"I hate the word tolerance," says the author of the LGBT+ exhibition at the church. Ricardo Hoineff portrayed Jankt's coming out and the murders in Bratislava
Ricardo Hoineff was born into a Jewish family in Rio de Janeiro, but in the 1990s he travelled blind to Prague. Here he studied stage design at the DAMU and began working as a stage designer. At the age of 40, however, he saw a glassmaker's action in Nový Bor and immediately fell in love with glass. He decided to study the glass craft and today he creates art that is both artistically and technically distinctive. His work #UNDERBLANKETS was included in the prestigious international catalogue New Glass Review by the American Corning Museum.
Ricardo, it is not usual to exhibit LGBT+ themed works in a church. How did you do it?
The church is in Kunratice near Cvikov. Right opposite the church is the Pachinek Glass factory and during the covid, they asked the parish if they could exhibit in that church and use the money from the entrance fee to revive the church. So a kind of glass centre was created.
David Sobotka of Pachinek Glass, who organized the exhibit, has known me for a long time. I was a little embarrassed at first. I said , "David, you know what my pieces are about. Won't there be problems?" and he said "No, no, the parish priest has no problem with that".
And he also said I could use the altar itself. The picture of the Virgin Mary that's supposed to be in it is being renovated. One of the series I have is the story of Triton and the messenger. I say it's a kind of fairy tale that we haven't heard because it didn't exist. It's about a kid who wants to be a dolphin, becomes a sea lord and falls in love with a messenger. It ends with the messenger jumping into the water and they hug. And I made the jumper almost six feet tall for the altar. With a big dick. And down below is the sea lord. We had it right in the altar at the opening.
What was the reaction from the parish?
I'm still touched by it. (You don't expect this. I'm Jewish, but I was raised very Catholic, so I know and respect Christian traditions. Just to have a show like this in a church is pretty powerful. And the pastor, Father Rudolph, is incredible, he's completely open-minded. He gave a wonderful speech at the opening. He said that it was good that in such a "stupid" time we can talk in church, and how important it is to accept others and embrace the other. Art and religion are closer together than one might think.
Is exhibiting in a church different than in a gallery?
Since it's not a gallery and doesn't have a curator, I wondered if it made sense. But it's a place where people go who don't go to galleries or museums. That's the group we want to reach. Because the people who go to museums, galleries, are for the most part people who have respect for minorities.
In the church there is an opportunity to show my work to exactly the audience I want to talk to, but I didn't know about it. I don't know if the pastor realized the "balls" he had going into it, what the community's reaction would be.
What kind of works can people see in the exhibition?
There are two pieces that make people very uncomfortable. With the #UNDERBLANKETS sculptures, my idea was that when two people are lying under a blanket and hugging, you can't tell from the relief if it's two men, two women or who. The first models I did with just one person, but then I realized that I was just sharing my anger about not accepting homosexuality, but that other minorities could be drawn in - gender, nationality, skin color... The piece is in the middle of the church and people immediately associate it with something religious. They see Jesus, Pompeii, the Shroud of Turin... And right next to it is the text that it could be anyone.
The second image is a football player with open arms, so all the football guys want to take pictures. And underneath that is the text that says I'm celebrating the joy of James Jankt coming out to be free. And that's what I enjoy about guided tours. These guys want to take a picture with me next to the football player, so I always tell them it's a shame that they always have to make coming outs, and suddenly they go completely numb. But I know it left something in them that they need to think about.
Should there be more LGBT+ art in churches?
Unfortunately, yes. Because people don't know how to respect it yet. I hate the word tolerance. Because tolerate is superiority. Plus, you can't learn to tolerate. You tolerate gluten or lactose. Respect is the minimum. People are taught they have to tolerate, but tolerate is derogatory.
If LGBT art belongs in a church... I don't like conceptual art to a certain extent. Because at one time it was just made to be ugly, aggressive. I'm a kitschy person, I like pretty things. I think that if something is nice, it can decorate, it can leave a good feeling, then it doesn't matter what we talk about, as long as it doesn't promote hatred towards someone. It's the abuse of the right to free speech that bothers me.
Can't LGBT+ art be counterproductive? For example, to piss it off by making too much of it, by making it unnecessarily ubiquitous?
Not here. Here, it wasn't my intention to do it strictly for the church. But it's what I do, and I was approached to exhibit in a church. LGBT art is a part of me, I can't write it off.
There are a lot of pieces in the show. I did another piece when Juraj and Matúš were shot in Bratislava. I'm from Brazil, the country that kills gay and trans people the most in the world, more than Muslim countries. But it's far away. But when something like that happened here, it was a big deal for me. I've been in the Czech Republic for 32 years. I have very good friends in Bratislava.
There are two diptychs about Juraj and Matúš. They're engraved with derogatory words we hear: gay, faggot, viado from Portuguese and homo. I use the word faggot a lot and people tell me not to. I always ask them why not? I have to listen to it all my life, and if I want to use it, does it bother you? When was the last time you stopped someone who said that to someone else? Now listen to this.
How's the show set up? What kind of technology can visitors see in it?
I use a fusing technique, fused glass. I don't start from liquid glass, but from glass that already exists. I also use parts that have been discarded from glassworks. It's a secondary technique among glassmakers because it was used for decorative objects, different bowls, flattened bottles and things like that.
With this exhibition, I'm basically celebrating ten years since I left glass school. I didn't get into glass until very late. The first part of the exhibition is abstract objects. They're very colorful and play with shapes. You can smell my Brazilian blood. Then the second half, which starts with the #UNDERBLANKETS object. Most of them are downright stories. That's why the exhibition is called that. They're stories I want to tell.
Until when can people visit the exhibition at the church? And then will it be on display elsewhere?
It's in Kunratice until the end of the year, the last two guided tours will be on 27 and 30 December, always at 2 pm. I don't know if it will be on display on the next day. I would like to, because I would like to exhibit the #UNDERBLANKETS piece in Prague. I don't want to brag, but the Corning Museum of Glass from New York State has included it in their catalogue. It's the largest glass institution in the world. It looks not only at art glass, but all glass technologies - even glass for cell phones, telescopes, etc. And every year they make a catalogue of the hundred most interesting works. There was a group of New York journalists at the exhibition, but nothing in the Czech press. Even technologically, the piece is exceptional. I had to invent new technology to make it. I'm proud of it.
But who could make an exhibition like this? Prague Pride? When I asked a colleague who had a gallery a few years ago if we could do a gay exhibition somewhere, he said no one would do it. I guess the times have moved on now, but still. There's a gay gallery in Tel Aviv, but we don't have one in Prague. Sorry, but there are a lot of us in that community. It's interesting that the fear still overwhelms it, unfortunately.
I'm gay, Jewish, a foreigner, I live in the Sudetenland. Eighty years ago, I couldn't talk to you like this because of the Nazis, but today I can. That's also very powerful. It goes step by step. I've done my part. I have my exhibition in the church. I think that's a great achievement. I'm making a mega living off it.
