Michael Bielicky

Michael Bielicky was born in Prague in 1954. He moved to Germany in 1969. After working as a photographer in the USA, he studied (1984-88) at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, from 1987 as a student of Nam June Paik in his master class, whom he then served as an assistant until 1989. In 1988 he received a study grant from the Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris. In 1991 he became one of the founding teaching staff in the department of New Media at the Akademie vytvarnych umení, Prague. Bielicky lives in Prague and Düsseldorf.

Following his photographic work of the early 1980s, Bielicky first turned to video in 1984. One of his latest and more well-known works in this medium is »Vilém Flusser's Flow (Vilém Flussers Fluss)« (1991-94). In the late 1980s, Bielicky developed a form of video sculpture with clear, linear structures. These have incorporated increasingly smaller monitors attached to curved rods so as to establish coordinates of energy in space . Since the mid-1990s Bielicky has pursued a number of projects related to de-materialized coordinates of energy: he uses satellite-controlled Global Positioning System technology to create interactive installations, in which his own movements serve as a representation of the movement of various categories of information through space and time. In his work, Bielicky gives form to the flow of information, at the same time drawing on traditional, often Jewish symbols. Affirming the enduring validity of these, he uses them as metaphors for contemporary experiences in the virtual information networks.

Individual exhibitions (selection)

1988 Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris
1991 Monte Video Time Based Art, Amsterdam
1993 Czech Culture Center, Bucharest; Roter Salon, Volksbühne, Berlin; Czech Culture Center, Berlin

Group exhibitions (selection)

1985 Atelier de Rencontre, ENSAD, Paris
1986 daadgalerie, Berlin
1987 São Paulo Bienal, São Paulo
1988 »3. Marl Video Kunst Preis«, Marl; »Infermental 7«, Tokyo
1989 Galerie Jule Kewenig, Cologne
1991 »My Way Only«, House of the Artist, Moscow
1992 »Moving Image Electronic Art«, Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona; Ars Electronica, Linz
1993 »Village Gaze«, Anthology Film Archives, New York
1994 »Joseph Beuys«, Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris
1995 Museum for Contemporary Art, Warsaw; Seoul Bienale, Seoul
1996 »The Butterfly Effect«, Mücsarnok, Budapest; »Mixed Pixels«, Kunstmuseum Düsseldorf

[Frauke Syamken, 1997]