CAS. WHAT IS IT?: Curators: Tomáš Pospiszyl, Eric Rosenzveig

Artists: Stanislav Abrahám, Magdaléna Bažantová, Yael Ben-Horin, Klára Doležálková, Max Dvořák, Jan Kalivoda, Akile Nazli Kaya, Michal Kindernay, Dalibor Knapp, Kateřina Krejčová, Dana Machajová, Marek Matvija, Alexandra Moralesová, Anna Ouřadová, Petr Parkan Janda, Kryštof Pešek, Lea Petříková, Jiří Rouš, David Šmitmajer, Matěj Strnad, Barbora Švarcová, Vladimír Turner, František Týmal, Ondřej Vavrečka

Curators: Tomáš Pospiszyl, Eric Rosenzveig

From 16/04/2013 to 19/05/2013

The exhibition presents works by students and graduates of the Centre for Audiovisual Studies at FAMU. CAS is a place for art students to develop a practice in making moving image works beyond cinema . As this exhibition shows, CAS does not point to a single type of thinking or production, but it is an open and flexible space to share differing opinions of what constitutes important knowledge or ‘an education’.

The word ‘artist’ is sufficient to describe the disposition of the media maker as we imagine him or her at CAS if we acknowledge its expanded meaning in the last 40 years: performer, documentarist, activist, archivist, sociologist, entertainer, educator, researcher and onwards.

Students work in the digital – in sound, still image, video, text, code. We value film too, its materiality, its historical facts and further possibilities. This isn‘t a contradiction. Students use whatever medium or material they require, in combination with any other. We have at minimum 120 years of contemporary audiovisual history to draw on.

The exhibition is divided into a number of free thematic units. Autonomous cinema experiments by Janda, Kindernay, Pesek; performing the archive / the database as medium – with works by Ouradova, Moralesova; video essays - by Knapp, Dolezalkova; interventions into online social space - Abraham and Matvija; film/digital dichotomies / explorations of the materiality of the medium by Strnad, Tymal, and code based projects by Pesek; works in the street / public space - Knapp and Turner; video installation - Ben Horin, Svarcova, Machajova; explorations of time – Petrikova & cinema space – Svarcova; art/science/pataphysical research by Vavrecka, Kindernay, Rous, Smitmajer, Dvorak; personal documentary – Krejcova; Bazantova‘s abject cinema and Kalivoda‘s creation, no, destruction of the image...

Finally though, the gallery space can only encompass part of what we do. For the rest – longer cinema works, 16 and 35mm film, performed media, critical theory and text, join us at our evenings of screenings and performance, read our new book.

CAS. What is it?

CAS or the Center for Audiovisual Studies Department at FAMU, the Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts, in Prague, is nine years old. This month we celebrate the activities of our students and present a series of events highlighting our interdisciplinary work beyond the bounds of traditional cinema:

A month long show at FUTURA Center for Contemporary Art 17.4 -19.5, 2013

A publication with essays, photos and texts on the theoretical and practical work of students and teachers

Vernissage and book launch at FUTURA: 16.4.2013 v 18.00

Two evenings of screenings of films and videos: CAS. What is Cinema?
3.5 and 10.5.2013, 19.30, Studio Bela.

An evening of live performances from the students of CAS: Lucid Dreaming and Seahorses
13.5.2013, 19.00, Studio Alta

More information at: cas.famu.cz or email: info@cas.famu.cz or telephone 234 244 351 or 602 373 076
More information at: futuraproject.cz, artcam.cz/bela, www.namu.cz

Thanks to Michal Novotný, director FUTURA; Pavel Jech, dean of FAMU; Klára Doležálková, Studio Béla, Martin Blažíček, Kateřina Bílková, Matěj Strnad, Ondřej Vavrecka, Kryštof Pešek, Marko Bogdanovič, Andrea Slovákova, director NAMU; Kimberly A. Strozewski, Director CET Academic Programs in Prague; Belavenir Design, Eric Rosenzveig & Tomas Pospiszyl, all the students, graduates and educators at CAS.