Heron

The Heron´s Calls

The Heron is a film about the Stromovka park, however, it is perhaps more about us, people, and the different activities we may pursue in city parks. It shows inexplicitly to what extent people are influenced by parks and parks by people.

What role do parks play in our contemporary society, in our everyday lives? The majority of people would say that parks are places which help us to relax and rest. We spend our leisure time in parks to “recharge our energy" for life "out there", in the noise and bustle of the city. What is its history, the structures and mechanisms that gave shape to the greatest park of Prague? And how are our activities intertwined with this park?

I used to spend (and I still do) a significant part of my life in the Stromovka park and there are a few places there which have left a lasting impression on me. One of the centres of my childhood world was an old hollow tree on a little hillock near the ponds where me and my siblings used to create an imaginary house. The current appearance of the ponds dates back to the years 2015-2018. Before the floods in 2002 this area was the bottom of a former large pond founded by Emperor Rudolph II and which was considered, from today´s point of view, as a neglected, overgrown, wild area. The ponds used to be muddy pools surrounded by bushes and ducks. Only when I started writing this text, did I realize that the little hillock had a name. It is known as „the oak hillock“ and under the reign of Emperor Rudolph II it was the only artificially created island there. However, in our children´s eyes that imaginary house was a genuine one and we paid great attention to all details. For instance, my oldest brother had an idea to use acorn cupules as light switches. If you wanted to switch on the lights, you had to put your finger inside the acorn cupule which was inserted into the tree bark. We used to go there regularly with my brother who had to mend all the „damage“ to the electricity that had happened in our absence. Sometimes we found strangers in our oak home and that was the time I realized that „our“ house was not entirely ours. Perhaps this was the first time I realized that public spaces existed and how they worked. Later on we lost our tree since it had to be cut down after the flood. Our home, not only the imaginary one, disappeared, however, it did not disappear from my memory. Up until today, after a couple of decades, I still go there – but, to be honest, I do not wish to spend too much time there. I want to avoid the tangible materialization of the non-existence of the tree.

The early history of the park is reflected in its name – The Royal Game Reserve Stromovka. The former hunting ground was most probably founded in the 13th century by king Přemysl Otakar II. According to information on www.praha-priroda.cz since 1500 the park was open to the public only once a year to mark the anniversary of Saint Gotthard. From this moment we may start thinking about the existence of a public space and very carefully about „leisure time“ not only in relation to aristocrats and monarchs. I imagine that on that day even the less privileged were allowed to hunt there. In the second half of the 16th century and especially under the reign of Emperor Rudolph II the game reserve underwent generous reconstruction. The local ponds were fed by the Rudolph´s water tunnel, a remarkable technical feature, still in service. The game reserve was open to the public in 1804. At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century the park was significantly transformed and gradually gained the character of „a landscape urban park“. The character of the park reflects the contemporary extension of the concept of „leisure time“. Due to the reduction of working hours and the fact that people in cities were generally becoming richer, this newly gained time could be gradually filled with entertainment and relaxation. Here, too, we might search for the beginnings of activities referred to by Martin Netočný in his film The Heron.

In his other work Martin Netočný also focuses on „the description of contemporary signs of the urban landscape“ [1] and „regards parks as model landscapes influenced by the aesthetic and construction principles from the beginning of the modern era“, in which „ what is wild to the townspeople is tamed in their territory and set within a visually pleasurable and generally understandable framework.“ He asks himself a question, which is, though not explicitly, answered in The Heron. The question is: „Does the leisure time spent for example in a park have an exact framework? And if so, how can we feel free within those frameworks?“

The „frameworks“ that he speaks about have been transforming from my thirty-year-long point of view and have gained much firmer outlines with respect to „what is right to do in a park and what is not.“

In the new millennium the entire Stromovka park underwent substantial changes. We have noticed with Martin that nowadays it is almost impossible to see any kind of wild growing bushes there. Apart from others this also shows us to what extent we consider landscaped, clean and tidy places as a part of our ideas of what urban landscapes should look like, and how important the feeling of safety is. Some elements and beings are unwanted and therefore they are being excluded. The fierce efforts of townhalls and residents for hygienic cleanliness of cities, which began in our country in the 19th century, are also reflected in the visual standardization of parks and eventually the activities that take place there. All visitors to the Stromovka park more or less obey the written and unwritten rules. Those frameworks, rules and their violation are captured by Netočný in his film. He becomes a situated observer and at the same time an inconspicuous actor. The film captures all four seasons of the year and combines motives of the visitors as well as those who take care of the park and maintain it according to the still essentially modernist ideas.

