Art's Birthday 2005 Network

2005 Art’s Birthday Party

Czech Radio 3 – Vltava, Prague

The evening of acoustic arts, held under the auspices of the European Broadcasting Union http://www.rozhlas.cz/radiocustica/portal/

Audiostream: http://www.rozhlas.cz/radiocustica/default/meanders_32.pls
Webcam: http://live.atlas.cz/video/artsbirthday200.asx

based on texts by Gertrude Stein and with music by the Beach Boys

The evening of acoustic arts, held under the auspices of the European Broadcasting Union, is broadcasted live by Český rozhlas 3 – Vltava on Sunday, January 16, 2005 from 9:20 PM to 11 PM (C.E.T). Following live cut-ins from ORF Kunstradio Wien, RNE Madrid, and RR Moscow, live broadcasting from the “A” Studio in Karlín, Prague, will begin at 10:30 PM and end at 11 PM, presenting the acoustic teamwork called “Meanders and Sediments”, produced by ČRo 3 – Vltava.The improvisation aims to probe archives of sounds and mind associations concerning memory, oblivion and unwillingness to remember the past. The archive’s depository is located in the Prague area, a few years after the thousand-year floods. It was prepared during a series of meetings by several people that had known each other, and yet had not known each other: theatre director Jiří Adámek, musician and poet Jan Štolba, micro-radio activists Jan Dufek and Miloš Vojtěchovský, sound visionaries Aleš Kilián and Ladislav Železný, and actress Alena Štréblová. They attempted to use the recording studio as a resonance tympanum, through which seismic and communication intensities of both the surrounding area and the memory are released, coming from fathomless depths. The project is directed by Michal Rataj, who also collaborated with Miloš Vojtěchovský on its conception.The history of the annual Art's Birthday Party – the festival whose part the improvisation “Meanders and Sediments” will be – is described by Robert Adrian in the following words:

Art's Birthday Party is a celebration in memory of Robert Filliou who declared, on January 17, 1963, that Art had been born exactly 1,000,000 years ago when someone dropped a dry sponge into a pail of water. 10 years later he celebrated Art's 1,000,010th birthday in the Neue Galerie, Aachen. After Filliou's death in 1987 some artists began to celebrate Art's Birthday with mail-art, fax and slow scan tv events in the spirit of his concept of "The Eternal Network" or "La Fete permanente". The Birthday parties took place in different cities across the world and artists were asked to bring birthday presents for Art. -- works that could be shared over the network.The global birthday party for art has always tried to be fun while paying homage to Robert Filliou's dream of The Eternal Network.

Meanders and SedimentsAcoustic teamworkWhen the waters receded at the end of fall, after a long period without rain, the river under the bridges laid bare its long unseen banks, areas of the river bottom, covered throughout the years with soil from the fields and sediments from remote upstream regions, which the river was passing through on its way towards the city and up to the sea. The shallow mud revealed stumps, branches, rusty barrels, rocks covered with green and gray felty matter, plastic bottles, rubber boots, fish skeletons, pieces of cars, carburetors, brake linings, cans, remains of church benches, armature scrolls, children’s soft toys, a creaky baby carriage, road signs with hardly legible names of long gone streets; there was even a sunken merry-go-round down Podolí quarter. The water seemed to grow thicker; saturated solution of bichlorphenyls, phosphate fertilizers, sands, crude oil, ammoniac, Lysol, urine, iodine and clots of benzol chains was flowing gently under the bridges. Walking along the riverbanks, people were unwittingly reading texts, drawn up in the mud by the feet of black water birds and rats that probably looked for food, shells, bugs. Shaded by poplars and alders, the spines of islands elevated and reached towards the city, penetrating the riverside with their sharp scent. There were sounds heard from the river bottom; sounds that had sedimented and fermented in furrows and layers of mud for decades: fragments of long forgotten hit songs, talks of strangers resting on benches in summer, noise of clattering streetcars, tapping of scythes, cracked voices from loudspeakers, politicians’ speeches from manifestations, rattle of floating helicopters, starting motorcycles, noise of radio waves and whisper of secret messages and proclamations.


Biographies:

Jiří Adámek (born 1977)

graduated from Academy of Performing Arts in Prague; at present he is a freelance artist. He is interested in puppets, non-theatrical spaces, sounds, texts, and his own desires. Recently he spent some time in the Šumava mountains, being interested in children on a school trip.

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Jan Dufek (born 1979)

graduated from College of Film Arts in Písek (his major was direction/screenplay-writing). From 1997 to 2000, he participated in various music projects, such as East Side Militia, End/Org, and Disabled. Since 2000, he has fully realized several projects, such as Improwizac, rJ_SoundSys, and participated in many others (together with Michael Delia, Miloš Vojtěchovský, Martin Janíček, John Grzinich etc.). In 2002, he realized a sound installation, as a part of Opava Echo Project. Since 2001, he joined Luděk Svoboda, creating their own e. o. label. He directed and composed music for following short films/video art: Masak Dr. Caligariho, Intro (also director of photography, editing), fc Door, 280303.

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Aleš Killian (born 1975)

was born in Písek. He graduated from the local College of Film Arts in 1996. Since 1996, he has been a member of Conceptual Art Makom Project. In 2004, he graduated from Academy of Fine Arts (professor M. Bielický, New Media Atelier)
http://www.auvid.net

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Jan Štolba (born 1957)

was born in Prague. At the beginning of his career, he played 1920’s and 1930’s jazz in Prague swing bands OPSO and Jazzphonic quintet. Later on, he also appeared on the Czech alternative rock scene of 1980’s; he played with the drummer Alan Vitouš; he was a member of the art-rock “big band” Krásné nové stroje, or a gothic–folk–rock group Mozart K. With various groups, he took part in jazz festivals throughout Europe and the U.S.A. He played on 15 albums; his last CD, entitled “Time after Time”, was recorded in 2002 by his own jazz quartet. At present, he composes his own material. Besides his music activities, he is also interested in literature – he published several books of fiction and poetry, and he often contributes with his criticism to literary journals.

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Alena Štréblová (born 1966)

was born in Prague. She graduated from Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, majoring in puppetry. However, she has never worked as a puppeteer. She started her career at A Studio Rubín, which was then directed by Ondřej Pavelka. After that, she was an actor at Divadlo Na okraji, directed by Zdeněk Potužil. As a guest, she acted in Divadlo Na zábradlí, Ypsilon Studio, Divadlo Sklep, and The National Theatre in Prague. In 1995, she engaged herself with Divadlo Komedie, and in 2001 in Rokoko theatre in Prague.

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Miloš Vojtěchovský (born 1955)

was born in Prague. In 1980, he graduated from Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague, majoring in aesthetics and history of fine arts. He is a theorist, critic, teacher, and a publisher covering electronic media, music, and communication systems. He frequently publishes his articles in various journals and newspapers. Since the mid-nineties, he taught at universities in Amsterdam and New York. Since 1997, he has been a teacher at FaVU (Audiovisual studies center) and a lecturer at the Department of Fine Arts Theory and History. His main interests include fine arts history and technology, sonic arts, social context of culture and technology, locative media and community intermedia projects. He has realized a number of multimedia projects.

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Ladislav Železný (born 1979)

was born in Jindřichův Hradec. He went to school (FaVU VUT Brno, video atelier), and at the moment he is alive and goes to work. Every now and then, he exhibits something or makes sound under the label of AUVID (FLCCA, FCCA, HIT, PQ, NG, MG, AO4, NoD, InOut, CRO, RJ etc.)
http://www.auvid.net