anaerobic respiration workshop, Klinika Autonomous Social Centre, Prague; 2017 Holly Herndon vocal ensemble styling, Wiener Festwoche, Vienna; 2017 Phantom limb performance, Danish National Gallery, Copenhagen; 2017 Enzyme performance, Galerie Frangulyan, Paris; 2017 Dry me a river performance, Bauhaus Plato Ostrava; 2017 Frenzied chirping 2/2 performance, Pane per Poveri Festival, Athens; 2017 Frenzied chirping 1/2 performance, Daily lazy projects, Athens; 2017 Ecocore launch performance, Motto books berlin; 2016 Retrospektiva performance, National Gallery, Prague; 2016 Ecocore narcissus publication contribution, Ecocore magazine; 2016 scene afterform publication contribution, Migros Museum; 2016 l’eau des algues performance with nils amadeus lange, Manifesta Art Biennial, Cabaret Voltaire Zurich; 2016 laformela fashion show styling, Prague fashion week;
Honors and Awards: 2018 Jindrich Chalupecky Award
Support: Lukas Hofmann’s residency is made possible with support from the Trust for Mutual Understanding.
