The festival 4+4 Days in Motion to start with award-winning Motus company from Italy
Press release, 12th September 2018
This year’s 23rd edition of 4+4 Days in Motion, the festival of contemporary art, will feature nine premieres from foreign companies and four Czech ones. The festival will open with the award-winning company Motus from Italy on Friday, October 5 in the Archa Theatre. MDLSX stands for a psychedelic one-woman show by eccentric actress Silvia Calderoni. Syrian choreographer Mithkal Alzghair will present the Czech premiere of his performance Displacement about running away as saving the life as well as losing the possibility to return. In her documentary History History History, British artist Deborah Pearson will have a look at one of the biggest 20th century refugee crises. Visitors to the festival will also have a chance to see Czech premieres of Wariot Ideal company, SecondHand Women company, Barbora Kleinhamplová’s and Tereza Stejskalová’s site-specific project and Jan Mocek’s premiere of Fatherland. The exhibition part of the festival called Uncertainty Principle will be located in Desfours Palace at Florenc from 5th to 13th October.
Latest and provocative foreign theatre premieres
The theatre and dance program of the 4+4 Days in Motion festival is located mainly in the Archa Theatre, Ponec Theatre, and Centre for Contemporary Art DOX. Dramaturgy will substantially reflect complexity of contemporary Europe and the world. “You can walk through our festival like you walk in the countryside. Some things are coincidental, others are absolutely clear. This year’s program confirms once again that an artist who wants to approach and mesmerize audiences must be a person for all seasons in a way. Our foreign artists work on the borderland between theatre, dance, literature, visual arts, and new media. Their projects often have a political dimension as well as documentary aspects,” says Pavel Štorek, the theatre program dramaturg.
The festival will open on 5th October in the Archa Theatre with a psychedelic one-woman show MDLSX performed by Motus from Italy. The award-winning theatre and film actress Silvia Calderoni uses her body to tell a story about violence, pain, confusion, and (self-)acceptance. She received an award at the Dublin Fringe Festival and the award for the best actress at MESS Sarajevo festival. The performance of Displacement by Syrian dancer and choreographer Mithkal Alzghair takes place when two emotions clash and will have a Czech premiere on 11th October in the Ponec Theatre. Displacement, which was first at the international competition Danse Élargie, is based on two dynamics: forced movement and restricted movement unlike Julian Hetzel’s performative installation of The Automated Sniper, which ironically oscillates between two distant poles – art and war. The author examines the constantly growing distance between the opponents – fistfights have been substituted by fights with various weapons, knives transformed into bows, then firearms, bombs, missiles, and drones. If a sniper wants to kill, he must look carefully – like gallery visitors. The performance of The Automated Sniper will take place on 8th October in the Archa Theatre. In her documentary production History History History on 11th October in Ponec, British artist Deborah Pearson will have a look at one of the biggest 20th century refugee crises: the year of 1956, when up to 300,000 people fled from Hungary – including the grandfather of the author of the production. In her performance Piece for Person and Ghetto Blaster, Australian performer Nicola Gunn analyzes unbearable traits of human behavior from both critical and comical points of view. The scenic Piece will be performed on 12th and 13th October in the Archa Theatre. The production HELLO USELESS – FOR W AND FRIENDS performed by famous Belgian actor and performer Benny Claessens will provide relief for those who need to stop, breathe and break free from public control on 9th October in Ponec. The foreign theatre program of the festival also features a scenic concert of the composer Ingvild Langgård and stage designer Signe Becker called New Skin (10th October, Archa Theatre), the movie The Making of Justice telling a story of seven prisoners (7th October, Archa Theatre) or Manuel Roque’s solo performance bang bang about fighting oneself, full of intensive body work and focused self-examination (6th and 7th October, Ponec).
Czech premieres: Wariot Ideal, Secondhand Women, Jan Mocek, Barbora Kleinhamplová and Tereza Stejskalová
The festival 4+4 Days in Motion 2018 will present four Czech premieres. Alcohols, Volumes 1 – 9, an open performance art studio of Wariot Ideal company, can be experienced daily from 5th to 13th October in Desfours Palace. The performance Inter-mission by the international theatre company Secondhand Women will offer five different female points of view on the topic of power from 10th to 13th October at the same place. The production Fatherland by director Jan Mocek, which combines the features of video installation, documentary and theatre, can be found in the festival program on 9th October in the Archa Theatre. Barbora Kleinhamplová’s and Tereza Stejskalová’s Weeping Over a Too Long Life will trigger a distinctive dialogue about ageing, spending time, and unintended consequences of longevity in Tomáš Veselka Hairdressing Salon in Letná.
4 + 4 Days in Motion
23Rd International festival of contemporary art
5—13 October 2018
Desfours Palace, Archa Theatre, Ponec – theatre for dance, DOX Centre for Contemporary Art
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GENERAL FESTIVAL PROGRAM ›
PLACES OF ACT THE SITE-SPECIFIC PROJECT FOR DESFOURS PALACE ›
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Partner of the festival: Trade Center Praha a.s.
Festival supporters: Ministry of Culture, Czech Republic, Municipality of Prague, IN SITU, Creative Europe, French Institute in Prague, Representation of the Flemish Community in Prague, Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Italian Cultural Institute
Main media partner: Radio 1
Press service and PR:
Eliška Míkovcová
t: +420 606 77 44 35
e: eliska.mikovcova@kulturnipr.cz
