Breath
„The work of the art group Rafani is grounded in creating art deeply embedded in the life of society. The society provides us not only with themes but also with forms we use to seize the themes with or the society itself becomes the material we transform. Our work focuses on critical situations that don’t allow to take a definite stand. It shifts a common perspective on social phenomenons but it doesn’t offer any encouragement to a direct action. The final goal of our striving is utopian: future with a higher quality of humanity. To put our aim into practice we head through making frictional areas between the values of equality and freedom visible“.
- "BREATH" Rafani00:00:03.805
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- Activities of the artistic group Rafani00:00:36.189
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- consist in creating art deeply implanted into the life of a society.00:00:39.585
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- The society provides us with both themes and forms,00:00:43.428
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- through which we seize our themes00:00:47.797
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- and the society itself becomes the material which we process.00:00:51.081
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- Our creation focuses on border situations00:00:55.686
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- that do not allow taking an unequivocal stand.00:00:58.303
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- It shifts the usual view of social phenomena,00:01:02.033
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- without offering an instruction manual for a direct action.00:01:04.968
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- The final goal of our direction is utopian.00:01:08.477
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- Our goal is the future with higher quality of humanity.00:01:11.274
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- The realization of this goal is pursued00:01:15.082
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- by drawing attention to frictional surfaces between00:01:18.580
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- the values of equality and freedom.00:01:21.803
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- This represent a kind of universal formula with which00:01:26.047
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- Rafani have entered the contemporary Czech art scene.00:01:29.380
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- Apart from all that is included in it, that is, a thorough social programme,00:01:33.872
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- it is admirable that the social programme is still valid00:01:38.869
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- and it can help to define this exhibition here in Brno, too.00:01:41.391
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- Rafani have, from the beginning, emphasized the need for a vision,00:01:47.909
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- yet, at the same time, they perceived dissuasiveness00:01:51.669
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- of consistent promotion of a concrete requirement.00:01:54.698
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- That is why they speak of a utopian vision.00:01:57.034
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- As a result, each exhibition delivers a new view on society,00:01:59.599
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- as well as a return to something already expressed00:02:03.439
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- which is then shifted to a new level and newly articulated.00:02:06.724
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- Here, it is the billboard on which, as a parallel to real events,00:02:10.610
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- the interests of a supranational company Nike, of the House of Arts,00:02:17.399
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- and the interests of Rafani penetrate through the already several times used00:02:23.894
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- Rafani´s credo: "Our connection is a higher form of individuality".00:02:27.910
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- Likewise, the repetition of combination of handmade activity,00:02:45.231
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- this time, the members´ fingerprints applied to the common artefact,00:02:50.324
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- transmit the already-lived experience of tribalism00:02:54.495
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- into the next reincarnation,00:02:57.559
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- and, at the same time, it connects to a new theme - sport.00:02:59.923
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- Sport is used here not as a possibility, or a solution for the society,00:03:06.604
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- but, in the sense of musings by Siegfried Kracauer,00:03:09.306
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- as an area where the political dissolves and crumbles.00:03:14.409
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- In the 2005 exhibition in Berlin, they exhibited a sign:00:03:18.646
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- "Art is the ornament of a society",00:03:25.271
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- which could now be mutated into "sport is the ornament of a society".00:03:30.234
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- The starting theme offers several basic principles determining00:03:34.160
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- the struture of the exhibition, as well as connotations such as manipulation,00:03:37.578
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- rhytmization, mechanization, animation, hordism, multiplication,00:03:41.458
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- intensification, mutation, variation, classification, and organization,00:03:46.676
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- which all contribute to this kind of ornamental image.00:03:51.902
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- This is not the first Rafani exhibition in the House of Arts.00:04:07.626
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- They have already exhibited here several times,00:04:09.655
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- in the main hall, in 2004,00:04:11.083
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- at the occasion of the announcement of the Jindøich Chalupecký Prize.00:04:12.496
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- That time, they followed the theme of observation in the anagram of knowledge,00:04:15.503
