I’m not a musician, and for that I’m glad. For me, sound can forever remain something magical, mysterious, elusive… Music is the most abstract art and for me the most effective means of freeing myself from rationality. For some, spirituality is connected with faith, for others with nature. I feel that something transcends me most often because of sound.
Therefore, when preparing the programme in the PLATO gallery, I did not have to forcibly graft this year’s theme of paradise onto the final evening of the festival, for which we are responsible dramaturgically with the Genot Centre. Thanks to music, a small community club in the centre of Žižkov, a dance theatre at one of the worst intersections in the centre of Prague, a meadow by a pond somewhere near Olomouc, and an inhospitable concrete plain next to the river in the middle of gentrified Karlín have already transformed into Eden for at least a few hours.
In art, I have long sought primarily confrontation – with my own expectations, prejudices, and comfort. Through the Genot Centre, I have been trying for over six years to create situations where others can experience a similar confrontation with feelings that go beyond the mundane. The entirety of our activity is primarily about creating space for artists who still believe there is somewhere to go and presenting their work in a way that does not automatically assume, with programmatic idealism, that “most people won’t get it anyway”. I believe they will understand if you create conditions where people feel relaxed and open to something new.
There will be a lot of “something new” in the PLATO gallery – massive abstract improvisation (ŠumařˇˇˇTrauma), art pop with dreamlike collage logic (Sabiwa), virtuoso hyperrealism (Giant Claw), extreme post-club mutations (adaa), deconstructed trap (Wim Deahen), narcotic rap introspection (Arleta), post-industrial power ambient (Lišaj), 100% digital hauntology (Natálie Pleváková), ethereal vocal drone (Kult Masek & Koruth), subversion of folk customs to the sound of the most delicate electronic music (Efemér & Tomáš Knoflíček), and visuals redefining the common perception of the work of cinematographers and videographers.
One night, three locations, three AV programme blocks, 10 performances, 50 visitors and one breakfast together at sunrise. Do you see any reason why a paradise could not be created in the former hobby market in Ostrava?
Ondřej Lasák
Genot Centre
