Jiří Surůvka

*1961, CZE
He studied Czech language teaching at the Philosophical Faculty of the University of Ostrava between 1984 and 1992. After graduation, he taught at the Secondary School of Applied Arts for two years. Since 1994 he has been engaged in free production. Today he works as the head of the New media studio at the Department of Intermedia at the Faculty of Arts of the University of Ostrava. Jiří Surůvka has been one of the key figures of Czech art since 1989. His work is extremely broad, dealing with performance, photography, video and digital art production. In his performances, which have become an important impulse to the development of this artistic discipline in the Czech lands, he discusses the phenomenon of transformation of personal identity and dealing with their own flesh. An important element of Surůvka’s performances was the Batman costume that enabled him to turn into a superhero trying to save the world of art while he parodied the hypocrisy and cheapness of contemporary society. Using Dadaist playfulness and humorous exaggeration he criticises war traumas and totalitarian systems.