Tomáš Moravec (*1985) is a visual artist living and working in Prague. In 2012 he graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague in the Studio of Intermedia by Jiří Příhoda, where he has continued studying his doctoral studies. His works can be described as "spatial situations" shaped mostly by objects, video and installation. His collaborative projects with Matej Al-Ali, Petr Dub or Roman Štětina examine various forms of artistic collaboration or critically intervene in public space. Moravec is a finalist of the Jindřich Chalupecký Prize (2008), the Exit Prize (2009), the Václav Chad Prize (2015) and the Gascar Prize (2017). His work has been presented in the Czech Republic and internationally (Biennale Liège, BB15 Linz, Trafó Gallery Budapest, James and Audrey Foster Prize Boston, EFA New York, CCC Beijing). He has completed residencies at FKSE (Budapest, 2011), Triangle Arts Association (New York, 2013) and Studio Das Weisse Haus (Vienna, 2013). He is the author of the architecture of the exhibitions Fragile Cinema (TIC Brno Youth Gallery, 2012), Distant Observers (GMU Roudnice nad Labem, 2015), Probably in the Field (Plato Ostrava, 2016) and the outdoor installation Stairs of Time (Czech Radio Prague, 2019). Since 2015 he has also been a teacher at the KVKTT in Hradec Králové. In recent years, he has realized the solo exhibitions Notes on Airships (KGVU Zlín, 2017), Borders Invisible from Above (GAFU Ostrava, 2018) and Manuport (Galerie Rudolfinum Prague, 2020), related to his dissertation The Crisis of Vision.
Emergency radar reflector
The trio of objects serve as the anchor points of the virtual message. A rotating text hovers over each of them, presented in an augmented reality interface. It is possible to decode it with the help of mobile devices, while physically moving around. The sculptural objects are an appropriation of the shape used in the maritime industry. This is a so-called radar reflector, the shape and material of which support the visibility of small vessels on the radar of large ships. A trio of mutually perpendicular surfaces creates a reflective focal point in its center and returns the incident beam of the signal back. Small ship's equipment is converted into separate sculptural objects with a diameter of 200 cm. Their positional distribution in the Tour et Taxis park creates three relational lines of distant points. Similar to the basic concept of the entire Parallels project, here too a temporary connection of several places is created using an imagined trajectory. The audience thus completes the necessary contact and communication of distant centers. As they move, they read the content of the poetic message and describe in their imaginations a trajectory similar to the text: across the sea, over the horizon, to the land and back.
přes moře, za horizont, na pevninu a zpátky
à travers la mer, au-delà de l'horizon, atterrir et revenir
over de zee, over de horizon, naar het land en terug
