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| Jakub 2018 A Documentary |
Rataj (see
film) 30:28 Composer from the Czech Republic by Dan Senn |
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Jakub Rataj
is a sound artist living in a small village near Prague, The Czech
Republic. This documentary was recorded at the artist's home in the
Autumn of 2017 and is one
of three documentaries made of Czech sound artists interviewed
for "Three
Czech Sound Artists" documentary. The subjects, Lucie Vítková, Jakub Rataj, and Jiří Suchánek, are all
sound
artists with advanced music degrees, but are vastly different in their
individual approaches to time-based art. Lucie's works tend toward musical
theatre, dance, the use of found objects and may be considered an
extention of the fluxus movement. Jakub is a composer of complex music
scores with deep European roots, who deftly uses electronics, dancers,
sound sculpture and film, etc. Jiří's works extend
from the concert stage, himself a performer, to large public art works
reminscent of the German-American Trimpin—an inventor
of
elaborate high tech kinetic instruments.
Therefore, four versions of these interview materials exist: "Three Czech Sound Artists" presents these artists in tandem, and then in stand alone documentaries for each artist. |
Director
Statement — "I generally work alone,
even in documentary film, transferring the practice of composing solo
in my studio, and presenting live sound and video performances, to an
otherwise collaborative medium. The downside of this approach is the
heaviness of the load and a loss of the benefits of community
discourse. The upside is a process I am at ease with, that is, self
dependency, and a disciplined focus that enables me to interview
subjects while working simultaneously behind the camera, a mutual
detachment that I cognitively benefit from. Working alone also enables
work with fewer budgetary concerns. "Three Czech Sound Artists" was born out of a curiosity in the points of “astonishing interruption” in a person’s life. My life as an artist started with a sudden death of a sibling causing me to heed an inner voice to "do what is difficult”, what frightened me and so I wondered "Were moments like this common amongst other artists? What about those with roots in the communist system of the Czech Republic?” Therefore, I set out to find the answer by interviewing three talented young Czech artists with whom I had worked and what I learned was that none of them were able to point to a specific “Paulian” event that caused them to move into the arts or specifically, experimental art. Even so, each artist, at some juncture, had been confronted with the question, "Am I going to live fully or just as expected?" Each expressed an overwhelming desire to think their own thoughts and to individuate. So, I set out to sate my inquisitiveness by interviewing these three, all of whom I had come to know in my Prague media festival, Echofluxx."" DS, Prague, 2018 |
Dan
Senn,
the director and producer of these films, is an interdisciplinary
artist working in experimental music
composition, video, and sound sculpture but also makes documentary
films usually with little, if any, assistance from others. He is the
director of the Echofluxx media festivals in Prague and co-founder of
Roulette Intermedium in New York City and lives in Prague, The Czech
Republic, and Watertown, Wisconsin. Dan has directed and produced “The
Exquisite Risk of Civil War Brass”, "A
House on Jungmanova" and “Voices of Theresa”.
The photo banner above is of Jakub at his home outsde of Prague. Click image for a higher rez version. |