A Short History of Camera Traps
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Kurátoři: Vojtěch Märc, Tereza Rudolf
A Short History of Camera Traps is an exhibition focusing on the interaction of human and non-human animals and the role played by photographic (and other) technology. It is founded on the ideas of the English anthropologist Alfred Gell, who drew attention to the internal similarities between camera traps and works of art. In a broadened (rather than figurative) sense, the exhibited works function as camera traps by making visible certain patterns of behavior in various environments. The exhibition itself also has a similar ambition on another level. Its shop-window mutation marks another attempt to adjust to the changing conditions of current exhibition practice. It also asks how art itself, as a form of life, adapts: not only in its forms but also in our needs. Following the example of patient photographic equipment, the exhibition thus sets a trap for the gazes of possible passers-by in order to attempt to extricate itself, along with them, from the trap of the present.
