THE ART OF NARCISM

THE ART OF NARCISM
Jan Turner

Exhibition duration: 19 September - 6 November 2025

One variant of art research is the case where art, itself quite futile in terms of usefulness, approaches some demonstrably useful fields or phenomena and tries to enrich the field and itself. In this case, art serves as a tool, much like a hammer, for example, which finds nails to tap in other fields. Perhaps a better metaphor than nails in relation to the hammer is glasses. The hammer can make them ring with gentle handling, and shatter them with excessive, rough handling, and thus ruin everything. Narcissism is a branch of psychology. The glass that the hammer of art is tapping here is the field of psychology.

The exhibition tries to remove the odour of narcissism from its unbearability, to see it from a perspective and treat it as a neutral phenomenon. To do this, it uses object sculpture and other variants of non-figurative expression. The contribution of art where the figure is absent is that it grasps a phenomenon accompanying narcissism and shows it in the object world. This dehumanizes it and shows the depicted qualities, such as an unbalanced relationship (The Stove), dysfunction (Vase Covers), inner emptiness (Remoska), or grandiosity (The Failed Mole), in things. There it is possible to glimpse them in their pure functionality, and then see them just as function when encountering a true human narcissist. A feature, such as pretense on the human plane, turns into camouflage on the object plane (oak paneling on a mirror frame, for example), and can be seen as an interesting phenomenon. One does not feel cheated by pretending, but sees the masking of something that does not want to be seen.

Classes by Petr Strouhal, the performance Raid by Martina Zetová (also starring Johana Ožvold, Jiří Libra and Jan Turner, cinematography by Barbora Dayef) and the audio Singing by Elmaz Mrkvičková are works by members of the so-called Narcisparty. This is an experimental group that, in a format similar to a psychotherapy group, explored narcissism from all possible sides over a period of two years. Classes and Singing refer to the feelings of loneliness and isolation that Narcissists experience. The Raid shows the artist's self-absorption, which is here a necessary tool to create a vivid metaphorical image.

Out of various fruitless attempts to find the most suitable "knock", the need for a parameter of real utility eventually emerged more and more. In the case of narcissistic personality disorder, it should be a helping hand offered in some considerate way. And that is the mirror, called the Mirror of Productive Conflict. It allows two people facing each other to see a mixed reflection of themselves and the other person in different proportions. ranging from "I can only see myself" to "I can barely see myself and I can only see the other person". It shows that self-centeredness can be complete or almost nonexistent, depending on the situation we are in. It shows narcissism as a game, while also showing the possibility of transformation. It creates the opportunity for an alternative, corrective experience in physical form.

Fourth exhibition of the cycle Dr.Art for the year 2025 in the Olga Space gallery continues the themes of the previous editions (2024 - THE HERITAGE OF COLLECTIVES: ADAPTATION AND TRANSFORMATION, 2023 - PARENT, 2022 - DAUGHTERS SONS MOTHERS FATHERS), with an interest in the conditions in which art is created, and by defining art as a possible tool for overcoming deep social crises.