Vít Soukup - The Evil Mobile

AUTHORSHIP

Equal co-authorship: Vít Soukup

CLASSIFICATION

Classification: film/videoart

DATES

Date of creation: 1997

TECHNICAL INFORMATION

Duration: 00:39:36
Sound: Sound

EXHIBITIONS, PUBLIC PRESENTATIONS

Compilation containing the work: Vít Soukup: Everything!, 2012
Attachment included with work’s publication: booklet CZ/EN

NOTES AND ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Notes: Included in the compilation Vít Soukup: Everything! Films and Theater Performances 1993–2003 (edited by T. Nekvindová, S. Sobotovičová) - published in 2012 by the Research Centre of Academy of Fine Arts in Prague (VVP AVU) in cooperation with Divus.

Acting, dancing, singing: Vít Soukup – psychiatrist; Jan Novotný – gallery owner Rudolf Šlupka; Jan Materna – gallery owner’s second wife Irene; Libor Krištůfek – Mirek (son); Pavla Medunová – girl from sandbox, choir singer; Jakub Dolejš – singing exhibitionist; Denisa Myšková – dancer, choir singer; Lenka Urbanová – nurse Bunny; Adam Hlaváč – mime; Jan Kukla – prompt, recitations, moderator;
Musicians: Kryštof Krejča, Roman Hudziec, Zdeněk Pohorský

Adopted text on the work: A play about the “pulse of the postmodern era”, mobile phones, computers, the “infernet”, and human relationships. Gallerist Šlupka, a post-1989 entrepreneur with an oversized foam rubber mobile telephone, keeps his family at an emotional distance, and only sees the error of his ways with the help of a psychiatrist. This serious subject is interspersed with less than serious intermezzos. The performance culminates with a Zen ode to the wisdom of the East (the song The Journey to Shigatse from Soukup’s demo album Songs from beneath Motorcycles, 1994).

The recording was made at a performance held 15 April 1997 at Prague’s Roxy club. The gallerist’s name Šlupka (“Peel”) is a reference to two of the firstpost-1989 Czech gallerists, Jiří Švestka (“Plum”) and Jaroslav Pecka (“Pip/Stone/Pit”). The “Písa” about whose prices the characters argue is artist Petr Písařík. We encounter Soukup’s “insertion” of direct action to illustrate a character’s narration in some his other films as well (e.g.,The Stove of Cleophas, 1996, and Nailing the Sun to the Sky, 2000). In terms of style, the performance is reminiscent of the work of Divadlo Sklep, the Ostrava-based cabaret ensemble Return of the Masters of Entertainment and the Obludárium theater ensemble. An excerpt from the play was reprinted in Umělec 1/2002, p. 72. Appearing on stage were students of the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague, as well as several of Vít’s classmates from secondary school in České Budějovice.
Source of text: Edice VIDA 3, VVP AVU, 2012
Author of text: Terezie Nekvindová, Sláva Sobotovičová
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INFORMATION IN PARTNER DATABASES

Artlist #1: Record at Artlist