3. Etáž

High ceilings, huge windows, original hardwood floors – the grandiose proportions are supported by a functional minimalism which immediately draws the visitor’s attention. We are on the third floor of a former textile plant in Rožnov pod Radhoštěm. Local firm Henkai Architects has transformed it into a complex of studios, workshops and offices for creative individuals and small artistic collectives. The marriage of the architects’ vision, coupled with the generous attitude of the current owner, has given the city a new, vibrant space, perfect for exhibitions and for networking for the local arts community. We talked with Vendula Tůmová, one of the main people in charge of the informal 3. Etáž (Third Floor) collective, about what it means to create and support local alternative culture.

ʀᴇᴀᴅ ᴀʀᴛɪᴄʟᴇ …
čᴇsᴋʏ …

Disappearing of Essence
Endangered Places

Throughout the Spring season of 2020, the Agosto Foundation will be continuing our collaboration with the Cinema Ponrepo with a series of screenings, connected by the theme Disappearing of Essence: Endangered Places. The series will focus on the disappearance of essence, of the distinctive qualities of certain uniqe sites of global significance, which impress us with their richness and beauty, and leave us with a sense of their fragility, the fact that they could simply disappear from the face of the earth through our neglect, indifference, or acceptance of questionable political and commercial decisions. In their various ways, these films highlight an ongoing, inexorable cluster of catastrophes which have implications for the health of both the natural and cultural environoments in which we live.

We will screen four film homages to disappearing places and ways of life, unique essences at risk of being lost forever: the Aral Sea, the old-growth Forests of Lithuania, the ancient city of Hasankeyf on the Tigris River in Turkish Kurdistan, and the traditional way of life of a female Macedonian beekeeper and wild honey gatherer.

We inaugurate the series with Sea Tomorrow, which deals with the desertification of an entire inland sea, an environmental catastrophe on a very large scale. The film offers a somewhat optimistic perspective, as we see that the northern part of the Aral Sea is slowly coming back, due to efforts of the government of Kazakhstan. See the item which follows for the full details.

Follow the Agosto Foundation Newsletter to stay in the loop about all of our upcoming screenings at the Cinema Ponrepo. Encourage your friends to sign up!

Sea Tomorrow

The film Sea Tomorrow is based on four stories from the lives of present-day inhabitants of the Aral Sea’s former coast: old Juken, who is raising an oasis garden in saline soil all alone; a woman-hydrobiologist, who continues to study the remains of Aralsk city harbor's biosphere; a gang of jolly metal workers, dismantling the ships that sank into the desert for scrap metal; and one young man from a family of hereditary fishermen, from whose village the sea has receded by dozens of kilometers. They all fight for a better tomorrow.

ʀᴇᴀᴅ ᴀʀᴛɪᴄʟᴇ …
čᴇsᴋʏ …

Aki Onda

Cassette Memories
Sounds / Codes / Images, 8 October 2019
Event photographs

Aki Onda was born in Japan and resides in New York. He is particularly known for his “Cassette Memories” — works compiled from a “sound diary” of field recordings collected by using a cassette Walkman over a span of the last three decades. He creates compositions, performances, and visual artworks from those sound memories. Onda often works in interdisciplinary fields and collaborates with filmmakers, visual artists, musicians, and choreographers.

In his sonic event Onda integrated three of the gallery rooms and some of the works in the exhibition. He began his soundwalk in the room where were exhibited works by Robert Vlasák, Luboš Fidler, Milan Guštar. Onda made use of Vlasák’s and Fidler’s pieces. Then the soundwalk moved to the staircase, with the final environment being the gothic cellar. Here each visitor was handed the graphic score.

ᴠɪᴇᴡ ɢᴀʟʟᴇʀʏ …
čᴇsᴋʏ …

Broken Rebroken

Milan Knížák, Phaerentz, and Opening Performance Orchestra will jointly present a concert programme titled Broken Rebroken, a playful and flexible concept that may take a variety of forms. The programme is based on Broken Music, which Milan Knížák cultivated in the early 1960s.

Czech Museum of Music, Karmelitská 2, Praha 1 - Malá Strana
Admission: 60 CZK

ʀᴇᴀᴅ ᴀʀᴛɪᴄʟᴇ …
čᴇsᴋʏ …

Jitka a Květa Válovy

Guests: Jiří Petrbok, Klára Spišková, Miloš Vojtěchovský, Josef Žáček

Memories, notebooks, neolithic hunters, miners, steelworkers — The Válová sisters are having an exhibition, curated by Dagmar Šubrtová and featuring Václav Cílek and authors Klára Spišková, Jiří Petrbok, Miloš Vojtěchovský and Josef Žáček.

https://www.facebook.com/events/1330136673827762/

Agosto on Instagram

We are pleased to announce, and Instagram users will also no doubt be pleased to hear, that we have created a new presence on Instagram, which will serve to highlight some of the many striking images that present just a few of the Agosto Foundation’s activities and its many outcomes. Follow us:

https://www.instagram.com/agosto_foundation/

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