Summer Film Festival 4 Elements
Rich accompanying program of 4 Elements
4 Elements, which have a history of a film seminar and stay loyal to the educational dimension, have prepared in cooperation with their partners several stimulating discussions. In the cultural center Eleuzína, experts from the Slovak and Czech media sphere - Martin M. Šimečka, Filip Zajíček, Kirill Ščeblykin and Josef Šlerka, will discuss the current state and the potential future of journalism. They will talk about how the demands of readers are changing, about the function of media as opposition or their control function, but also about the capacity to influence the public opinion, the “fake news” phenomenon or the ethics of journalism.
In cooperation with Kapitál magazine, 4 Elements have prepared a discussion dedicated to numbers in independent culture. How do smaller art festivals manage to survive? How are they funded and what problems do they encounter in their organization? How do alternative culture events maintain or increase their visit rate? The representatives of the 4 Elements Film Festival, the travelling platform Kinobus – Not Just Film Festival, the Festival of Independent Theater and Dance Kiosk of Žilina and the Olomouc event PAF – Festival of Film Animation and Contemporary Art will try to find the answers to these and other questions.
A public lecture on field sound recording and its use in contemporary music, as well as on what acoustic ecology is, will be part of the UŠAMI (EARS) workshop. Czech music critic, essayist, screenwriter and lecturer Pavel Klusák will talk about the principles of “field recording” as part of sound design and will present several acoustic and video samples. The UŠAMI (EARS) workshop will be taking place over three festival days and its participants will have the opportunity to get to know the basics of field recording and postproduction of their materials with the assistance of professional lecturers.
“A set of various exercises for two slide projectors, two shutters, two performers, one voice and one audience” – that could be the numerical description of the audiovisual performance There Must Be Some Way Out of Here of the group Labodoble. In the Akademik cinema in Banská Štiavnica, thanks to their unique performance, the audience members will witness “searching for a way out of dark forests to the illuminated enlightened being.”
Fine arts will also be given space at the festival. The Stolen Gallery is a project of the smallest Slovak gallery, set directly in the public space. At 4 Elements, it will exhibit work of Matúš Lányi who in his work pays attention to the exact virtual space and our belief in its healing potential. The Wandering Gallery project visits squares, schools and festivals in order to fight against extremism in a playful way, through the works of prominent Slovak artists. During two festival days, the nomad gallery will be open at the Holy Trinity Square in Banská Štiavnica. Last but not least, 4 Elements will offer a presentation of the results of the De/posium platform. It focuses on the exchange of knowledge on the current state of design and research projects with a focus on materials, processes, sustainability, social contexts and new economic models. Its current edition has hosted 20 design, artistic and scientific talents from all over the world; the results of their work will be presented in the cultural center Banská St a nica Contemporary.
In addition to the popular evening parties, the music program of 4 Elements will include a concert of the group Čau Čau from Bratislava. More details about the accompanying program can be found in the section Accompanying events.