Date: 11.12.2014 — 12.01.2015
Beginning: 18:00
sjezd, 1. the act of coming together; an encounter; meeting or an association, especially one composed of representatives of various organizations.: 2. ride down; going down 3. way on which one can go down…; Czech offers more meanings than English that is why the exhibition’s title was not translated at all and this strange-sounding word under which you can really imagine anything, Martin Kohout added little bit melancholic subtitle: “Video Summer Memory”. Holidays reminding environment the film presents summer, water, beach, resort, vacation, within the unknown location – might be somewhere in the Mediterranean – the observer is trying to capture in a rather accelerated sequence at least something that would remind him something familiar …we all know this atmosphere. Nevertheless, it is not so easy as the image, distorted by the frenetic camera movement which leads down the surface of everything that comes into its path. Passes over the railing, rattles on the asphalt, glides on a wire fence, ploughs the bush, jolts on the chain, jumps over the stone stairs, boats at sea, wall, fences, across the beach … and all this simultaneously, within the rough sound that arises while jumping, rattling, ploughing, jolting, ridging, bumping, sliding, chattering and running over. This visual experience becomes physical at once. Rhythm of the noise associated with objects which the camera scrubs on, creates a new noise music piece, where sound aggression, distortion and noise creates infinite space-time gate. An absurd remakes of Reggae music and a modified voice (quite unintelligible; declaiming something about global warming) fill arrhythmia without continuity and context clues. At one point, a shadow flashes and it clearly explains the principle of filming: silhouette figures with a mobile phone, ubiquitous apparatus capturing everyday reality. How do these different elements actually encounter? Where is the link in this rather banally named video? This unambiguous clear film strategy is actually typical of the skate videos. Simplicity of the individual video channels underlines the whole expressivity – perception is associated with the necessary extreme volume (which is also typical for noise music tracks) and also with an apparent moment of chance. Nevertheless, Martin Kohout constructs exactly. He works with the sounds as if he would place words, carefully edits, the structure is planned and carefully prepared. He distorts thoughtfully the whole piece by few spams – digital characters that almost unnoticed enter the video sequences. Little bit ironic, several contradictions, a couple of links to the themes of nowaday, all that creates a well done agressive, urgent and under skin carved “sjezd”.
Markéta Vinglerová
