composite photo:
photos: Milan Kohout (MAG)
Milan Kohout (Mobius Artists Group)
"THE POLITICS OF SHOES"
photographs, collage & political commentary
& audience participatory action/performance art
Videos of Milan Kohout's Participatory Action:
Video #1 - May 24 2009:
Video #2 - May 25 2009:
"Shoe is the dirtiest think in Iraq as you know .. therefore I put it on the hands of that tortured person american cowboys boost.. -also taken immediately when the abu graib prison scandal was exposed... even my mobius comrades were pissed about me... well while it was so so so so so obvious what this empire was doing.. but in some ways the native americans were so brainwashed and blind and did not admit that... and are still unfortunately...thereis so deep propaganda bullshit embedded in the heads of the people here that I can believe that... well fascist Germany was a similar story..
Something about our export of "democracy" ; what is also intensely interesting is that after each big bombing in IRAQ the reports said that there was a lot of shoes all around and some of them were falling from heaven seconds after the explosion...
Something relating to Bush & Shoe performance in Bagdad. This picture I took in the rebel camp in Bangkok where I performed two weeks ago -just the illustration how strong is a symbol of a shoe in those cultures.
To call somebody a dog is the worst offense in Iraq- therefore I used a dog as a symbol for our soldiers (picture taken at the beginning do the iraqi war - of-course some people here wanted to kill me for that at that time)..
Let us express the solidarity with our real performance artist from Baghdad!!!!! Those shoes on the american flag were the homage to the painting of a surrealistic artist Magritte called This is not a pipe. Did you notice? On the side of the flag there is Made in China and it is a scarf."
Milan Kohout (now a US citizen) is originally from The Czech Republic.. Here he got his M.S. in Electrical Engineering. He was an independent artist in so-called “Second Culture”. Later he becomes a signatory member and art activist of the dissident human rights organization CHARTER 77 (group of mostly artists from “Second Culture” was nominated for the Nobel Prize in 1985 and initiated non violent Velvet Revolution which toppled totalitarian regime in 1989). Following many interrogations he was forced by CZ security police to leave his country in 1986 due to his political art activism. After several years in a refugee camp he was granted asylum in the United States.
In 1993 Milan received his Diploma from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Since 1994 Milan has been a member of the Mobius Artists Group (www.Mobius.org). Here he has created many full-scale Performance Art pieces (both collaborative and solo) His work concentrates mostly on the subject of human rights (recently rights of Roma/ Gypsies) and politics (critique of totalitarian capitalism and fundamentalist religions) As Mobius Artists Group member he has participated on numerous international art exchange programs and festivals around the world (China, Thailand, Croatia, Taiwan, Czech Rep, Poland, Cuba, USA etc). and has been the recipient of number of awards, grants, residencies (Grant from The Fund for US Artists at International Festivals, Tanne Foundation Annual Award, First Prize at International Theater Festival in Pula, Best National Czech Independent Film Award, Arizona State University residency, PSi conference in London 2006 etc.)
http://www.mobius.org/mobius_artists.php?id=milan
Note from the Curator:
Perhaps this was really meant to be published on July 4th - Independence Day.
"THE POLITICS OF SHOES"
photographs, collage & political commentary
& audience participatory action/performance art
Videos of Milan Kohout's Participatory Action:
Video #1 - May 24 2009:
Milan Kohout : Action for The Politics of Shoes @mobius 05-24-09 from MobiusArtistsGroup on Vimeo.
Video #2 - May 25 2009:
Milan Kohout : Action for The Politics of Shoes @mobius 5-25-09 from MobiusArtistsGroup on Vimeo.
"Shoe is the dirtiest think in Iraq as you know .. therefore I put it on the hands of that tortured person american cowboys boost.. -also taken immediately when the abu graib prison scandal was exposed... even my mobius comrades were pissed about me... well while it was so so so so so obvious what this empire was doing.. but in some ways the native americans were so brainwashed and blind and did not admit that... and are still unfortunately...there
Something about our export of "democracy" ; what is also intensely interesting is that after each big bombing in IRAQ the reports said that there was a lot of shoes all around and some of them were falling from heaven seconds after the explosion...
Something relating to Bush & Shoe performance in Bagdad. This picture I took in the rebel camp in Bangkok where I performed two weeks ago -just the illustration how strong is a symbol of a shoe in those cultures.
To call somebody a dog is the worst offense in Iraq- therefore I used a dog as a symbol for our soldiers (picture taken at the beginning do the iraqi war - of-course some people here wanted to kill me for that at that time)..
Let us express the solidarity with our real performance artist from Baghdad!!!!! Those shoes on the american flag were the homage to the painting of a surrealistic artist Magritte called This is not a pipe. Did you notice? On the side of the flag there is Made in China and it is a scarf."
Milan Kohout (now a US citizen) is originally from The Czech Republic.. Here he got his M.S. in Electrical Engineering. He was an independent artist in so-called “Second Culture”. Later he becomes a signatory member and art activist of the dissident human rights organization CHARTER 77 (group of mostly artists from “Second Culture” was nominated for the Nobel Prize in 1985 and initiated non violent Velvet Revolution which toppled totalitarian regime in 1989). Following many interrogations he was forced by CZ security police to leave his country in 1986 due to his political art activism. After several years in a refugee camp he was granted asylum in the United States.
In 1993 Milan received his Diploma from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Since 1994 Milan has been a member of the Mobius Artists Group (www.Mobius.org). Here he has created many full-scale Performance Art pieces (both collaborative and solo) His work concentrates mostly on the subject of human rights (recently rights of Roma/ Gypsies) and politics (critique of totalitarian capitalism and fundamentalist religions) As Mobius Artists Group member he has participated on numerous international art exchange programs and festivals around the world (China, Thailand, Croatia, Taiwan, Czech Rep, Poland, Cuba, USA etc). and has been the recipient of number of awards, grants, residencies (Grant from The Fund for US Artists at International Festivals, Tanne Foundation Annual Award, First Prize at International Theater Festival in Pula, Best National Czech Independent Film Award, Arizona State University residency, PSi conference in London 2006 etc.)
http://www.mobius.org/mobius_
Note from the Curator:
Perhaps this was really meant to be published on July 4th - Independence Day.
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