What a short month and yet what an amount of music, information, workshops, programming, cinemas and dark theatre audience whispers! February only just started and it will soon be over – so come over to see and experience as much as possible. During the intense second month of 2018, A4 Space For Contemporary Culture prepared many special discussion evenings, concerts and quite a few film sessions. And there’s no raining inside of here. Here are the optimistic highlights for gloomy February:
CONCERTS:
Fero Király: To Fix the Engine for piano and live electronics (work in progress) 2. 2. / concert
Fero Király – who we also know by his SuperCollider programming sound workshops in A4 – will present his new music project, where he explores the interactions between acoustic instruments and “custom live” electronics. He works with a piano as both the main sound source and the main experimental sound controller.
Zs (USA), Tigris Argentum (SK) 6. 2. / concert
Come to live through the New York thunderstorm Zs – with saxophone innovator Sam Hillmer, guitarist Patrick Higgins and drumming magician Greg Fox. The band brings a hard-to-categorize genre of con- temporary classic music, minimalism, alternative rock and noise. New York Times described them as a combination of Black Dice and Sun Ra – which does sound like a very speci c mix. We promise you a un- forgettable experience in a form of almost a musical ritual. The accompanying act from Slovak scene will be a fresh new acoustic project Tigris Argentum.
MUSIC DISCUSSION:
Teasing #7 / Faun (Peter Dolník) 12. 2. / discussion + music (in Slovak)
The second 2018 session of our discussion and listening program Teasing will present the music and the main persona behind the project Faun. Peter Dolník is not only a musician but also a radio presenter and a musical connoisseur with an exquisite and eclectic taste. After working in radio TLIS for years he is now a vital part of Radio_FM and during this evening will play you different kinds and avors of his favorite music.
Hudba 2017: Čo sa stalo? 3. 2. / lecture + projection / (in Czech, Slovak)
The rst Saturday evening of February we will be looking back! After a year A4 welcomes Czech publicists, festival programmers and initiators Pavol Klusák, Aleš Stuchlý and Karl Veselý. They will analyze the ups and downs of the last musical year and reminisce over the musical discoveries and genius moments of independent pop or innovative experimental music. Come to enjoy a dynamic evening full of music, pro- jections, music videos, comments and performances!
WORKSHOPS:
Super sounds in SuperCollider 13., 27. 2. Tuesday / 17.00-19.00 / workshop (in Slovak)
Fero Király continues his workshop about sound and music programming in SuperCollider also in Februa- ry. SuperCollider is a programming language used to work with sounds and that offers an effective medi- um for algorithmic and generative composing, live coding, synthesis and sound processing. It is open source and since it also works on most of operative systems, SuperCollider is very tempting to try. Already registered workshop-goers will meet for some music experiments for the second time.
KIDS:
The Famous Art Guide’s Manual / 19th Century
8., 15., 22. 2., Thursday / workshop(4-6 yrs.)
We are happy to announce that the art afternoons lead by the lecturer, artist and painter Monika Pascoe Mikyšková are continuing. From February there will be focus on the art of 19th century – in theory, pain- tings analysis but mostly hands-on, with brushes, paints, colors, scissors and colorful cut-outs. The famous art guide’s manual welcomes all kids between the ages of 4-6 years. Apply now at m.pas- coe.mikyskova@gmail.com!
LECTURES:
Palo Fabuš: Meditation or Lively metaphors 16. 2. / lecture (in Slovak)
Technology and thinking II. / lectures about the philosophy of media
The series of lectures Technology and thinking brings you yet another evening with Palo Fabuš. The edi- tor-in-chief of the magazine Umělec (The Artist) analyzes the relation between digital technology and human fate. He studied informatics, media theory and sociology and this time will talk about how we get in uenced by media and the effect of mediatisation. What is a human? Do the media even exist? The lec- ture will be held in Slovak.
The Poetry Of Democracy / Masaryk 19. 2. / discussion (in Slovak)
presented by Lukáš Krajčír, guests: Dušan Kováč, Andrej Findor, Mária Stanková
The poetry of democracy is an evening dedicated to literary and social signi cance of the Tomas Garrigue Masaryk phenomena. He was not only the president of Czechoslovakia but also an important gure in establishing the modern liberal-democratic worldview in our context. The values he considered crucial are still shared and found their way into Slovak poetry. This evening the guests will analyze the impact of Slovak engaged poetry on our history and reminisce over the 100th anniversary of formation of Cze- choslovakia.
