... we should begin by acknowledging that the map of the world has no divine or dogmatically sanctioned spaces, essences or privileges.., human experience is finely textured, dense, and accessible enough not to need extra-historical or extra-worldly agencies to illuminate or explain it. I am talking about a way of regarding our world as amenable to investigation and interrogation without magic keys, special jargons and instruments, curtained-off practices.

All artists have to work within the determinants of his or her time: the conditions of possibility that have an effect on what can be thought and imagined, what can be made, what can be sold and what can be seen by others. Some artists today work in ways which their ancient predecessors might recognise, whether it be through the routines of a studio, the existence of a supportive gallery and collecting structure, or the availability of a known audience. But if your work as an artist relies on a deep engagement with the worlds beyond art (art as art), as is the case with Stefan Gec, then the determinants of your time and the conditions of possibility are inevitably different from a number of your counterparts. In order to address the creative and imaginative moments that make up the story of Stefan Gec's career so far, we must begin to mark out some of the contours of the world, at least as they might appear to a contemporary artist such as Gec.

Contexts and Strategies

 Introduction

The Biographicat Context

Strategies of the Artist

Under Pressure

 Fedm

 Fragment

 Decompression Chamber

Hatf Lives and Whole Worlds

 Fallout from Chernobyl.

 Bitter Waters

 Natural. History

Trace Etements

 Detached Bell Tower

 Buoy

Towards a New Public Domain

Notes