Home and Abroad: Central Europe Cinema

PRESS RELEASE | JUNE 2, 2022

PROJECTION: Home and Abroad: Central Europe Cinema
START: 02 06 2022 v 18:30
UNTIL: 23 10 2022
CURATORS: Barbora Kundračíková, Jakub Frank
SPECIAL GUESTS: Mykola Ridnyi, Mirosław Bałka, Habima Fuchs, Wilhelm Sasnal, Mark Ther, Sarah Dobai ad.
PRODUCTION: Tomáš Jurníček, Kamil Zajíček
INSTALLATION: Daniel Opletal, Vlastimil Sedláček, Filip Šindelář
GRAPHIC DESIGN: Petr Šmalec
SUBTITLES: AZ Translation, Lucie Melicharová
The exhibition is held under the auspices of the Consulate of Ukraine in Brno.

The special programme of the Central European Forum Olomouc connects the existing permanent exhibition dedicated to the now passed "century of relativity" and the new, fresh, equally fast-paced century - the twenty-first century. It also connects the two prisms through which the institution has long profiled itself - the museum and the forum. In several closed editions, it offers insights into regionally specific themes that nonetheless have the ambition or potential to generalize its experience. In doing so, it makes particular use of the imaginative and creative possibilities of film and video art.

Central European Cinema is part of the Home and Abroad project, which perspective focuses on problematic or even painful moments in Central European history as well as the formation of personal and shared identity. Among others, it turns to issues of cultural alienation (Wilhelm Sasnal), exile (Mark Ther) and the Holocaust (Sarah Dobai). It also theorizes the very own search for home - a new work by Habima Fuchs, produced by the Olomouc Museum of Art, reflects the primordial myth of European civilization, the expulsion from paradise. Above all, however, it presents another insight into the imaginative and creative world of Mirosław Bałka, the main guest of this years SEFO season. It is he who is the eventual counterbalance to the entry edition, the most pressing one, which responds to the current situation - and is dedicated to contemporary Ukrainian artists. If human history is "a struggle for control of the centre of the world", as British historian Peter Frankopan writes, it is time to learn from the experience that Central Europe has - and make the centre into the whole.  

The structure of the individual chapters of CE Cinema is variable, reacting to the situation, the presentation adapting to the chosen point of view. Nevertheless, in the end, there is a strong connection revealed - we are all bound by a common destiny, across space and time.

The edition I/ Mykola Ridnyi: Art in the State of Emergency

The Russian invasion of Ukraine that began on 24 February 2022, has shaken Europe and the rest of the world. Ukrainian society, however, has lived in anxiety for the past eight years, since Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 and unleashed a hybrid war in the Donbas region. The edition I presents a selection of video works and film essays by Ukrainian artists and filmmakers produced during this period. They reflect on a range of topics, including the impact of propaganda and war destruction, existence in a traumatic environment, and humanitarian and ecological disaster. While some depict ongoing events, others rethink historical narratives or outline dystopian perspectives. Could the disaster have been prevented if we had been more sensitive observers of the world around us in general?

Over the last three months, thousands of Ukrainian civilians have died, much of the local infrastructure and residential areas have been destroyed, and we are all living under the threat of a nuclear disaster. Some artists have managed to emigrate, others have become displaced in their own country with no way to leave. The call for art to meditate, share and encourage the revision of this experience is growing. The edition I/ Art in the State of Emergency deliberately calls for solidarity in this extraordinary situation.

The screening follows the project Film of Emergency prepared in cooperation with the National Gallery in Sofia (Iaroslava Boubnova). The next presentation is planned by Kunstraum Munchen.

Grey Horses (2016, 38), directed by Mykola Ridnyi
People Who Came to Power (2015, 17), directed by Oleksiy Radynski, Tomash Rafa
Diorama (2018, 12), directed by Zoya Laktionova
Clanking, Dispute, Hammering and Gurgling (2020, 10), directed by Daniil Revkovskiy and Andriy Rachinskiy
There are No Monuments to Monuments (2021, 35’), We fought for six years, then it was covered with snow, and in the spring they erected a monument to the hero (2021, 3’), directed by Dana Kavelina

Photos for download HERE