A House On Jungmannova by Dan Senn

A House On Jungmannova
4+4+4 Days in Motion
A documentary by Dan Senn

Introduction

This is a documentary about a house on Jungmannova street, near the center of Prague in the Czech Republic; about the "4+4+4 Days in Motion" festival held in May of 2006, its organizers, artists and patrons; about the location and Jewish origin of this structure, its establishment as a standing work of art and how this impacted the festival participants; about the patrons, as they entered a building replete with "code violations," small children in tow struggling up the steep and dangerous staircases, pressed to question whether one thing was art or, perhaps, just some refuse left behind; about an organized confusion which encouraged artists to continue preparing and developing installations after the day of the opening; and, about the delicate interconnections which existed between the festival participants and the mutual benefits which exceeded the sum of its parts.

Throughout the festival, as I maintained my own installation, I talked with many Czech artists while documenting their work and the house, and as I moved through the mysterious, Kafkaesque warren of rooms and hallways, I learned the necessity of retracing my steps over and over to discover and rediscover new and changed installations. For this was part of a larger concept, one which encouraged patrons to return to the house, to remount the stairs, stepping carefully around the clutter, and to observe a festival-in-progress, in A House On Jungmannova. DS 10/06 (continued in Supplemental Writings)

Director Biography

Dan Senn is an interdisciplinary artist working in kinetic sound sculpture, experimental music and video, documentary film, and other media. In the tradition of a composer, he works alone, as director, videographer, photographer, interviewer, editor, etc. His installation work often combines video, sound and moving sculpture and his 2001 documentary, "The Exquisite Risk of Civil War Brass," won at the Da Vinci film festival.