JCHA 2014 – 555 – Left-right
The fifth and last stop of the Jindřich Chalupecký Award accompanying programme 555 took place in Pilsen introducing the work of Roman Štětina who presented his new project in front of the building of the Czech radio in the afternoon and in the evening he showed a sound collage consisting of his sources of inspiration in Měšťanská beseda.
Roman Štětina´s new project is entitled Left-right. The event. Took place in the square náměstí Míru where a live broadcast of the Czech radio „was simultaneously translated“ by a professional interpreter. The listeners could enter the building of the radio and visit the stereo auditorium where they were awaited by the artist and his project. The contact between the interior of the historical building of the Czech radio and the surrounding park resulted in a unique sound and visual interconnection.
The evening programme took place in the cinema Měšťanská beseda in Kopeckého sady and was called „Where red means everything except the state“. In a unique audio-montage the visitors became acquainted with Roman Štětina´s source of inspiration.
- "Dot Rozhlas Dot CZ."00:00:00.740
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- "Czech Radio Plzeň. The songs you don't hear anywhere else."00:00:04.952
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- "Exactly to the day fifty years ago the movie 'Starci na chmelu' had a premiere,"00:00:09.016
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- "so let's celebrate, with a song at lips."00:00:13.408
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- "The day is beautiful,"00:00:17.567
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- "the day is beautiful,"00:00:21.853
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- "the day is beautiful." The presentation here in Plzeň00:00:26.319
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- shows two poles I work with.00:00:30.579
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- One of them refers to work with archive and the forgotten things,00:00:34.649
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- which I revive in some way.00:00:38.895
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- And the other one refers to some intervention,00:00:42.973
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- a work with something unpredictable and lively,00:00:47.051
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- like, for example, the translator lady. "Weather:"00:00:51.417
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- "In the night it will be somewhat cloudy, in the morning here and there cloudy"00:00:57.184
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- "with low cloudiness or fogs and temperature between 14 and 11 degrees..."00:01:01.470
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- It is an effort to make a kind of a reduced broadcast,00:01:05.762
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- an effort to uncover, in a way, the broadcasting schedule00:01:10.073
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- and it's done by that fact that there is a simultaneous translator00:01:14.276
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- sitting in a box and she is not translating,00:01:18.576
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- but she tells over, from Czech to Czech,00:01:22.627
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- she reduces what she is listening to, she reduces the actual Czech Radio broadcast.00:01:26.910
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- "Hrochův Týnec desires me, I am loved in Hoštice,"00:01:31.161
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- "everyone wants me but the one, but then it's me who wants her,"00:01:35.255
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- "the girl with a strange taste, named Dvořáková Milada."00:01:39.342
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- "The girl with a strange taste, named Dvořáková Milada."00:01:45.896
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- The curtain you see behind me is a replica.00:01:53.887
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- It's a reconstruction of a curtain that hanged here00:01:58.951
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- since, roughly, middle of 1960s to, say, the beginning of 1980s;00:02:03.319
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- nobody remembers exactly how it was anymore.00:02:07.755
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- It was colorful originally,00:02:11.980
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- but since only the black and white photographs were preserved,00:02:16.310
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- and I didn't want to make up those colours, so it ended up being this monochromatic.00:02:20.706
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- After all, I believe it's fine, because it's like...00:02:25.022
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- it reminds me even Picasso's Guernica.00:02:29.236
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- The curtain had a purpose, because there were stereo speakers being tested in here,00:02:33.280
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- and in order to keep the producers of the speakers anonymous,00:02:37.363
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- the loudspeakers were hidden behind the curtain00:02:41.574
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- and the committee (it had some ten members)00:02:45.695
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- was scoring and judging each pair of the speakers.00:02:49.840
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- "Stereo. Stereo."00:02:58.109
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- "Yes, stereo. You are listening to our Czechoslovak introductory stereophonic record."00:03:04.031
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- "Stereophonic sound record is the next essential step"00:03:10.916
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- "in the recording and reproduction technology."00:03:15.169
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- "While listening to such record we hear sounds from various places in space..."00:03:19.388
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- "excuse me, please..." Beside the fact that I have hanged the curtain00:03:23.478
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- in the original place, I am playing historical stereo-test00:03:27.604
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- that is, an introductory record for stereophonic listening00:03:31.827
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- with Jiří and Olga, who demonstrate the technology00:03:36.243
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- and give advice about loudspeaker setup.00:03:40.623
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- "- Hello, Jiří. - Listen, Olga, what does it suppose to mean?"00:03:46.709
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- "You are chasing me from one door to another. - Don't be angry, Jirka,"00:03:50.902
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- "I could have entered right away, of course, but I heard you talking about stereo,"00:03:55.161
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- "so I wanted to enter stereophonically. - Well, thanks for that."00:03:59.420
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- The thing that interests me about it the most, is probably the pattern,00:04:03.513
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- which, to a certain extent, possibly illustrates a kind of an age-old complex of broadcasting00:04:07.621
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- based on the fact that radio lacks image.00:04:11.920
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- And it's so intricate and complex that one can look at it for quite a long time.00:04:16.138
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- As a matter of fact, the listeners were looking at it00:04:20.561
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- for some 15 or 20 years, for sure, and that's what fascinates me,00:04:24.737
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- when I exhibit it, and, indeed, it was shown outside this space, in a gallery.00:04:29.083
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- So the question is, whether the curtain can withstand it, on its own,00:04:36.203
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- without the context we see here,00:04:40.626
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- whether the pattern has in itself the sovereignty.00:04:45.020
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- I believe it does.00:04:49.737
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- I decided that in the evening I will be faithful to the radio broadcast,00:04:57.455
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- and, instead of moving images, I will play, again, only sounds.00:05:01.729
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- The evening event will be moderated by a culture editor of Czech Radio Plzeň, Petra Hynčíková,00:05:06.189
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- and we will play samples from the Czech Radio archive00:05:13.012
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- that had influenced me in some way or other, or that I find them interesting,00:05:17.464
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- for example a report from deer rutting.00:05:22.466
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- "- That's it, that's it. - I've been just saying it... like by request, indeed."00:05:28.009
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- "It's letting itself be heard, and you've heard it. Did you hear it for the first time in your life?"00:05:32.291
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- "- First time in my life. - How do you feel about it?"00:05:36.518
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- "- Well, it's quite bizarre."00:05:40.645
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- Or it's the voice of Jindřich Chalupecký,00:05:44.759
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- who made a call to Jan Rejžek's Critical Club programme.00:05:49.006
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- "- Probably the main duty of critique doesn't lie in sentencing and making judgments,"00:05:53.207
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- "but above all the art of defending."00:05:57.686
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- "- Thank you. - That was quite strange,"00:06:01.849
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- "as if someone from the archive has spoken. - Yes, yes..."00:06:06.009
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- Or the voice of director Jiří Horčička. All of them are icons00:06:10.090
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- that interest me, in some way, or they influenced me, or they are in some relation to me.00:06:14.264
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- "... and here, kindly take note of this, this is interesting, here, on the right,"00:06:19.079
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- "is a wall as well. And here, behind you, right behind you,"00:06:23.509
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- "is, again, a wall. And in this wall,"00:06:27.858
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- "there is a door leading to a room with carpets"00:06:32.049
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- "that mean 'air',"00:06:36.325
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- "as it was said by someone before it occurred to me."00:06:40.418