CINEMA:
In February we present you an Oscar nominated lm but also many experimental experiences and genre – wise unconventional fresh lm moments. In A4 you can nd experimental visual essays, quirky documen- taries and lm forms that are sometimes impossible to see in classical cinemas. Come to enjoy our DIFFERENT CINEMA (Kino Inak) program, most of the times with English subtitles:
Neľubov, dir. Andrej Zvjagincev, RU, 127 min., Russian with Czech subtitles
In the beginning of February we introduce the Oscar nominated lm by Andrej Zvjagincev, Loveless. Heart and gut wrenching story of coldness between parents and a child, a divorce, emotional coldness and failure in different relationships follows the characters of a woman-mother, man-father and a twelve-
year-old son Aljoša. After the divorce the boy is left unwanted and unneeded. When the burden-boy goes missing, the emptiness of his parents’ emotions reform into a desperate hunt for all that they’ve lost.
Photon, dir. Norman Leto, PL, 107 min., Polish with English subtitles
The lm Photon by Polish artist Norman Leto is a visually compelling essay about the human evolution. The lm combines digital animation and educative approach to topics like the origin of matter, biological nature of violence and dares to predict the future of human kind – tightly bound to our relationship with technology.
Self-Criticism of a Bourgeois Dog / 11. 2. / kino inak
Selbstkritik eines bürgerlichen Hundes, dir. Julian Radlmaier, DE, 99 min., German with English subtitles
We present a new and refreshingly ironic début of German lmmaker Julian Radlmaier. Self-Criticism of a Bourgeois Dog brings a bit of absurd Buñuel-esque humor, unconventional use of acting (the director himself plays the director, a left-wing hipster – a farm worker) and a dose of subversive political satire. The class problem issue of the contemporary society is also served with a beautiful cinematography and great use of not only sarcasm but also colors!
Los Feliz / 14. 2. / kino inak
Los Feliz, dir. Edgar Honetschläger, AT, 102 min., different languages with English subtitles
Come to see a road movie in which the car is not the thing that moves. Another experimental film of February – this time by Edgar Honetschläger – placed somewhere between Godard’s tradition, playful fairy tailes and visual essays genre. The lm analyzes the tensions between different cultures, ways of thinking and understanding humor.
Roland Barthes / 21. 2. / kino inak
Roland Barthes – Le Théâtre du langage, dir. Thierry Thomas, FR, 55 min., French with English subtitles
Roland Barthes is one of the most essential photography theorist, popular essayist and a philosopher. In this lm we can hear him talk about his life and memories through the archival recordings while watching glimpses of his life – which changes the genre of a documentary about his philosophy to a personal bio graphy.
Sinofuturism (1839 – 2046 AD) / 26. 2. / kino inak
Sinofuturism (1839 – 2046 AD), dir. Lawrence Lek, GB, 60 min., English
German artist Lawrence Lek presents a critical video essay using motifs of science- ction, documentary melodrama, social realism and Chinese cosmology. In Sinofuturism Lek accepts seven crucial western ste- reotypes about China and Chinese culture and tries to see them as a high form of arti cial intelligence.
Wet Wedding + Heidegger in Auschwitz / 28. 2. / kino inak
Mokrá svatba, dir. Jakub Halousek, Jan Daňhel, CZ, 24 min., Czech Heidegger in Auschwitz, dir. Martin Ježek, CZ, 50 min., German with Czech subtitles
The evening of experimental film and philosophy will introduce two films that use narration in a very non-Hollywood way. Wet Wedding offers hypnotic image deformations, acknowledges and uses the sounds of the lm strip that intertwine with the voice recordings – making the story emotionally captiva- ting but also narratively impossible to decipher. The structural film Heidegger in Auschwitz combines the storylines of the German philosopher visiting Auschwitz 40 years after his own death and the one of his former partner Hannah Arend walking by his old chalet, edited with parts of his Being and Time.