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Between
by Walter Seidl
(Duchamp's door – never fully closed and never fully opened.)
Concerning the female body and its representation in your photo and self-portrait-related works, how do you see the immediacy of “skin” and its tactile connotation or direct feel which is purported in your work?
For me skin represents something "between". If I am to characterise my works in their varied forms by one word, I would choose the word "between". A good definition would be Duchamp's door that is never fully closed and never fully opened. You know the one: two doorframes are placed at right angles one to the other in the corner of a room, but one door only is hung in their common central part. "Between" is like a heavy object balancing on its centre of gravity. Neither this way nor that way. Exciting. "Between" can be irritating and overlooked at the same time, due to its desired unintegration or impossibility of being integrated. I do not want bloodbaths for their own sake, but neither am I inclined towards abstract "cool" solutions. What fascinates me is the pure tension coming out of that between“. The balance between options. A picture becoming a space object, a painting approaching a photograph, a photograph wandering through a room as an installation, a catalogue taking on traits of a woman’s magazine.
Skin is the interface between the inside and outside. Daniel GrúA brought me a thought from P. Valéry: "skin is deepest". We agreed on the art-historical text used for the front page of my first issue of the magazine and catalogue SADO 1, Spring 2005. It was inspired by the headings of regular magazines, especially women’s lifestyle magazines. I perceive them as Dada poems that you browse through while waiting at the bus stop in the morning. Quintessential magazine skin resembles sci-fi skin: modified by the stylists and computers, without wrinkles, cracks, irregularities, body hair, birthmarks: as real as a reality show.
I haven‘t made a lot of self-portraits. If I photograph or film my own body, it is mainly due to pragmatic reasons – when I cannot sufficiently explain my intentions to a model in photographing a topic. As regards the front page of SADO magazine, it is me in the photograph, but the picture was taken by someone else. Miro ·volík photographed me for the first issue of the magazine; Pavel Mára took the photograph for the issue in preparation.
The way in which you use female imagery transcends advertising and the way the porn industry uses pictures of the female body. To what extent do you play with your last name and the game current media use in blurring the line between market industries and mere image campaigns?
Game as strategy, playing strategy, playing at playing, enjoying the game – what would you prefer? I registered SADO magazine under the title SADO, with subhead Sadovská. It is thrilling to try how far you can go, when an author’s catalogue starts to take on the mimic features of a regular magazine. What to hide and what to disclose? Looking for the correct balance. I made an agreement with the biggest distribution company in Slovakia and another in Austria. In the beginning the chain stores were worried about the title; however, they did put the copies of SADO among the established magazines. A long-term exhibition running in parallel in the kiosks, bookstores and supermarkets was launched.
I am interested in people who do not buy any given publication but browse it standing on the spot. I have no idea how many people have seen my exhibition. I only know how many bought the “admission ticket” and carried the magazine-exhibition home.
The entire interview was originally published in the magazine FlashArt with the title Five Questions for Dorota Sadovská by Walter Seidl. (FlashArt, Czech & Slovak Edition, Vol. I, No.3-4, December 2006 – February 2007, pp. 56-57)