CV

Bio

Jana Orlová is a Prague-based performance artist, poet, and researcher. Orlová received her Ph.D. from the Department of Theory at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague at the end of 2021. Her dissertation focused on the difference between visual performance and theatre, and she also analyzed the question of the content and use of the term performance. Orlová has been involved in performance and borderline art forms in her critical and curatorial practice. She is currently a teacher at Silesian University and she is exploring the experimental possibilities of documenting performance and the ways of exhibiting this documentation. She also publishes her studies abroad.

Orlová has released three collections of poetry in the Czech Republic and five abroad, her poems have been translated into several more languages, for example also into Chinese, Arabic, or Hindi. She has taken part in many performance art events over Europe, also in Canada, and the US. In her practice, performance art is living poetry, and she perceives her body as a field of event, working with ritualistic and holistic approaches. Her work is marked by a combination of a minimalistic form and a raw statement. In 2017, she was praised by Next Wave Festival as one “who challenges the borders between literature, visual art, and theatre with a natural lightness.” Her work is marked by magical realism.


Artist statement

I am a poet and performance artist simultaneously: poetry (i.e. written word) and physical action are two main focuses of my artwork. At the same time, I overlap professional roles: I also work as a visual theorist, critic, curator, and university teacher. This universality or multidisciplinarity is much more common in the West than in the Czech Republic, where the delineation of roles is much more conservative and their overlapping is greeted with suspicion.

I perceive performance art (or visual performance) as „poetry in action“ while considering poetry as a fluid metaphorical concept. I am interested in exploring the possibilities of working with the mind and its limits, especially the altered state of consciousness (whether for self-knowledge or Rimbaudian disturbance of all senses). I define myself as a set of open possibilities. In my performance art practice, I use my body as a ready-made item, which I can fill up with chosen meaning. I work with distance, alienation, and intellectualization as well as witchcraft and sexual magic. I don’t follow trends (even though I know them), I prefer individualism to collectivism. I like to come across as a thoroughly knowledgeable psychic using metaphysical rationality.

I am one of the pioneers of open and controversial female gaze writing about sex in Czech poetry. In Czech I published three books of poetry: You Don’t Run Away (2022), Újedě (2017), and Sniff the Fire (2012). I released Danish book in 2022, Polish in 2021, Ukrainian and Romanian in 2019. In 2020, I released an English ebook in India. My poems have been translated into Hindi, Chinese, and Arabic, among other languages.

 

Selected exhibitions / projects

2023, Over the Land, (A)void Gallery, Prague, 10.11. – 17.11. 2023
2023, Curator: Hana Magdoňová, Point of Touch, Hauerova Gallery 4, Opava, 2.11. – 10.1. 2024
2023, Co-curator: festival to support the organization Save the Railway Bridge, performance part, (A)void Floating Gallery, 15.10. 2023
2023, Curator: Viktor Fuček, An Attempt of a Posthumous Portrait, Rozkvet Gallery, Banská Bystrica (1.2. – 1.3. 2023)
2021, Possibilities of Interpretation, Tugendhat villa, Brno, group exhibition, 8. 7. 2. 8. 2021
2021, Co-curator: Prague Biennale festival (with Elis Unique),  3.9. –  7.9. 2021
2018, Return to Forests, Waters and Slopes, Brno, group exhibition, 2.6. 31.7.2018
2017, Face of Rape, Gallery Artwall, Prague, group exhibition, 19.10 10.12. 2017
2017, Glamorous dreams, Hidden gallery, Prague, 7.6. 2017
2016, Eagle´s Identity, exhibition in closed Galery Orlovna, Kroměříž, 2.10. 15.5. 2016
2016, Co-curator: Theatrum Mundi festival (with Darina Alster), Karlín Studios, Prague
2015, The Mapping of Consciousness While Waiting for a Train, PROJEKTPLUS Gallery, Prague, group exhibition
2015, Art Prague, The Muse Room (A project by Robert Carrithers)
2015, Situation 61, Pavilion Gallery, 27. 10. 2015
2015, Curator of symposium Trash as Art / Art as Trash, 18 20.9. 2015
2014 –2015, Curator: Art Space NOV gallery, Pardubice
2014, Garbage Sees You, Umakart Gallery, Brno
2009, Elements, Pod Kaštany tea room, Uherské Hradiště


Awards

2021, Le Ocassioni prize: Best foreign author, Italy
2021, First prize Ossi di Seppia, Italy
2020, Dardanica prize, Albania
2017, Breakthrough Act Award, Next Wave Festival, Czech Republic

 

Publication activity (2021–2023)

ORLOVÁ, Jana. Differences between Visual Performance and Theatre. The Question of Genre Identity. In: Art and Documentation, č. 28/2023. Gdaňsk: Akademie výtvarných umění, s. 269–278.

Proměny dramaturgie VI: Perspektivy a možnosti. HORSÁKOVÁ, Monika, Jan GOGOLA, Jana BÉBAROVÁ, Andrea HANÁČKOVÁ, Jana ORLOVÁ, David MÍREK a Ĺudovít LABÍK. Dramaturg performance? Opava: Slezská univerzita v Opavě, 2022, s. 57–70.

