Souvenir

On the back side of the book jacket, there was a drawing of two human heads, parts of body, the top of a mountain and a vase. Some illustrations were in colours, others were just sketched out in a black line. A girl’s torso is raising its left hand in a gesture of greeting; the smaller male figure is holding a red, round target in his right hand. A week ago, I bought a book titled Dead Mountaineer’s Hotel. I was intrigued by its jacket depicting a girl in a blue sweater. A motley scrum shows characters and objects that gradually tell their stories throughout the book. Not until a certain common framework prevails over the individual stories can we speak about a discourse of an image.
JH: Why the theme of film props?
RŠ: Recently, some of my videos have started appearing in classic movie theatres. And I have become interested in the circumstances and background of the creation of films as such. When I worked in the radio environment, I was interested in a similar thing.

JH: You are picturing a space which was originally intended for creating visual materials.

RŠ: This is a loop which I already considered some time ago.
JH: Has this project got a working title?

RŠ: No, it hasn’t. But we can call it Barrandov for instance.

JH: This brings us to the particular film props which are located in the Barrandov film studios.

RŠ: Yes, we are talking about an area of some two thousand square meters. That is huge. I like the fact that the props have already been standing there for quite some time. The decorations are slowly peeling off and they expose the wooden base panels over which artificial sandstone or marble had been pasted.

JH: Each patina thus gradually becomes its own micro-loop. An object which was manufactured in a way to look old really begins getting old.

RŠ: I wrote to the Barrandov studios and asked if I could make a short video there. They replied in a very friendly and helpful manner and suggested that I should wait until some larger film production team orders the services of the studios. In such case, the decorations undergo reconstruction. However, I am interested in the very opposite, I like those unintentional mistakes caused by the ravages of time and material wear. Such as windows made of transparent films – you look at a broken window but in fact you see a torn up film fluttering in wind.

JH: So you are interested in the potential which is not being used? The useful things which are left idle?

RŠ: There is a true replica of a Vatican square from the fifteenth century which was made for a series set in the medieval times. The first thing that crosses your mind when you find yourself among such props is the possibility of making a new film there. It was made for that purpose. Only a few people work with the motive that these are predominantly props.

JH: And what is this?

RŠ: That is a test. It is so called intelligent putty which was created by mistake during the development of artificial rubber.

JH: It is looking quite nice now but it is not moving at all.

RŠ: It should actually be a bit runnier.

JH: Does it “run” at all?

RŠ: Maybe the bronze coloured one will be runnier.