Kristek’s Film Night(1)
10 August 2013, 4th station
Podhradí nad Dyjí became the venue for Kristek’s largest event in 2013. Hundreds of people came together in front of Chateau Lubo, which was almost entirely covered by a tarpaulin. Only the piano on the apex of the roof thrust upwards towards the sky from the white cocoon. And so after an afternoon viewing of an exhibition of Kristek’s works where the gallery was guarded by the now typical male figures in nuns' habits with assault rifles, the entire house became one giant projection screen. Spectators from the Czech Republic, Austria and Germany could watch a film showing a cross-section of Lubo Kristek’s happening creations from the beginning in the 1970s up to the present day. They could watch, for example, films of his legendary Podhradí nad Dyjí happenings, his work abroad (Germany, Poland, Austria, Turkey, Belgium, etc.), and also the happenings that opened Kristek Thaya Glyptotheque.
Other guests also performed as part of the programme, which lasted until one in the morning. The poet Svatopluk Řičánek (born 1944) read his work inspired by one of Kristek’s happenings called Majesty Rage. Some characters from some events also emerged from the screen. The dancer from the Drosendorf happening appeared, and there was also an appearance by the triple nun from the Znojmo happening who once again divided into three beings through birth. The costumes from Kristek’s “wedding” happening appeared, and Cosmos – the stilt walker with crutches and with three-metre crutches – towered above them all. The German press wrote: “The unbounded fantasy of the artist Lubo Kristek transported the audience to another, surreal world.“ (2)
As part of this event, a German edition of the catalogue Lubo Kristek: Happening Creation in the Thaya Valley was launched, the patrons of which were the emeritus director of the Landsberg museums Hartfrid Neunzert, Countess Francesca Pilati von Thassul and Count Gotthard Pilati von Thassul. The catalogue was christened with the water of the Black Thaya mixed with the water of the Thaya in Podhradí nad Dyjí. Kristek once again combined the muses in a thematic evening, and with this retrospective he commemorated his night vernissages, which were the start of everything. The evening meeting of the past and the present initiated a new stage of his future creation.
Text: Iveta K. Pavlovičová, Barbora Půtová
Iveta K. Pavlovičová (born 1974) is a Czech theatre studies specialist and director of the Research Institute for Communication in Arts in Brno.
She has long been engaged in the postmodern theatre and its sources. She is the author of scientific-research projects supported by the Grant Agency of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Fund for Development of Universities, Czech Literary Fund and the European Union (European Fund for Regional Development), as well as theatre projects supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic and the Czech-German Fund for the Future. She participated in the 3rd and 4th International Symposium of Theatre Anthropology at the Janáček Academy of Music and Performing arts Brno (JAMU), where she lectured in the years 2003–2004. She also gave a lecture at the Masaryk University Institute of Anthropology in Brno. Since 2009, she has worked on the forming of an exhibition programme at the Baroque Palace of Riegersburg.
She published the article Modely v nás a možnost jejich změny (Our Inner Models and the Possibility to Change Them) in the magazine Vesmír (2/2005) and a teaching video programme for high schools. She is the author of the textbook Tělo, znak a rytmus (Body, Sign and Rhythm) for JAMU and the book Divadlo Neslyšících a nové cesty (Theatre of the Deaf and the New Ways, 2002) that was published as part of a publication project supported by the Grant Agency of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic.
Barbora Půtová (born 1985) is a Czech anthropologist and art historian lecturing at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague.
She deals with history of culture, artwork and cultural heritage. Other fields of her expert interest include historical anthropology, visual anthropology and anthropology of art.
She has published dozens of articles and experts studies as well as several expert monographs such as Pravěké umění (Prehistoric Art, co-authors Jean Clottes and Václav Soukup, 2011), Félicien Rops: enfant terrible dekadence (Félicien Rops: Enfant Terrible of Decadence, 2013), Kristkova podyjská glyptotéka (Kristek Thaya Glyptoheque, co-author Iveta K. Pavlovičová, 2013), The Genesis of Creativity and the Origin of the Human Mind (co-edited by Václav Soukup, 2015) or Královská cesta: všední i sváteční život v proměnách času (The Royal Route: Ordinary and Festive Life Over the Course of Time, 2016).
In her monograph Félicien Rops she offers the first comprehensive view of the life and work of one of the most prominent representatives of decadence and symbolism; in her last book Královská cesta (The Royal Route) she writes about the creation, development, meaning and historical changes of the Royal Route in Prague. In her book Skalní umění (Rock Art, 2015), she published the results of her field research of Palaeolithic art that she carried out at archaeological sites in France and Portugal.
At presents she is carrying out research of African rock art in the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco.
The thematic evening was supported by the South Moravia Region as part of the project Kristek’s Mythical Thaya Valley.
Kosmopolit Kristek is 70. (28th August 2013). Kreisbote. p. 9
Other guests also performed as part of the programme, which lasted until one in the morning. The poet Svatopluk Řičánek (born 1944) read his work inspired by one of Kristek’s happenings called Majesty Rage. Some characters from some events also emerged from the screen. The dancer from the Drosendorf happening appeared, and there was also an appearance by the triple nun from the Znojmo happening who once again divided into three beings through birth. The costumes from Kristek’s “wedding” happening appeared, and Cosmos – the stilt walker with crutches and with three-metre crutches – towered above them all. The German press wrote: “The unbounded fantasy of the artist Lubo Kristek transported the audience to another, surreal world.“ (2)