ORLOVÁ, Jana. Rozdíly mezi vizuální performancí a divadlem aneb co, kde a kdy je performance?

Sešit pro umění, teorii a příbuzné zóny, č. 32/2022, Praha: Vědecko-výzkumné pracoviště Akademie výtvarných umění, s. 44–78.

ORLOVÁ, Jana. Darina Alster: Performance, rituál a sexualita. In: Darina Alster: Dělení těla. Praha: Akademie výtvarných umění, + Galerie Ferdinanda Baumanna, 2022, s. 36–37.

ORLOVÁ, Jana. Jak (ne)vystavovat performance art?, https://artalk.cz/2022/03/23/jak-nevystavovat-performance-art/.

ORLOVÁ, Jana. Otevřené situace aneb česká expedice v Kanadě. Taneční zóna, 3/2022. Praha: Spolek pro vydávání revue současného tance c/o Divadelní ústav, s. 76–81.

ORLOVÁ, Jana. Darina Alster: Inspirovat ke spiritualitě. Taneční zóna, 2/2022. Praha: Spolek pro vydávání revue současného tance c/o Divadelní ústav, s. 40–45.

ORLOVÁ, Jana. Všechno performuje. Taneční zóna, 1/2022. Praha: Spolek pro vydávání revue současného tance c/o Divadelní ústav, s. 74–84.

ORLOVÁ, Jana. Viktor Pivovarov: Dům Umění města Brna. Flash Art, č. 64, 2022. Nadace Prague Biennale, s. 53.

ORLOVÁ, Jana. Milan Kozelka Dům Umění města Brna. Flash Art, č. 64, 2022. Nadace Prague Biennale, s. 55.

ORLOVÁ, Jana. Interspeciesism In Czech Visual Performance. In: Art and Documentation, č. 25/2021. Gdaňsk: Akademie výtvarných umění, s. 262–270.

ORLOVÁ, Jana. Sen ve snu fantazie, https://flashart.cz/2022/01/29/sen-ve-snu-fantazie/.

ORLOVÁ, Jana. Umělec v krajině: K performanci 39 dnů Hany Magdoňové. Protimluv, 3/2021. Ostrava: Protimluv, s. 42–44.

ORLOVÁ, Jana. Minulost, přítomnost a budoucnost performance artu v Polsku a v Čechách. Rozhovor s Lukaszem Guzekem. Protimluv, 3/2021. Ostrava: Protimluv, s. 7–12.

ORLOVÁ, Jana. Reconnect Art aneb reakce performerů na pandemii a nové vyjadřovací formáty. Taneční zóna, 3/2021. Praha: Spolek pro vydávání revue současného tance c/o Divadelní ústav, s. 92–97.

ORLOVÁ, Jana. Performance?! Vážně i vášnivě. Dialog s Lenkou Dombrovskou. Taneční zóna, 3/2021. Praha: Spolek pro vydávání revue současného tance c/o Divadelní ústav, s. 82–87.

ORLOVÁ, Jana. Mezidruhovost v české vizuální performanci. Taneční zóna, 2/2021. Praha: Spolek pro vydávání revue současného tance c/o Divadelní ústav, s. 64–71.

ORLOVÁ, Jana. Nejen (Anti) Batman: Jiří Surůvka. Taneční zóna, 1/2021, Praha: Spolek pro vydávání revue současného tance c/o Divadelní ústav, s. 60–67.

ORLOVÁ, Jana. unconductive trash: Kdybychom se už neviděli, tak to nevadí. Flash Art, č. 62, 2021. Nadace Prague Biennale, s. 53.

ORLOVÁ, Jana. Na cestě (tam a zase zpátky): Retrospektiva Milana Kozelky. A2, 19/2021. Praha, A2: s. 14.

ORLOVÁ, Jana. Performance?! Vážně i vášnivě. Dialog s Lenkou Dombrovskou. Divadelní noviny, 11/2021. Praha: Společnost pro Divadelní noviny, s. 10.

ORLOVÁ, Jana. Jeden za všechny a všichni za jednoho. Flash Art, č. 60, 2021. Nadace Prague Biennale, s. 52 a 54.

ORLOVÁ, Jana. Meze digitálního zážitku (recenze Eva Priečková: Masážny salón Eva): https://mloki.sk/meze-digitalniho-zazitku/.

 

Education

2017 – 2021, Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, Theory Department, Ph.D. degree
2020 – 2021, Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk, Poland, Theory depatment, Erasmus Ph.D.fellowship
2012 – 2014, Faculty of Fine Arts in Brno, Tomáš Ruller Performance Studio, Master’s degree
2013, Faculty of Art and Design in Plzeň, Margita Titlová – Ylovsky Painting Studio, fellowship
2011 – 2014, Masaryk University in Brno, Environmental studies, Master’s degree
2007 – 2011, Pardubice University, Historical – Literary Studies, Bachelor’s degree