Martin Netočný told me that for him it is essential to explore the origins of our knowledge and to problematize what we say when we speak about a park, a man, activities, leisure time, the non-human world and finally, also when we create a narrative about a certain place. „The location“ of a park itself in our still-dualistic world, in which we like to think in terms of nature/culture, animal/man, in fact does not work. The park, by its very nature, falls out of these categories, it is a liminal space, on the border. It is a city, a cultural landscape, and, in a certain sense, a model or simulacrum (in Netočný´s words) of a more freely growing lush vegetation somewhere outside the city.

The film discreetly shows the permeability and fluidity of these human (modernist, humanist, etc.) pigeonholes. In minor scenes he shows the rhythm of events in a constructed and essentially human space, which is constantly „disturbed“ by natural elements, which can be embedded into our human rules only partially and with great difficulties. Everyone becomes an actor and contributes to the creation of the space. Netočný provides the space and only lightly directs on location and in postproduction. In this film (the same as in his other works) he focuses on dialogues taking place in a specific space and time, while the final form of the film is only its partial recording. He slowly reveals the layers of activities and events taking place in the park and inconspicuously shows the loss of control in situations we feel we are in control of. We may say that we are living in a time in which we are trying to avoid risks at all costs, we are concerned with safety and therefore we remove from parks everything that might remind us of any kind of danger. This can be illustrated for example by the absence of overgrown shrubs (except for the rhododendron and azalea slope). However, there are things we cannot influence and since we are not used to them, they can surprise us unexpectedly. Let us mention for instance the noise of cars, outdoor concerts and loud music, the stench of the near-by sewage treatment plant or the smell of a barbecue, a hole in the lawn causing a twisted ankle, pollen irritating people suffering from allergies, encounters with homelessness or ticks. Unfortunately, worse things happen occasionally, such as violent assaults late at night or in the early hours in the morning. “It is dangerous because we are dealing with an unpredictable phenomenon in a seemingly safe environment”, says Martin.

The film records mainly the structures, mechanisms and stereotypes of that seemingly safe environment. Routine activities, interrupted by one hardly noticeable actor, reveal fragments of our human being. The noise and bustle of machines creating the film´s soundtrack disturb the seemingly calm activities in the background and remind us that beyond the borders of the park everything might be different. In the film, we do not get the narrative or catharsis in the form of stories of "classic" cinema. According to Martin Netočný the film is not really spectator-friendly and during the interview he even used the word “boring”. The storyline is cyclical and repetitive rather than linear, therefore only those who expect a narrative with a catharsis will be bored. The author thinks the film will work best in a gallery, where visitors often miss the beginning or the end, which does not matter. The Heron lies somewhere on the border of contemplative relaxation, but unless we, the spectators, renounce acting (we will provide our own space-time for this work and really experience it), then it may creatively transform us. Finally, I would like to return to my childhood oaktree house – recalling what was happening in the film The Heron takes us back to the past (perhaps also the modernist past) and we may retrospectively transform it. The same as it made me think about the Stromovka park of my childhood and break my stereotype thoughts and activities. In fact it brought me back to the oak hillock and changed my routine jogging path across the Stromovka park, showing me its still living present, regardless of my temporality. At the same time, the film may change our idea of a free future – and then the future itself.

Tereza Špinková

[1] Quote from the text of Martin Netočný, published in Radiocustica on Český rozhlas, see: Orsolya Kaincz & Martin Netočný: What Was Wor(l)d Must Be Blurred, https://radiocustica.rozhlas.cz/orsolya-kaincz-martin-netocny-what-was-world-must-be-blurred-9062915.