Jan Turner

In 1993-98 I studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague in the studios of Prof. Hugo Demartini, Prof.
Vladimir Kokola and Prof. Milan Knížák. Since then I have held a number of solo exhibitions and
participated in many group exhibitions, both in the Czech Republic and abroad. Parallel to my artistic
profession, I have been running a practice of Shiatsu and psychosomatic counselling for twenty years, and
I am currently cooperating with the Centre of Complex Therapy of MUDr. Vladislav Chvala and PhDr.
Ludmila Trapková in Liberec, and in the past, for example, with psychosomatic gynaecologist MUDr.
Helena Máslova. I am a member of the theatre ensemble Nejhodnější medvídci, bass guitarist of the
improvisational music group Rolba, author of the book Holčička s medvědíma tlapama (Little Girl with
Bear Paws), together with Aleš Havlíček author of Brown Book A and Brown Book B. Since 2021 I am a
student of the PhD program at UMPRUM in Prague.

The hidden iconography of narcissism

The intention of the project is to look beyond the established clichés on the subject of narcissism.
Narcissism is most often associated with self-centredness, relational fakery and loneliness. Narcissism is
ubiquitous in the artistic environment and it is easy to reduce it to the dominant reason for pursuing an
artistic profession. Yet the art world works quite well with it, indeed, it tends to be tolerated and required
of artists. Outside the mainstream of negatively attuned ideas, however, many surprising and disturbing
topics with the opposite sign lie fallow. Group meetings of nine artists and two psychotherapists are used
to explore them. In the meetings we explore the theme from the inside, and discover its hidden corners.
The group process generates further questions and themes and reveals connections that serve as the basis
for the artwork. The complementary iconography that emerges in this way should convey the message
that narcissism is not just a behavioural pattern with which artists compensate for their relational
underachievement and lack of self-worth.