IN THE SAME BREATH (2015) installation, 3 screens, 4 channel audio
This work originated as a multichannel installation, the arrangement of which proceeded from the geometry of traditional synchronized mass exercises. It was an attempt to bring the experience of mass physical exercise (AllSokol gathering, Spartakiad) closer to the audience and to become its participant. Its main objective was to examine the effect of the synchronised movement on an individual. In addition to that the 4 channel soundtrack is trying to capture the experience of being part of hundreds of bodies moving in the same rhytm.
Outside of the immersive situation, the video when screened alone diverts the attention in a different direction: to the protagonists’ motions and expressions.
The work thematises the historical development of mass compositions, the contemporary deviation from these kinds of exercises and the transformation of their social meanings. Therefore the protagonists are the oldest gymnasts who experienced many gatherings and Spartakiads. I see the memories that the gymnasts’ bodies retain, along with the traditional uniforms worn by Sokol members as an eloquent shortcut on the way to all similar topics.
DOP: Stanislav Adam, Second camera: Tomáš Frkal, Matěj Piňos, Sound design: Matěj Chrudina, Models: Members of Sokol Prague Strašnice, Instalation: Kryštof Pešek, Lukáš Dřevjaný, Production: Studio FAMU - Tomáš Šimon. The installation originated in the workshop of Klára Tasovská in CAS FAMU. oponent: Jan Pfeiffer
THE ORANGE PORRIDGE AND 16 BEERS (2015) one channel video, 7'
FROM THE DAILY MENU OF THREE MEMORIES
camera, editing, concept: Tereza Adámková
Video is based on interviews with three women who attended the annual mass movement festivals of socialist Czechoslovakia(Spartakiads) between
1955 – 1985. It visualises their strongest memories of the event in a poetic and picturesque way and reflects what are the things that get stuck in our memory and are able to overshadow the entire experience.
The video originated in the workshop of Ondřej Vavrečka in CAS FAMU.
SPARTAKIAD WILL BE NICE AND PRETTY (2014) one channel video, 14'
camera: Marek Petřík
THEY HAD SKIPPING ROPES (2014) one channel video, a loop, 1'45''
camera, editing: Marek Petřík
Based on a mass exercise for young female students from the planned Spartakiad 1990 I created two recorded perfromances THEY HAD SKIPPING ROPES and SPARTAKIAD WILL BE NICE AND PRETTY.
The mass exercise was in 1990 (cancelled) Spartakiad performed by less than a tenth of the participants out of the original estimated number of 13,824.
In the video THEY HAD SKIPPING ROPES I practice part of the mass exercise in a short loop. It is an attempt to experience the movement and the joy of the Spartakiad exercise and gatherings with one's own body. At the same time, awkwardness and absurdity is present when attempting to isolate the movement from the synchronous crowd.
In a longer video SPARTAKIAD WILL BE NICE AND PRETTY I perform in the jersey that was intended for cancelled Spartakiad 1990 for the young female students. I perform the postures from the 1990 mass exercise in the winter of 2014 in the streets of Brno and wait for the surrounding pedestrians to react to the jersey and the postures are transferred in the form of rigid poses. It is again a physical experience but also an examination of whether the Spartakiad is still alive in people's minds and whether a mere symbol in the form of a jersey and a posture will provoke a reaction in pedestrians. Both events and their recording were for me the first step on the path of research on the topic of the Spartakiad and mass compositions in general.
THE VOICE IMITATOR DID NOT COME TO PERFORM HIS OWN VOICE (2014) one channel video, 14' 43''
concept, editing: Tereza Adámková
camera: Adam Elšík, František Jakubec, performer: Vladimír Hauser
sound recording: Matěj Chrudina, assistant: Jan Bodnár