"
Jan Švankmajer is a major figure of contemporary East European animation whose surrealistic, often macabre work owes more to the nightmarish visions of Kafka and Buñuel than to the sunny daydreams of Walt Disney and his creative progeny. Noted for investing otherwise ordinary objects with ominous overtones, Švankmajer reached his widest audience to date with a feature-length adaptation of Lewis Carroll's "Alice" (1988) which blended animated and live-action footage--a technique he had earlier used to hair-raising effect in "Down to the Cellar" (1983)." --
TMC. Often credited with influencing the Brothers Quay, they hadn't actually seen his work until relatively late in their careers,
as they mentioned in an introduction to their documentary on Švankmajer (YT playlist). More of Švankmajer inside.
[more inside]
posted by filthy light thief
on Sep 23, 2012 -
21 comments
“The beast sets me
riddles every evening, and when I fail to guess them, it kicks and bites me. It is like a small leopard and in other circumstances I should say it looked quite charming. So far I haven't solved a single one of these riddles…”—
Michal Ajvaz.
[more inside]
posted by misteraitch
on Aug 10, 2012 -
19 comments
[NSFWish]
In this GlobalPost investigative report, Prague correspondent Iva Skoch gained rare access to one of Eastern Europe’s most secretive industries, uncovering a world where shifting human sexuality meets rampant commercial demand..In this multimedia report, we examine the complex and interlocking pieces of Prague’s booming gay porn business, from its roots in an American entrepreneur, to the cultural, moral and political foundations that make Prague a gay porn capital, as well as the economic necessities that drive many into the industry, and finally, the human toll it takes on workers.
posted by andoatnp
on Mar 30, 2010 -
12 comments
The žižkov television tower in Prague
was pretty weird looking to begin with, since 2000 it's gotten
much stranger...
posted by Artw
on Jul 19, 2008 -
42 comments
The
Black Light Theatre of
Prague ("Černé Divadlo" or simply Black Theatre) is a
Czech performance style characterised by the use of black box theatre augmented by black light trickery. Although this performance style can be found in many places around the world, nowhere is it more prolific or specialized than in Prague. Some sample images:
1 2 3 4. YouTube:
1 2 3.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane
on Feb 8, 2007 -
13 comments
David Cerny: frilly pink tanks,
babies climbing TV towers, and the president feeding slops to the director of the national gallery out of
giant asses. Why, this could only be the NEA gone awry!
Actually, it’s
Magic Prague, the land of
Franz Kafka and
Milan Kundera, and the artist, like the dissidents of past generations, would rather not do political art ,
political art. His latest sculpture ridicules the perverse situation in which the country finds itself post Havel: a place where right-wingers like
President Klaus and national gallery director Milan Knížák— a past collaborator with secret police, and worse,
completely idiotic and banal performance artist — prosper and rub shoulders at the expense of those with a conscience and good taste. Like
David Cerny.
This isn’t the freshest post, but I’ve been waiting to join Mefi for a long time, and today is the first day I can post.
posted by gesamtkunstwerk
on Apr 9, 2004 -
4 comments
