Play Cultural Situation

Július Koller was among the most important representatives of an unofficial art scene in Slovakia; and on the basis of encounters with Nouveau Réalisme, Happenings, Fluxus and the Situationist International, from the mid-1960s onwards he developed a completely original and playfully ironic body of work. In 1965, he wrote the “Anti-Happening (The System of Subjective Objectivity)” manifesto, calling for “rebuilding the subject on consciousness, environment, and the real world.” His sceptical stance towards art found expression in other anti-happenings, anti-pictures, and anti-environments. He printed un-invitations to non-exhibitions, or invited visitors to play table tennis at a 1970 exhibition. Koller was not as interested in alienation or the humorous aspects of a situation as in presenting conceptual activities or objects, and creating cultural events (so-called “demonstrative operations”).

Reflecting on the functioning and instrumentality of places and situations, Július Koller’s work "Play Cultural Situation" features a piano wrapped up with a tennis net preventing it from being played. Koller is keen on questioning the limits of the capacity of cultural events to bring people together to experience the city, space, nature or life. The piano restricted by the net prompts reflections on sports, music, and mass culture.