Retart Skate Remade Project
Retart Skate Remade projekt 2012 from retart on Vimeo.
Retart is an independent Slovak trademark presenting contemporary visual artists trough functional products. This year Retart has organised an exceptional art project combining visual art and skateboarding.
The project consists of transforming a series of used skateboards into valuable works of art. Eighteen skateboarders from Slovakia and Czech Republic donated their skateboards that were afterwards reshaped and polished and distributed amongst eighteen artists who converted them into artworks. This way Retart has turned used skateboards into artefacts with double identities, reflecting the creative energy of both artists and riders.
In the beginning, there was the desire to do something new and interesting, something that would differ from other products and would remain in the sphere of art. Unlike the previous “commercial” line of products, this project was intended to offer artists unlimited space for their creative realisation.
The project was inspired by old school skateboards of the 60´s, 70´s and 80´s. Since Retart has been very fond of skateboarding and he has been cooperating with many artists on a long-term basis, he has combined the two things he loves- skateboarding and art- in the development of this original project.
The initial idea was to connect the names of skateboarders with the names of visual artists. In order to do that, Retart had to find a way how to transform the existing medium, give it a new meaning and make its surface suitable for further creative modification. He outlined a project that would create an intersection of the skateboard lifestyle with the world of art, which would affect all of the participants.
The first phase of the project involved collecting used skateboards donated by 18 contemporary top riders at the Czechoslovak skateboard scene. The boards were reshaped in order to resemble old-fashioned skateboards known from various eras of the history of skateboarding.
Each board has gone trough a complicated series of modifications that was concluded with branding its reverse.
These original pieces were then handed over to 18 contemporary visual artists.
The spirit of the rider and his or her energy remains preserved in the board he or she used to ride. They leave traces that don’t change in the course of time, they just acquire new meaning. The reshaped boards also carry the message of the time when skateboarding was invented and started to evolve. The time of fascination by the possibilities a board could offer. The evolution of art, similarly to that of skateboarding is inseparably united with permanent seeking and discovering.
The world of art has been influencing the world of skateboarding since its early years. That is why Retart decided to pass the boards to visual artists that would dedicate them creative energy, breathe new life into them and turn these used boards into paintings or artifacts.