A video documentary about artist Lukáš Paleček presents his thinking and way of working and brings us to Lukáš' home. This is the first of the video series about Lukáš' work, which we have been systematically documenting since 2019.

Lukáš Paleček is the author of drawings, objects, performances and audio compositions in which he lends his voice to various objects and machines. He is interested in old instruments such as Romo and Tatramat washing machines, or Tesla radios and cassette players. Lukáš collects machines: he finds them or is given them by acquaintances who are aware of his interest.

He shares his studio with his father, where each of them has his machines. Lukáš’ devices mostly no longer work or are only partially functional. On one shelf he has only parts, dismantled bodies of machines. Lukáš performs repairs on them, anatomical excursions. At other times he takes care of them with the aid of plastic pasteboard, making splints for them and fixing their fractures. Lukáš observes the machines, listens to them, imitates them and learns their language. He expands and deletes his own playlist. Nevertheless, he is not merely a human automaton – jukebox. Lukáš builds up his own repertoire, in which he explores the auditory manifestations of the machines he includes in it in minute detail. He thereby tests and trains his own sensitivity, his ability to mimic and engage, his memory. At the same time, however, it appears that the machines enable him to augment his own means of expression, to extend the possibilities of his own speech. The language of machines has somehow provided Lukáš with opportunities to express his emotions more directly, and compensated for the ways in which human language can be limiting.

Lukáš Paleček's Talking Machines, a living archive of performative and sound works, is produced in collaboration with Barvolam, an association that offers support to neurodiverse artists. Thanks for the collaboration and support.

Lukáš Paleček, (born 1977), lives and works in Prague. Since 2013 he has been creating his artworks – drawings, objects and audio performances in the Radostná Tvorba Studio in Letná, Prague 7, a creative studio focusing on support for “spontaneous art”. Lukáš has taken part in several group exhibitions held by the Studio, including at the Kampus Hybernská, the DOX Centre for Contemporary Art or the NOD gallery. In 2019 he held an independent exhibition entitled Romo Washing Machine Washes Cucumbers in the Jelení Gallery, part of the Center for Contemporary Arts Prague.

You can discover more about Lukáš and his work at his portfolio HERE.

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Talking Machines of Lukáš Paleček: At Home
Camera and postproduction: Ivan Svoboda (Artyčok TV)
Dramaturgy: Eva Koťátková
Production: Ida Tausch
Collaborations: Alma Lily Rainer, Barvolam z.s., Jonáš Richter, Tereza Tomková
Institute of Anxiety, 2022

The project is supported by the City Hall and the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic and the EEA Grants.