EDITION 7
OTHER VISIONS OF CZECH MOVING IMAGE
Other Visions of Czech Moving Image represents such works of art that are more often seen in displays than in cinemas. Their authors usually do not have any academic film education, but in most cases they come from artistic backgrounds. Thus they are well informed about the development of 20th century art that was dominated by the media of photography, film and video, as well as many artistic styles and movements. To these authors, moving pictures are only one of the many expressive possibilities they can use to create films lacking film narration and tight narrative structures. The selection follows the most distinctive tendencies – other visions that have happened in Czech production since 2007. The PAF curators think about the art of moving image in broad terms; able to absorb not only technical categories and narrative structure, but also genuinely conceptual videos.
Program #1
Other Visions – Selection of Czech Moving Images 2012
The final video selection for the Other Visions section presents formally diverse approaches to grasping one's own personal cosmology. It moves from poetic pata-scientific film images (Smetana, Helán) to a series of more structured narratives (Kacar, Jelínková, Kynclová and Vaněk) and straightforward site-specific animation (Žák, Rada). The genre of documentary is represented by a group portrait of a Turkish civil initiative aimed at protecting genetically original, unmodified seed and plant species (Akile Nazli Kaya). At the same time, more self-proclaimed activists use performance language in an attempt to repeat a meaningful coexistence with Mother Earth. For example, through tiny interventions they adjust human indifference and arrogance towards everything "underhuman" (Doležalová). A group of unregistered volunteer electricians (Vojtěch Fröhlich, Ondřej Mladý, Jan Šimánek, Vladimír Turner) deal with the excesses of a naughty son of Mother Earth – with Metropolis – radically and in their own way. The works are connected by the meaningful use of the moving image; from the perspective of interconnected sound, the spoken word, suggestive forms of drawing and painting, and from seeing the image as a means of recording a unique event in time and space (Vojtěch Fröhlich).
Dušan Zahoranský
Matěj Smetana, Factory 1-3, 2012, 6 min.
David Helán, Cinemat Rest in Peace, 2012, 2:46
Vojtěch Žák & Vojtěch Rada, Světotvar, 2012, 3.18 min.
Vojtěch Fröhlich, Ca..., 2011, 4.12 min.
Vojtěch Fröhlich, O. Mladý, J. Šimánek, V. Turner, Illumination, 2012, 3:25 min.
Akile Nazli Kaya, People Who Attempt To Save The World, 2012, 30 min.
Jana Doležalová, Situation Changes The Norm, 2012, 10:10 min.
Kateřina Kynclová, Vojjtěch Vaněk, Little Box, 2012, 10:30 min.
Soňa Jelínková, Pretty Face, 2012, 9:27 min.
Jan Kacar, Freak Show, 2012, 9:52 min.
Program #2
Other Visions of Czech Animation
screening venue: TOLDI Art Cinema
Moonwalk | Martin Kohout | 2008 | 2:20
A meditative variation on the graphic background of internet interface and pop-music. "Youtube recently changed its design and added one button to the playbar, which actually screwed it all up." In 2010 the Guggenheim museum classified Moonwalk as one of the most creative records on YouTube.
MONOSKOP no.3 (monkeyking legend) | Martin Búřil | 2011 | 6:52
Animation and post-production programmes simulating the motion of a certain graphic source have recently become an essential part of animation work. In the case of Monoskop, the illustrations from the book Monkey King by the famous Czech illustrator and painter Zdeněk Sklenář served as the source. The source layers of animation were extracted from the digital animated film (the original was intended for EXPO 2010).
Cheesy Snow | Pavel Ryška | 2007 | 3:55
From the end of the 1920’s, waggish and light-hearted mice in early animations became the bearers of diffusive messages; later they even managed to enact the roles of sensitive and adventurous teenagers. Their diligence was rewarded with the audience getting the point, but success forced them to shoot other exhausting sequels. Deliverance came only with highly-feared oblivion... Cheesy snow is a little comment on the fate of these mythic creatures.
Untitled (1. trailer; 2. selfreflecting image) | Jiří Havlíček & Filip Cenek | 2005–2007 | 3:06
All the pictures and scraps that lay around the table suddenly became a motion picture with its own trailer. Structuralized fragments that wait for the audience to arrange them. In the first part of the video-animation Cenek and Havlíček combine a circular shot over a stadium with animation of archetypal symbolism. Continuity follows fragments of various visual techniques such as disturbing drawing, visualised text decomposition and a discontinual sequence of unmarked photographs.
Untitled | Jan Šrámek/Vojtěch Vaněk | 2010 | 4:29
An animation based on a fusion of animation principles (vector graphic and photography manipulation) that are common to the work of both authors. It transforms their previous collaborations, which usually dealt with installation and objects. Now they have decided to collaboratively employ the expressive means that are closer to the nature of their individual work.
- are you telling me, the future continues in the past? | Viktor Takáč | 2008 | 3:31
Rotation around the internal axis of a photograph determines the space, distance and imaginary volume to be mediated by the image. By the acceleration of video-photography rotation, the continuity of a smooth image of descriptive photography fall into single visual fields. It is a literal illustration of the projection of moving picture principle itself, its visual fields and the “gaps” between them.
The Lost Architect | Daniel Pitín | 2008 | 1:41
Daniel Pitín uses found archive photographs, which he further modifies. The pictures move in a random flow. By changing them; inserting things that don’t belong in the photograph, or in opposition by reducing them, he disturbs our conception of the look, context and general impression of the photograph. Pitín, using different photographs, mostly with the central theme of architecture, creates an almost fictive story of the life and work of the unknown architect.
In a Nutshell | Pavel Švec | 2008 | 11:29
The sequel of the loose Space trilogy created by Pavel Švec is an intergalactic odyssey. This time there's a scientist, a space shuttle, planets and a tragedy. References to cultural and scientific archetypes accompany the story through the pessimistic visions of a puppet-cosmologist Stephen Hawkins (including his software voice) who is the only sad hero in the endless universe.
Weary Delight | Matěj Smetana | 2011 | 7:58
The raw and minimalistic plasticine animation of Weary Delight mercilessly captures a set of banal scenes in the life of a lonely man, the only hero of the story. It is visually sophisticated and at the same time a direct rendering of an ordinary and unimportant day that can nonetheless represent a whole life. The sense of destruction and weariness resonates towards the tragic but is counteracted by cheerful moments such as a fountain of urine holding up a ping-pong ball.
Moving out, moving in | Pavla Sceranková | 2007 | 1:01
Pavla Sceranková works with the motion of a chair and a table. A model of a folding chair becomes a puppet, independently resisting passing through a gate. In the case of Pavla Sceranková’s sculptural art, the concept of animation becomes a symbolic gesture in itself.