CZECH ACTION ART. Movies and Videos, 1956–1989 (DVD)

For the first time, the collection of films and videos from 1956–1989 comprehensively presents unique recordings of events, performances and happenings that took place in the Czech environment before 1989. Czech action art developed as one of the important branches of conceptualism in the 1960s and in the 1970s and 1980s. It formed an essential part of the unofficial scene. It has significantly shifted traditional ideas about the nature of a work of art, about the role of the creator and the viewer. The final artifact replaced the process of creation of the work of art and the documentation of events began to play a key role. Most Czech happenings, performances and events are documented through photography and text, camera ownership was relatively rare in socialist Czechoslovakia, but during the preparation of the project we managed to acquire a number of as yet unpublished films and digitize them. The moving image is a medium that records not only the visual appearance of the event, but also its detailed course. Therefore, it is an irreplaceable source of information for the study of action art. The aim of the compilation Czech Action Art. Films and videos, 1956–1989 is to complete the overall picture of Czech action art in the monitored years.