3x3 Czech Contemporary Art in Berlin with Martin Kohout

In this issue of the series Czech Contemporary Art in Berlin we
will introduce the multimedia artist Martin Kohout.


Martin Kohout was born 1984 in Prague, he graduated from the Film
and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (FAMU,
Department of Cinematography) and from the Städelschule in
Frankfurt (Simon Starling Studio). He also spent two years
studying at the Universität der Künste in Berlin (classes of
Alicja Kwade, Gregor Schneider). He works and lives in Berlin and
currently he is an assistant teacher at the Studio of Photography
at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague.


His multimedia work reacts to various life situations, the
incomprehensibility of the contemporary world and the inability
of individuals to navigate in it. Kohout’s major theme is the
medium of the internet and the self-reflection of man in global
communication which brings conflicting experience – intimacy and
aggression, self-confidence and helplessness.


In the past years, he has introduced his work in the Czech as
well as international context at solo and collective exhibitions,
e.g. in New York, Beijing, Tokyo, Berlin, Paris and Sofia. At the
Czech Centre in Berlin, his work was part of the exhibition
“Healing” curated by Tereza Jindrová in 2018.
In 2010, he was one of the finalists of Germany’s Marler
Videokunst-Preis. In 2008, he won the Other Visions Award at the
Festival of Film Animation in Olomouc, Czech Republic. In 2014 he
was nominated for and in 2017 he won the Jindřich Chalupecký
Award, the recognized Czech award for young artists under the age
of 35.


If you want to learn more about Martin Kohouts artworks, have a
look at his website, watch an interview with him about the award
winning video "Slides" from 2017 or this video-interview by AQNB
Production from 2015 . And check out his galleries, Polansky
Gallery in Prague and the EXILE Gallery in Berlin and the website
of his publishing house tltr.biz. On Instagram you find Martin
Kohout as well as the publishing house.


Czech Contemporary Art in Berlin is an online series by the Czech
Centre Berlin about contemporary art in times of Corona. We
present artists with Czech and/or Slovak roots, living in Berlin.
The format is 3x3: 3 minutes about the place, where the artist
works, 3 minutes about what keeps them busy right now and 3
minutes about themselves. In order for you to also see some of
their work, they take over the Czech Centre’s Instagram account
on the afternoon after 2 pm on the day, the podcast is published.


Photo: Martin Kohout: Slides, 2017 (videostill, Asli and Sung)