Bio

Jakub Jansa is an artist who works with film, installation, and performance. His exhibition series Club of Opportunities features a hybrid figure of a human and a celery root. Through this figure, he explores issues of hierarchy, class, and cultural relationships. He employs fiction, humor, and elements of the grotesque to create exhibition environments that tell stories about contemporary social issues.

In 2021 was awarded the Jindřich Chalupecký Award. In 2023 had an extensive solo exhibition at the Stone Bell House of the Prague City Gallery. He has also presented his work at Pioneer Works (2018) and Anthology Film Archives (2023) in New York, the 34th Ljubljana Biennale of Graphic Arts (2021), HEK in Basel (2020), and the 6th Athens Biennale (2018). His work Shame to Pride is part of the new permanent exhibition at the National Gallery Prague. In 2022 he created an new comprehensive work for the exhibition Flower Union, which was organized by the National Gallery Prague on the occasion of the Czech Presidency of the Council of the European Union. The latest, ninth episode of Club of Opportunities was commissioned for the 57th steirischer herbst (2024) at the Neue Galerie Graz.

Awards

2021: Jindřich Chalupecký Award

Residencies

2023: Residency Unlimited, New York, USA
2022: KULT XL Ateliers, Brussels, Belgium
2017: CEAAC, Strasbourg, France
2015: Five Eleven, New York, USA
2013: Watch Out, Engstligenalp, Basel, Switzerland

Extensive commissioned works:

2024: Steirischerherbst, Pumpkineville
a new short film and installation

2022: National Gallery in Prague, Opening Ceremony,
a new short film and installation

2021: 34th Ljublana Biennial, It's so physical II,
a multi-channel video installation

2021: Meet Factory Gallery, It's so physical I
a multi-channel video installation

2021: CJCH Award, Shame to Pride,
a new short film and installation

Cinematic Screenings:

2023: Club of Opportunities series,
Anthology Film Archives, New York, US

2024: Club of Opportunities series
35th Liffe, Ljubljana international Film festival, SLO

Collections

National Gallery Prague,
Permanent Collection of Modern and Contemporary Art
Prague City Gallery Collection (GHMP)
Havrlant Art Collection
Museum of Literature, Prague
Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague

Selected Solo Exhibitions:

2023: Garden of Problems, (1/3 Thinking Through Film), curator: Sandra Baborovská, GHMP House at the Stone Bell, Prague, CZ

2021: Shame to Pride, curators: Lea Vene, Lovro Japundžić, Mocvara Gallery, Zagreb, CRO

2018: Club of Opportunities, curatorial team: PAF, Pioneer Works, New York, USA

2018: Britannica Bootcamp, curator: Élodie Gallina, CAAC, Strasbourg, FR

2018: Keeping in Line, curator: Pavel Kubesa, NoD, Prague, CZ

2018: My Name is Red Herring, curator: Jiří Ptáček, Fotograf Gallery, Prague, CZ

2017: Club of Opportunities: Bowling Bar, curator: Jan Vítek
Hunt Kastner, Prague, CZ

Selected Group Exhibitions:

2023: End of the Black-and-White Era 1939–2021: Permanent Collection of the National Gallery Prague
Curators: Michal Novotný, Eva Skopalová, Adéla Janíčková
National Gallery Prague, Czech Republic

2023: Publiek Park
Curators: Jef Declercq, Anna Laganovska, Koi Persyn & Adriënne van der Werf
Harmoniepark, Albertpark & Provincietuin, Antwerp, Belgium

2022-2023: Flower Union
Curator: Michal Novotný
EU Council, Brussels, Belgium and
National Gallery Prague, Czech Republic

2021: 34th Ljubljana Biennial
Curator: Tjaša Pogačar
Ljubljana, Slovenia

2021: Jindřich Chalupecký Award Exhibition
Curator: Veronika Čechová
Moravian Gallery, Brno, Czech Republic

2018: Club of Opportunities at 6th Athens Biennale
Curatorial Team: Stefanie Hessler, Kostis Stafylakis, Poka-Yio
Athens, Greece

2016: Better Ideas for life 1 & 2
Karlin Studios, Prague, Czech Republic and Ausstellungsraum Klingental, Basel, Switzerland

Publications:

Jakub Jansa, Club of Opportunities:
The Garden of Problems
Texts by: Michal Novotný, Julie Béna, Kamil Nábělek, Noemi Purkrábková, Jozef Mrva Jr., Ernestyna Orlowska, Klára Vlasáková, Jan Bělíček
Publisher: UMPRUM
ISBN: 978-80-88308-55-3

Thinking Through Film
Editors: Jiří Anger, Sandra Baborovská
Texts by: Jiří Anger, Sandra Baborovská, Georges Didi-Huberman, Sergei Eisenstein, Noemi Purkrábková, Ondřej Vavrečka
Publisher: GHMP
ISBN: 978-80-7010-194-0

Mapping Moving Images: Media, Actors, and Places in the Czech Environment
Editors: Martin Mazanec, Sylva Poláková
Publisher: National Film Archive
ISBN: 978-80-7004-199-4

Supernova: Studio of Supermedia, UMPRUM
Editor: David Kořínek
Publisher: UMPRUM
ISBN: 978-80-87989-79-1

Lectures

2024: TRAFO, Szczecin, Poland
2024: CAMP, Prague, Czech Republic
2023: Academy of Fine Arts, Prague, Czech Republic
2019: CCA, Tel Aviv, Israel
2018: Cooper Union, New York, USA
2017: Cooper Union, New York, USA
2017: FAMU, Prague, Czech Republic
2017: CAAC, Strasbourg, France
2013: Engstligenalp, Basel, Switzerland

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