A House On Jungmannova by Dan Senn

A House On Jungmannova
4+4+4 Days in Motion
A documentary by Dan Senn

Introduction

This is a documentary about a house on Jungmannova street, near the center of Prague in the
Czech Republic; about the "4+4+4 Days in Motion" festival held in May of 2006, its organizers,
artists and patrons; about the location and Jewish origin of this structure, its establishment as a
standing work of art and how this impacted the festival participants; about the patrons, as they
entered a building replete with "code violations," small children in tow struggling up the steep
and dangerous staircases, pressed to question whether one thing was art or, perhaps, just some
refuse left behind; about an organized confusion which encouraged artists to continue preparing
and developing installations after the day of the opening; and, about the delicate
interconnections which existed between the festival participants and the mutual benefits
which exceeded the sum of its parts.

Throughout the festival, as I maintained my own installation, I talked with many Czech artists
while documenting their work and the house, and as I moved through the mysterious,
Kafkaesque warren of rooms and hallways, I learned the necessity of retracing my steps over
and over to discover and rediscover new and changed installations. For this was part of a larger
concept, one which encouraged patrons to return to the house, to remount the stairs, stepping
carefully around the clutter, and to observe a festival-in-progress, in A House On Jungmannova
. DS 10/06 (continued in Supplemental Writings)

Director Biography

Dan Senn is an interdisciplinary artist working in kinetic sound sculpture, experimental music
and video, documentary film, and other media. In the tradition of a composer, he works alone,
as director, videographer, photographer, interviewer, editor, etc. His installation work often
combines video, sound and moving sculpture and his 2001 documentary, "The Exquisite Risk of
Civil War Brass," won at the Da Vinci film festival.