Ikon presents the most comprehensive UK exhibition to date by Pavel Büchler. Involving a wide range of media one of the central pieces is a large installation of loudspeakers (pictured) based on a 1920s design by Marconi.
The work proclaims a quotation from Kafka’s The Castle, mediated through a first-generation text-to-speech computer programme: “You are not from the Castle, you are not from the village, you aren’t anything. Or rather, unfortunately, you are something, a stranger, a man who isn’t wanted and is in everybody’s way …”
Broadcast through the antique sound system, the words recall street propaganda announcements as they insist that integration is impossible, that the stranger will always remain on the outside. Büchler is particularly interested in the resonances that result from the location of this work in different contexts, and it will be especially pertinent in Birmingham, a city made remarkable through immigration and cultural diversity.
Pavel Büchler – (Honest) Work
13 May – 12 July
Ikon Gallery
Tuesday-Sunday, 11am-5pm, Free entry
Image credit: Pavel Büchler. The Castle. Installation view from DOX, Prague, 2010.
Area Culture Guide 