3x3 Czech Contemporary Art in Berlin with Martin Kohout - Tschechisches Zentrum Berlin

In this issue of the series Czech Contemporary Art in Berlin we will introduce the multimedia artist Martin Kohout.

Martin Kohout was born 1984 in Prague, he graduated from the Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (FAMU, Department of Cinematography) and from the Städelschule in Frankfurt (Simon Starling Studio). He also spent two years studying at the Universität der Künste in Berlin (classes of Alicja Kwade, Gregor Schneider). He works and lives in Berlin and currently he is an assistant teacher at the Studio of Photography at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague.

His multimedia work reacts to various life situations, the incomprehensibility of the contemporary world and the inability of individuals to navigate in it. Kohout’s major theme is the medium of the internet and the self-reflection of man in global communication which brings conflicting experience – intimacy and aggression, self-confidence and helplessness.

In the past years, he has introduced his work in the Czech as well as international context at solo and collective exhibitions, e.g. in New York, Beijing, Tokyo, Berlin, Paris and Sofia. At the Czech Centre in Berlin, his work was part of the exhibition “Healing” curated by Tereza Jindrová in 2018.
In 2010, he was one of the finalists of Germany’s Marler Videokunst-Preis. In 2008, he won the Other Visions Award at the Festival of Film Animation in Olomouc, Czech Republic. In 2014 he was nominated for and in 2017 he won the Jindřich Chalupecký Award, the recognized Czech award for young artists under the age of 35.

If you want to learn more about Martin Kohouts artworks, have a look at his website, watch an interview with him about the award winning video "Slides" from 2017 or this video-interview by AQNB Production from 2015 . And check out his galleries, Polansky Gallery in Prague and the EXILE Gallery in Berlin and the website of his publishing house tltr.biz. On Instagram you find Martin Kohout as well as the publishing house.

Czech Contemporary Art in Berlin is an online series by the Czech Centre Berlin about contemporary art in times of Corona. We present artists with Czech and/or Slovak roots, living in Berlin. The format is 3x3: 3 minutes about the place, where the artist works, 3 minutes about what keeps them busy right now and 3 minutes about themselves. In order for you to also see some of their work, they take over the Czech Centre’s Instagram account on the afternoon after 2 pm on the day, the podcast is published.

Photo: Martin Kohout: Slides, 2017 (videostill, Asli and Sung)