Paradise at the 13th Ostrava Kamera Oko
After last year’s global pandemic and the associated skepticism, Ostrava Kamera Oko returns this year with a positive vision of the future. The main part of this year’s edition will take place from 29th September to 3rd October in Ostrava. However, we are going to intervene in the city’s public space already during the summer.
Last year’s edition was divided into two program parts. The first one brought a dystopian vision of the future, the second one was supposed to bring a positive vision. Unfortunately, in October last year, shortly after the first part of the festival took place, cultural life in the Czech Republic came to a complete halt and the positive vision was no longer there. And how about this year?
“As a society and as individuals, we have been – or are still going through – an extremely challenging period, and all of us during that time must have longed to get away and take a break from it all. We have therefore decided to frame this year’s edition with the motif of paradise, a place that can give us that well-deserved escape. We are not closing our eyes to everyday reality, we are just realizing how essential it is to stop in time and recharge our energy when we run out,” says Gabriela Knýblová, Director of OKO.
Site-specific program in the streets of Ostrava
The Paradise theme will be reflected in both the main and the accompanying program, which will take place during July and August. Different forms of paradise will be brought directly into the streets of Ostrava by selected visual artists addressed by curator Nela Klajbanová. They will fill empty shop windows, showcases and other currently unused spaces in the city centre and the surrounding area with their works. The exhibitors will include Valentýna Janů, Johana Novotná and Jakub Jansa.
“These will be site-specific installations in which the artists respond not only to the given places, but also to this year’s theme of Ostrava Kamera Oko. The initial motives for processing the idea of paradise are the perception of presence through mutual communication, care and sharing of one’s own narratives and visions,” explains Nela Klajbanová.
The exhibition program will run from the summer until the festival show at the end of September. This will then lead to projections and presentations of the work of the artists represented, whose work is linked to the moving image, explains curator Nela Klajbanová.
Main part of the festival – film program and audiovisual evening
The main program of the 13th edition of Ostrava Kamera Oko starts on Wednesday 29th September and runs until Sunday 3rd October at traditional venues such as the Etáž cinema bar in the Lower Vítkovice area, the Art Ostrava cinema or the PLATO Ostrava city gallery. The program will consist of the Short Film Competition, the Official and Curator’s Selection and – as has become a good habit – an extraordinary audiovisual evening, this year organized in collaboration with the Prague music publishing house Genot Centre. The Curator’s Selection will include artist David Fesl, film director Michal Hogenauer and media theorist and head of the Department of Film Studies at the Charles University Faculty of Arts Kateřina Svatoňová.
Practical information
We will start selling accreditations on 1st August. Details of the program will be published in the coming weeks on social media, via the newsletter and here on our website. Creators who wish to submit their works to one of the competition sections will also find the necessary information here. They have until 31st August.
