The aim of cycles such as Live Animation, Other Visions 008, Konvikt Resident, and this year´s PAF Cult is to monitor the processes of a moving picture on film and video.
In addition to discovering national cinematographies and being exposed to all sorts of animation techniques, PAF also offers a variety of projects that might not seem related to animated filmmaking since these are being created in closer connection to other artistic fields than cinema. Yet work with a moving picture represents a common ground. These projections and performances often share significant features of an art installation, performance, concert or theatre. Nevertheless, unifying principles remain in aspects of film projection and in the context of a film festival.
The independence of a film and film projection is best illustrated in the work of an Austrian experimental filmmaker Peter Kubelka (PAF Cult), who will introduce his "metric" and "metaphoric" films to Czech audiences for the first time. Japanese musician and visual artist Ryoji Ikeda will bring out his datamatics [2.0] within the Life Animation cycle. Although both artists make use of different types of media and principles in their work, a common denominator lies in the perfect analysis of this medium and the interconnected audio and visual elements.
An important subsection of Life Animation and Konvikt Resident that both enriches, not only the concept of animation, but also the artists´ activities at the festival, is the theme of polyekran, which means the division of an image into several projection areas. The theme itself is more a reaction to recent unique projects specializing in the multiplication and decomposition of a picture, than a homage to the 50th anniversary of legendary Brussels EXPO ´58 where Alfred Radok and Josef Svoboda exhibited their famous Polyekran. The polyekran´s theme will be placed within a couple of installations and life performances. On three successive nights, formations that share an intimate relationship to 8mm and 16 mm film size and slides will be introduced. These include French Burstscratch (L. Berger, S. Simon, L. Barbier), native Mikroloops (M.Blažíček, S. Abrahám, M.Cabowitz) and Handa Gote (T. Procházka, R. Smolík, J. Hybler, D. Freudl, D. Singer, J. Švarcová).
Due to the polyekran phenomenon, a cycle Konvikt Resident has been dramaturgically adjusted, as its aim is to provide chosen artists with tools and the space of a Jesuit convent, for their original installations to be created.
This year Jan Šrámek, Filip Nerad/Petr Cabalka and Filip Cenka will be showing their work called Anymade in the attic, while a Prague resident Ondřej Vavřečka will be displaying in a chapel.
Martin Mazanec, Alexandr Jančík