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- or two years later, as they performed social work in front of the House of Arts,00:04:21.419
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- cooking for the passers-by in the street.00:04:28.299
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- This was mainly appreciated by Romany children and adolescents who00:04:31.987
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- in turn decorated the walls of the institution with Rafani logos.00:04:36.961
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- This event taking place in front of the gallery00:04:38.781
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- was a reaction to a preceding event,00:04:42.481
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- when Rafani borrowed, on behalf of this institution,00:04:45.023
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- a Magdalena Cubrová´s painting00:04:48.584
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- "At the Edge of a Pit" from the National Gallery,00:04:50.432
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- which they then drowned.00:04:53.213
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- Today, finally, they occupy the entire exhibition floor.00:04:55.050
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- A proper exhibition in a proper exhibitional institution as they like it best.00:04:58.244
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- Exhibition as a total space.00:05:03.565
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- Order and breath are a significant feature of the exhibition.00:05:07.001
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- The requirement for a good sportsman, soldier, or a statesman.00:05:11.745
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- Inhalation and exhalation represent life mechanism.00:05:16.192
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- You go through the exhibition and return to the beginning.00:05:19.901
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- Two directions on one path.00:05:23.612
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- Breath distances the text from the ideological content,00:05:25.837
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- it is not a voice, nor a statement.00:05:28.833
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- Simultaneously, except mechanics of a body improved by sport,00:05:31.638
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- breath is the father of a spirit.00:05:34.936
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- That which connects art and sport00:05:37.892
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- is placed in the second consumer plan.00:05:40.930
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- What principally divides the two00:05:43.157
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- are the rules.00:05:45.093
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- Art, and Avant-Garde by its programme, should cross the rules,00:05:58.670
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- manifest new ones, alter the world.00:06:02.605
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- Sport is supposed to be played by the rules and, within those rules,00:06:11.856
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- it should keep reaching ever-higher perfection00:06:16.553
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- and demonstrate to the society the interest in preserving the respected order.00:06:18.461
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- Performance is also a building block of the exhibition.00:06:29.307
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- Performance as film, as art, as sport.00:06:32.192
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- Beginnings of film, slapstick,00:06:36.736
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- and recordings of the first perfomances from the seventies00:06:39.014
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- have, as Rafani realized during filming,00:06:43.707
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- common points of capture in one continous shot.00:06:45.554
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- At one point of the exhibition, the performances are manipulatively fused00:06:49.937
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- into one ridiculous complex as a victim of the story.00:06:52.308
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- At another, a football performance is broken apart into an absurd game00:06:55.059
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- with the rules that determine the prism of perception.00:06:58.472
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- Performance also forms a significant part of the Rafani´s retrospection00:07:03.771
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- that I prepared as part of the exhibition.00:07:08.057
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- Performance can be compared to00:07:11.865
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- a dark chamber where the past is being developed,00:07:13.982
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- it meaningfully accentuates conscious structures of Rafani´s activity00:07:16.265
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- that form the base of their work since the beginning00:07:21.143
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- and prove their strong and deliberate artistic direction00:07:25.405
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- that, however, does not leave room for experimentation.00:07:27.782
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- From these conscious steps and obligations00:07:31.050
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- I chose a selection of categories, methods, and manners of work.00:07:33.231
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- For example, the description, speech, scene, platform, metaphor, and00:07:37.139
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- themes such as nation, myth and democracy.00:07:43.360
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- Whereas Rafani's large retrospection in Klatovy in 2009-2010 featured00:07:47.978
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- plastic environment of a French garden and an enlightment plan,00:07:54.050
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- the present take on the past remains placed illusorily on the walls00:08:00.114
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- in order the new breath to stand out00:08:03.260
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- as a perfect carving in contrast with its background,00:08:05.502
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- in a traditional fashion and according to the rules,00:08:08.890
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- a representation determined for the past events.00:08:11.618