Program
Sep 19, 2013
Capricious Summers of Jiri Menzel
Exhibition based on photographs, posters, texts and documents from private archives of a director that obtained an Oscar® for the film Closely Watched Trains. Unique travelling exhibition to be presented personally by Jiří Menzel in Washington, New York and Los Angeles in September 2013
Jiří Menzel is living his 75th Capricious
Summer
A photography exhibition accompanying his
new film Don Juans and his memoir writing
Director Jiří Menzel’s important jubilee will be commemorated by a unique exhibition based on his works. His wife, Olga, has prepared the exhibition with her company, MEDIALOGUE, s.r.o. as a birthday present. The exhibition consists of photographs and popular phrases from Menzel’s films and is based on documents, books, posters and screenplays from the Oscar director’s private archive.
Olga Menzelová Kelymanová, producer and Jiří Menzel’s wife, has commented the origin of the exhibition: “I’ve been preparing exhibitions of photographs and documents for years so it was just natural to prepare one for Jiří. This year’s jubilee was a good reason for preparing an exhibition. It is, however not a monument built to him and his works, but just a reminder of what he is doing for people, both in his films and in theatre. I am really impressed by how my colleague Veronika Gondová, the author, approached to the exhibition and I am sure people will like it.”
The exhibition
is a collage of mostly unpublished photographs located on fifteen double-sided
panels. Visitors will be able to see photographs from the films Larks on the
String, Closely Watched Trains, My Sweet Little Village and more accompanied
with popular quotations:
“It’s OK. You had a good luck Jaromír. It’s just beside it. It won’t affect the function.”“Do you mean the function of plant breeder?” “Oh, definitely …” (My Sweet Little Village)
“In fact he doesn’t take a brick in his hand, but he’s a respectable professional.” “He’s an expert. He has built three villas here in this way.” (Seclusion Near a Forest)
“The project is not a detailed retrospective mapping the complete works and life of the author. It is actually a humorous display of unique snaps and popular quotations from the director’s films as well as a reminder and revelation of interesting events from the other spheres of his activities. The text part of the exhibition, moreover, includes the first passages from the memoirs that Jiří Menzel is working on at the moment,” adds Veronika Gondová, the author of the exhibition. The exhibition precedes the premiere of Jiří Menzel’s new film Don Juans.
Project implementation
The
project was prepared by Medialogue, s.r.o. in cooperation with the Embassy of
the Czech Republic in Washington, the Czech Center in New York and the
Consulate General of the Czech Republic in Los Angeles with the support of the
Municipal Government of the Capital City of Prague.
General Partner of the
Project:
PSJ, a.s.
Partners of the Project:
ALUKOV HZ spol. s r.o.
See www.www.medialogue.cz for current information on the exhibition.
Venue:
321 East 73rd Street
NY 10021
New York
United States
Date
Sep 19, 2013
Organizer:
Czech Center