sábado, 2 de março de 2019

JAN DOČEKAL | The Group Stir up is Approaching the 25th Anniversary of its Existence


The Group Stir up came into being in the Czech Republic in 1995. It followed in the footsteps of the surrealist Group Lacoste and of the Society of Karel Teige.
At present the Group Stir up includes the following aktive members: Václav Pajurek (the spiritual leader, an art historian and an artis), Pavel Bezděčka, Josef Bubeník, Arnošt Budík (lives in Brussels, the capital of Belgium), Jan Dočekal, Linda Filipová, Martin Hronza, Lubomír Kerndl, Gabriela Kopcová, Vladimír Kubíček, Zdeněk Píža, Josef Quis, and Ondřej Vorel. In the last few years the following members deceased, thus ending their creative activities for ever: Zdeněk Cibulka (1960-2013). Josef Kremláček (1937-2015, a  co-founder of the Group Lacoste) and Jan Wolf (1941-2016).
The most natural priority of the Group Stir up membrers consists in venerating the surrealist attitude to reality. In thist connection it is necessary to mention several strict priciples: anticlericalism, anticommunism, rejection of commercialism and of awards and decorations of all kinds. Psychic automatism and internal model accompanied by prolific imagination are characteristic of the creative efforts made by the members of the Group Stir up. A very important component of the creative process is the „creation by chance“ which may generate unforseen pictures. The Group Stir up publishes the bulletin Styxus in which there is room for the members to present both reproductions of their works and ideas connected with their creative expression. 
The English name of the Group Stir up has several meanings: to excite, to incite, to stimulate, to provoke. Yes. Excitement, incitement, stimulation, provocation. This is what the surrealists united in Group Stir up intend to achieve by means of their works. But at the present time it is a very difficult task in the Czech Republic. In our society, where consumerism prevails, there is only a marginal interest in any form of art. Some official sociological statistics show that only one per mille of the population maintains continuous contact with the creative culture. The same part of the Czech public shows coherent familiarity with art and the discerning abilities which are necessary for internal perception of artistic forms. Under the conditions existing in the Czech Republic one cannot bat be sceptical abou an influential impact of surrealism. The surrealist tendency towards the necessity of a ceaseless revolution of human spirit is, therefore, an ideal intention rather than an attained reality. In spite of that surrealism is incessantly a vivid manner of creative expression of many Czech drawers painters, graphic artists and sculptors. And new adherents are joining the movement. The words uttered by Sigmund Freud about culture still hold good: Culture is not here so that we could forger about reality, bud so as to achieve for us a greater reality. A greater reality thus means surreality.  
The Group Stir up has a permanent art gallery named Čertův ocas (Devils´ Tail). It occupies three storeys of a former water mill a lovely countryside on the lower reaches of the Jihlava not far from Třebíč. A member of the Group Stir up Lubomír Kerndl, who is a painter, sculptor, poet and printer, is the curator of the art gallery. The undermentioned surrealists from abroad displayed their works as guest exhibitors at the Gallery Čertův ocas (Devils' Tail) and at exhibitions organized by the Group Stir up in other places of the Czech Republic:
Eva Garcia (Argentina), Miguel Lohlé (Argentina), Walter De Rycke (Belgium), Henri Lejeune (Belgium), Thomas Rayner (Belgium), Heloisa Pessoa (Brazil), Noël Arnaud (France), Jean-Martin Bonteux (France), Aurélien Dauguet (France), Adrien Dax (France), Jorge Herrera Fuentealba (Chile), Fredy Flores Knistoff (Chile), Leal Labrin (Chile), Kathleen Fox (South Africa), Amirah Gazel (Costa Rika), Rik Lina (the Netherlands), Miguel de Carvalho (Portugal), Artur do Cruzeiro Seixas (Portugal), Fernando H. Garcia Diaz (Uruquay), Sasha Vlad (USA), Tony Pusey (Great Britain) and John W. Welson (Great Britain).
Thirty years ago Czech prosewriter Ladislav Fuks wrote: We are rich in our dreams. A confession typical also of the present-day Czech surrealists. Their free creation inspired by dreams constitutes the widest foundation of their creative work. So far the Group Stir up has organized a series of thematic exhibitions. Most of them have been rearranged in several places in the Czech Republic and abroad, most often in Brussels. For information hereafter we give titles of some exhibited collections: Hommage à Cassanova, Subversion de l'Impossible, Část ohně (Part of Fire), Příbuznost není dědičná (Affinity is not Hereditary), Zamlžené zrcadlo (Mirror Clouded with Steam), Na sítnici bouře (Storm on Retina), Hvězda se třemi krystaly (Three-crystal Star), Hommage à Sigmund Freud, Světelné požáry (Light Fires), Evocation, Hommage à Miguel de Carvalho, Mystérium zasvěcených (Mystery of the Insiders), Memento mori, Černý humor (Black Humour), Stíny těch zapomenutých bdí (Shadows of the Forgotten are Awake), Všichni jsme stvořeni z lásky (We all are Created out of Love), Neklidné sny (Restless Dreams), Chaos sedmé dimenze (Chaos of the Seventh Dimension).
Arnošt Budík (Arnost Budik) ranks among the most prominent personalities not only within the Group Stir up, bat also within the whole present-day surrealist movement. Since 1969 he has been living in Brussels. He participated in the birth of the Groups Lacoste and Stir up. For more than fifty years he has been an aktive theoretician and creator. He has formulated many ideas and judgements that-thanks to their succinetness-are very close to the young generation of
surrealists. Except many other texts Budik authored an essay entitled Three-crystal Star. The leitmotiv of this essay is that those tree crystals – poetry, love and freedom – are the very foundation of the surrealist art:

Poetry: As early as at the end of the 18th century German poet Georg Fridrich Philipp, baron od Herdenberg, know under the pseudonym of Novalis, said that petry was the absolute experienece. In surrealism poetry penetrated the centre of life in such a way that it ceased to be only art, but in addition it became the method leading to the widest conciousness. Surrealism, with reference to Rimbaud's and Marx's idea to change life, to transform the word“, also examined the problem of relation between poetry and revolution.
Love: In André Breton‘s opinion love is a fateful force. In the eyes of surrealists love is connected with the highest spheres of spirit. Breton's postulate that art will be reduced to its simplest expression, i.e love, is still valid,
Freedom: In the opinion of surrealists freedom is the fundamental precondition for the development of human spirit. In this respect surrealism rejects any compromise. Thirst for liberation is in surrealist creation expressed by avoiding traditional patterns, rules, procedures. Perhaps it is the very reason why craving for new  discoveries is much more important than efforts for easthetic expression.


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Translated by Zdeněk Poláček.


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EDIÇÃO COMEMORATIVA | CENTENÁRIO DO SURREALISMO 1919 –2019
Artista convidado: Alfonso Peña (Costa Rica, 1950)


Agulha Revista de Cultura
20 ANOS O MUNDO CONOSCO
Número 129 | Março de 2019
editor geral | FLORIANO MARTINS | floriano.agulha@gmail.com
editor assistente | MÁRCIO SIMÕES | mxsimoes@hotmail.com
logo & design | FLORIANO MARTINS
revisão de textos & difusão | FLORIANO MARTINS | MÁRCIO SIMÕES
ARC Edições © 2019




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