Curriculum Vitae

Tamara Moyzes is an artist, curator, scholar, and documentary filmmaker.
(Born 1975) in Bratislava, Slovak Republic lives and works in Prague, Czech Republic.

Education:
2018 | PhD candidate, Artistic Research, Academy of Fine Arts, Prague
2005 | M.A. study finished at department of New Media, Academy of Fine Arts, Prague
1999 | Photography and video department, Academy of Fine Arts and Design Bezalel, Jerusalem
1997-1998 | Painting department, Academy of Fine Arts and Design, Bratislava

Bio/Statement:
Tamara Moyzes is a politically committed artist, curator, and documentary filmmaker, who is exploring themes such as gender, racism, antiziganism, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, discrimination faced by ethnic minorities, issues of nationalism and religious conflicts, and – as a curator – Orientalism, her works show a long commitment to artistic activism. She believes art is a form of protest that should unmask social conditions through direct artistic interventions. Using the tools of irony, satire, and rendering the lived experience visible, Moyzes aims to shed light on social injustice. With her practice rooted in her Hungarian, Jewish, and Roma origins and her life spent in Slovakia, the Czech Republic, and Israel, Tamara Moyzes works from the perspective of the intersection of minorities.

Moyzes founded the “Romane Kale Panthera / Romani Black Panthers” group (2012), which organizes events on the border of political art and activism. She founded “Artivist Lab” gallery (2018) as part of her Ph.D. studies at the Academy of Fine Arts Prague. The gallery is a collaborative project of the Prague City Hall and Charles University, the main idea is to connect people who come from interdisciplinary fields and respond to social and political issues.

In (2022) Moyzes founded residency program “Artist in need”, the main goal of the residency is to help professional artists who are fleeing war. The program has helped five Ukrainian artists so far.

The essence of Moyzes’ Ph.D. research is an examination of whether artistic activism has the potential to lead to social changes, and if these social changes are cultural, legislative, or institutional. In her artistic and curatorial practice, she pointed out cases where art meets or even unites with activism. Moyzes examines whether Artivism is a young art form, or a movement, or just an attitude and practice that exists on the fertile boundaries between art and activism.

Moyzes is included in various international publications such as “Art and Theory of Post-1989 Central and Eastern Europe: A Critical Anthology”, published by the MoMA – The Museum of Modern Art, 2019, “A Companion to Feminist Art” published by Blackwell Companions to Art History, 2019, “Art of Feminism: Images that Shaped the Fight for Equality, 1857-2017” published by Chronicle Books, 2018 and Documents of Socially engaged Arts, Raphaela Vella and Melanie Sarantou, InSEA, 2021/2022

Selected exhibitions: 2023/ Amicable Separation, curated by Charlotta Kotik, Bohemian National Hall Gallery, NYC, USA (group), LACTISM, Manofim Contemporary Art Festival, The Art Cube Gallery, Sadna’ot Haomanim, Jerusalem, IL (solo), The Israeli-Palestinian conflict through the eyes of artist Tamara Moyzes, curator Sylva Poláková, Cinema Ponrepo, Prague, CZ (solo), “Barvalo”, MUCEM – Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilizations, Marseille, France FR (group), Grenzübertrittsbescheinigung, FHXB Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg Museum, Berlin, DE (group), Exhibition “Hay, Straw, Landfill”, work: Lactism: Mykoremediation, Václav Špála Gallery, Prague, CZ (group), SHE DEVIL, Biennial Bienalsur in Buenos Aires, AR (group) / 2022 LACTISM, New Monotheistic Religion worshiping the Goddess Lacteria, Gallery NoD, Prague, CZ (solo), Jihlava Film Festival, section: Fascination: Michael Bielický, Cinema: DIOD; screening of my short films: Riot, Me and Arafat, Jihlava, CZ (solo), Absence in the Videoarchive 3 –⁠ National identity and collective memory, In cooperation with the National Film Archive, Artyčok.TV and Fotograf Festival; screening of video art; “We disappointed Stanislav Tomáš!”, Cinema Ponrepo, Prague, CZ (group) Jewish Film Festival, Our Space in Time: Jewish Short Films from the V4 Countries: Film Polish Bourecas, MUZEUM POLIN, Warshaw, Poland (solo) / 2021 Oxygen exhibition in the AVU pop-up gallery, Prague, CZ (group), SHE DEVIL – Great selection at MAXXI Museum, STUDIO STEFANIA MISCETTI, Rome, IT (group), The art of appreciating, Modern Gallery of the Academy of Fine Arts, Prague, CZ (group), Cheerleaders, Kateřina Olivová, Tamara Moyzes, AVU, Prague, CZ (performance) / 2020  White Places, Hraničář Gallery, Ústí nad Labem, CZ (group) / 2019 My media profile, Gallery Cella, Opava, CZ (solo), “Neighborhood Boogie Woogie” Festival, Hunt Kastner Gallery,  Prague, CZ (group), “(Re)Conceptualizing Roma Resistance “, ERIAC, Berlin. DE (group) / 2018 The universe is black / O kosmos Hino Kalo, Governor’s Palace, Brno, CZ (group), Romane kale Panthera, EMERGENCY kit against fever from “Okamura”, Czech Parlament, Prague, CZ (solo) / 2017 Ministry of Education Warning: Segregation Seriously Harms You and the People around You! Vol.2, GAVU, Prague, CZ (group), Exhibition of the Launching Event: Transcending the Past, Shaping the Future, German Ministry of Foreign Affairs -Library, Berlin, DE (group), Exhibition KALI BERGA, Księgarnia Wystawa, Krakow – Fundacja Sztuki, PL (group), Tactics strategy, Gallery KORTIL, Rijeka, HR (group)

Artist Statement:
My art is a direct intervention into public space or events – I do not comment on reality from a distance, but intensively enter the center of events with my Artivism – a novelty with which I thematize activist efforts in the field of art and break the “mythological” consciousness of artistic strategies in contemporary art. Artivism has brought a new language of creative radical performance to the public. The essence of my Ph.D. research is an examination of whether artistic activism has the potential to lead to social changes, and if these social changes are cultural, legislative, or institutional. In my artistic practice, I point out cases where art meets or even unites with activism. I examine whether Artivism is a young art form, or a movement, or just an attitude and practice that exists on the fertile boundaries between art and activism. Art is the only social form in which the law of “Freedom of artistic expression” works, this freedom, of course, has different boundaries in a democratic country and a totalitarian country, or currently in a patriarchal neoliberalist-clerical fascist world, which in the name of nationalism denies rights to women or the Queer community. However, if artists are well acquainted with the rights of their country, they will always find holes in the law that allow art to usurp social change on its behalf, to create a protest called happening, and to find freedom in a lack of freedom. For years we have criticized that art has become alienated from mainstream society, that it has become elitist, now it is time to bring it back where it belongs, Artivism returns art back to the people.

URL: http://www.artivistlab.info | http://www.tamaramoyzes.info

Additional links:
Secondary archive
Residency Unlimited NYC
Roma archive