Taste of Cement

Directed by Ziad Kalthoum
Produced by Ansgar Frerich, Eva Kemme, and Tobias Siebert
Written by Ziad Kalthoum
Cinematography: Talal Khoury
Lebanon/Germany/Syria/Qatar/UAE, 2017, 85 min.
In Arabic with English subtitles

In Beirut, Syrian construction workers are building a skyscraper while at the same time their own houses at home are being shelled. The Lebanese war is over but the Syrian one still rages on. The workers are locked in the building site. They are not allowed to leave it after 19.00. The Lebanese government has imposed night-time curfews on the refugees. The only contact with the outside world for these Syrian workers is the hole through which they climb out in the morning to begin a new day of work. Cut off from their homeland, they gather at night around a small TV set to get the news from Syria. Tormented by anguish and anxiety, while suffering the deprivation of the most basic human and workers right, they keep hoping for a different life.

ʀᴇᴀᴅ ᴀʀᴛɪᴄʟᴇ …
čᴇsᴋʏ …

Lee Patterson: Terrain

Lee Patterson (b.1971) is a British musician, sound artist and maker of experimental musical instruments. He lives and works in Prestwich, Manchester. He creates the amplified devices and processes with which he performs through the use of sound recording as a form of ear training. Whether working live with amplification or recording within an environment, Patterson has pioneered a range of methods to produce or uncover complex sounds in unexpected places. Using elements as diverse as chalk, springs, burning nuts, aquatic plants and insects, he eavesdrops upon these objects and situations otherwise considered mute, playing them as if they were musical instruments.

Lee Patterson’s first concert in Prague is organized by Lom instruments (Bratislava), Galerie hlavního města Prahy and the Agosto Foundation.

Patterson will also perform with Ivan Palacký at Dům umění města Brna (Brno House of Arts) on March 28, 2019 at 7 PM.

These performances take place as part of the upcoming exhibition project Zvuky Kódy Obrazy: Akustický experiment ve vizuálním umění (Sounds Codes Images: Acoustic Experimentation in the Visual Arts) which will open in June at Prague City Gallery – House at the Stone Bell. The accompanying program is organized in collaboration with the Agosto Foundation.

ʀᴇᴀᴅ ᴀʀᴛɪᴄʟᴇ …
čᴇsᴋʏ …

Anamaria Pravicencu

Anamaria Pravicencu is a sound artist and iniciator of several music and cultural initiatives in Romania. Pravicencu is a co-founder of the Jumătatea plină association, the Artistic Director of the Sâmbăta Sonora (Sonic Saturday) program (with over 100 events since 2009) and curator of the SEMI SILENT podcast platform. She also organizes concerts of improvised, experimental and contemporary music, performances of sound poetry, and listening sessions with sound and radio art, as well as conferences and workshops. Pravicencu’s 2019 residence in Prague is a welcome opportunity to explore the Czech Republic's sound and radio production scene and create a network of exchange, creation and production between the two countries, a collaboration that will generate future projects and better mutual knowledge.

ʀᴇᴀᴅ ᴀʀᴛɪᴄʟᴇ …
čᴇsᴋʏ …

Call for Nominations 2019

As part of its grant program Perpedes, the Agosto Foundation is requesting nominations from the general public for the support of the activities of individual artists, as well as for artistic or cultural projects. The Perpedes grant program fosters a closer connection between artistic and cultural activities, and the daily lives of various social strata and communities, on both the local and regional scale. The program focuses on strengthening smaller individual and civic initiatives which intersect or interact with interdisciplinary cooperation, and which address themes pertaining to social and environmental networks working within the framework of contemporary art. Nominations will be accepted until April 30, 2019. The grants will be conferred based on the agreed upon time schedule, with the availability funds lasting until the end of 2019.

ʀᴇᴀᴅ ᴀʀᴛɪᴄʟᴇ …
čᴇsᴋʏ …

Arcadia

Directed by Paul Wright
Music by Will Gregory and Adrain Utley
Producers: Hopscotch Films
UK, 2017, 78 min.
English

Scouring 100 years of archive footage, BAFTA-winner Paul Wright constructs an exhilarating study of the British people’s shifting – and contradictory – relationship to the land. The film goes on a sensory, visceral journey through the contrasting seasons, taking in folk carnivals and fetes, masked parades, water divining and harvesting. Set to a grand, expressive new score from Adrian Utley (Portishead) and Will Gregory (Goldfrapp) alongside folk music from the likes of Anne Briggs, Wright’s captivating film essay captures the beauty and brutality, and the magic and madness of rural Britain.

ʀᴇᴀᴅ ᴀʀᴛɪᴄʟᴇ …
čᴇsᴋʏ …

Jitka and Květa Válová on Radio Praha: ‘Dames of Czech Culture’

Twin sisters Jitka and Květa Válová, named “Dames of Czech Culture” in memorandum this week, were once described by a Communist zealot as an “ulcer on the red face of Kladno”, the industrial Bohemian city of their birth. They rejected the dominant Socialist Realism aesthetic of the 1950s, preferring more abstract and expressive work, long sealing their pariah status. They responded by turning their shared home and atelier into a salon for free thinkers.

Brian Kenety, Radio Praha

Listen to the interview

Thanks to the support of the Agosto Foundation’s Perpedes grant program, visitors may now experience the living and working atmosphere of these two artists, exceptional in their generation, while also opening up discussion about their estate within the context of their hometown of Kladno.

Haunted Castles: video/performance document

A screening that took place 4 December, 2018, accompanied by a live performance of Beth Custer (clarinet, voice, piano), Pavel Fajt (percussion), Martin Alaçam (guitar), Vladimír Václavek (bass), Lloyd Dunn (electronics) and Hearn Gadbois (percussion), with narration by František Skála.

Czech Castles and Palaces (Karel Hašler, 1914, 7 min.)
Prague in the Shining Lights (Svatopluk Inneman, 1928, 22 min.)
One Night in Karlstein Castle (Olaf Larus-Racek, 1919, 44 min.)

View the video

This event was organized by the Agosto Foundation as part of a series of film screenings and residency program and in cooperation with Cinema Ponrepo and the National Film Archives.

Find out how you can support the Agosto Foundation: Make a Donation.