Ekran

A multiple screening of uncovered amateur films without sound or commentary, accompanied with live music. A journey back in time to the hypnotising rhythm of music and the flickering of old projectors. A tribute to all the forgotten fates of those who will never become celebrities. Fragments of someone else´s lives which are so similar to ours.

Authors, artists, info:

This project is based on films and slides we have collected over many years. During rehearsals our initial interest in slides as a medium grew into fascination with the personal stories they tell.

We discovered amateur movies recorded on 8mm film. In pawn shops, bazaars, and flea markets we found family recordings prepared by enthusiasts, who themselves went through the process of recording, developing, and sorting. We were surprised by the quality and power of the stories told by the materials. Pictures from the lives of strangers came to life in front of our eyes; pictures which have something to say about our own lives, too. Sensitive material has found its way into our care, and we are trying to treat it with respect. These are the stories of lives just as important as our own.

A stage concert-installation. Multiprojection of randomly found amateur .lm material to live ambient music accompaniment. We discovered amateur eigh-millimetre .lm reels. We would browse second-hand shops, bazaars and .ea markets, and came upon family chronicles once made with a good deal of enthusiasm by unknown individuals; they were then subjected to a process of recording, developing, and selecting. Every now and then we´d stand back in amazement at their quality, and at the force of their message. There cropped up before our eyes images from the lives of strangers which nonetheless seemed to be telling something about our own lives as well. What we laid our hands on there was, and is, a sensitive material which we handle with great respect, and to which we hold in awe. It is a report on lives which are every bit as relevant as our own.

Ekran... the title relates to the silver screen taking turns on which are, in rapid alternation or at a slower pace, castaway old slides and amateur eight-millimetre.lm shots. Apart from that, Ekran is also the small screen displaying the landscape of our soul. An act of solemn commemoration dedicated to the individual human being, free from the least trace of pretence, theatricality, or that obligatory concomitant of the modern-day achiever which is Image.

B4

music ensemble was formed in 1998 by Tomáš Procházka, since its inception, the out.t has worked closely with HANDA GOTE on all of its projects. Tomáš Procházka is active in the band as player on various guitars, bass-guitar and samplers, and as vocalist. The formation´s other members are multiinstrumentalist David Freudl, and Leoš Kropáček on drums. B4 describe their style as psychedelic krautrock. It tends towards ambient music and minimalism, with various intentionally centrifugal elements.

Tomáš Procházka - electric guitar, ebow, electronics

David Freudl - piano, keyboards, electronics

Leoš Kropáček - drums, objects

Press:

„HANDA GOTE research & development has been involved in work straddling the borders between drama, dance, and music. Each of its projects mounted so far has been focused on a single specific technology or a certain medium, such as photographic slides and eight-millimetre home movies; mounting of sound systems in space and on individua objects; action-oriented use of the movie camera; or music modulated individually in the headphones of every member of the audience. Its

members are dancer Veronika Švábová, sound designer-musician Tomáš Procházka, allround tech wizard Jakub Hybler, and visual artist Robert Smolík. All of them have long admired Japanese culture, citing its refined sense of nobility and harmony. Their favourite material includes randomly

collected and recycled articles, worn-out things which they restore to new meanings in their projects. These inclinations are duly refected in the ensemble´s name: handa gote means "soldering iron" in Japanese."

Jiří Adámek

„In the performance Ekran, the intimitely known world of home cinema and slide projection with family holidays, splashing in the sea, hills, mushrooming etc, peers down at the audience. The people on the faded, often quite crudely recorded images are and are not strangers. Types which we remember, scores of real people stylized into their ideas of happiness, relaxation and recreation, on reflection three decades of irrational and weird costumes - fashion of the seventies within the limits of the socialist network of retailers, when people weren´t lucky enough to have emigrants in the family."

Petr Ferenc / His Voice 10/2006

„What is normally considered boring in the extreme - browsing through moments in the lives of strangers, in a very simple yet ingenious way, transformed into a strong, intimate experience. By the setup of projection surfaces on five, individual screens, they have created a „forcefield" on which they continuously permutate slides supplying new „conquests".

Petr Pola / Rozhledna 20. 2. 2007