Robert Wittmann - Celebration of the Cult of Foolishness

AUTHORSHIP

Equal co-authorship: Robert Wittmann

CLASSIFICATION

Classification: documentation -

DATES

Date of creation: 1978

TECHNICAL INFORMATION

Duration: 00:02:21
Sound: Silent

EXHIBITIONS, PUBLIC PRESENTATIONS

Compilation containing the work: Czech Performance Art: Film and Video 1956-1989, Edice VIDA 5, VVP AVU, 2015
Attachment included with work’s publication: booklet CZ + EN

NOTES AND ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Notes: Film by: Vlastislav Mencl
Digitized black-and-white 8mm film without sound

Adopted text on the work: The film captures Wittmann’s private action, made before his emigration in collaboration with Vlastislav Mencl near the town of Mšeno on 22 August 1978. Not only is the date the 100th anniversary of the birth of Ladislav Klíma, it is also the 10th anniversary of Czechoslovakia’s occupation in 1968. The action was conceived as a celebration of the sun, nature, and foolishness. Wittmann saw Normalization as a period of “abnormality,” and it is in this spirit that he developed his cult of foolishness. The costumes and grotesque performances resemble the abandon of the carnival season, and probably have a similarly cathartic effect on the participants even though they are in an isolated location in the middle of the woods without any witnesses. The filmmaker underscored the event’s spontaneity and silliness by cutting the film and splicing it together into eloquent sequences.
Source of text: České akční umění: Filmy a videa 1956-1989, Edice VIDA 5, VVP AVU, 2015
Author of text: Pavlína Morganová, Terezie Nekvindová, Sláva Sobotovičová
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