Videli sme veci… / We’ve seen Things…

video, 2012

Scroll down for English translation of the text of the video.

Video Videli sme veci… vzniklo ako úvodné video k divadelnej hre Téma Palach (scenár Ľuba Lesná, réžia Viera Dubačová). Sebaupálením Jana Palacha som sa zaoberal už skôr. Prvé video s touto témou som vytvoril už v roku 2007 (Budem si pamätať, kto si). Ide o akúsi vizualizáciu príbehu mladého idealistického básnika, ktorý pozoruje rieku a rozvíjajúcu sa prírodu a v závere sa poleje benzínom a škrtne zápalkou.

We’ve Seen Things… was created as an introductory video to the theatre play Téma Palach (screenplay by Ľuba Lesná, directed by Viera Dubačová). I have dealt with the self-immolation of Jan Palach before. First video on this topic I created in 2007 (I Will Remember Who You Are) visualising the story of a young idealistic poet who observes the river and the evolving nature and at the end pours gasoline on his body and strikes a match.

Video bolo zároveň odkazom na Piera Paola Pasoliniho, presnejšie na hlavnú postavu jeho nedokončenej divadelnej hry Zviera štýlu (Bestia da stile, 1975), básnika Jana pomenovaného podľa Jana Palacha. V úvode videa sa objavuje zakrvavené telo s titulkou 1975, teda rokom Pasoliniho smrti. Kým v prvom videu venovanom Palachovi som sa zaoberal otázkou vernosti umeniu až za poslednú možnú hranicu, poetický text videa Videli sme veci, deklamovaný troma recitátormi, ktorí zároveň stvárňujú hlavné postavy v inscenácii, je pokusom o kritický pohľad na temné obdobie neslobody, do ktorého sa Palach pokúsil vniesť svetlo.

The video was also a reference to Pier Paolo Pasolini, more precisely to the main character of his unfinished theatrical play The Beast of Style (Bestia da stile, 1975) poet Jan, named after Jan Palach. In the beginning of the video there is a body covered with blood with the caption 1975, the year of Pasolini’s death. While in the first video dedicated to Palach I dealt with the question of fidelity to art to the last possible limit, the poetic text of the video We’ve Seen Things…, recited by three reciters, who also portray the main characters in the production, is an attempt to take a critical look at the dark period of unfreedom, which Palach tried to bring the light in.

Inscenácia Téma Palach bola premiérovo uvedená v Záhrade-CNK v Banskej Bystrici v r. 2012.

Téma Palach was premiered in Záhrada-CNK in Banská Bystrica in 2012.

Herci / Actors: Lenka Luptáková, Roman Martinský
Hlasy / Voices: Jakub Janíček, Lenka Luptáková, Roman Martinský

We’ve Seen Things…

We've seen things we've never seen before
We've seen things we've never heard of before
We saw things we didn't quite understand
We saw things that no one prepared us for
We saw the body and the fire that burned the body
We saw fire, and in that fire we saw our future
We saw fire, and in its flames we saw ourselves
We saw a lot of light and in that light we saw our future
In that light we saw ourselves without a name
At that moment we didn't think about anything and for a long time we forgot to talk
And then none of us knew how to say our name for a very long time
And then we didn't dare say it for a very long time
We fell asleep and forgot our names
and we forgot the name of the country in which we breathed
and the names of the people we lived with in it
We forgot about the country and the people we loved
and our physical bodies have witnessed our inner transformation
We thought the fire we saw would cleanse us,but in that fire all our hopes were burned
It took us many years to see ourselves again
and we remembered what we saw then
The light we saw then came soon to be replaced by darkness
and we quietly accepted the darkness and learned to walk and talk in it again
and we have learned to communicate without using all the words
In that darkness, each of us found our place, but that darkness was our disease
We had no light in that darkness, and time was the measure,which we did not need to understand
We found ourselves trapped in the slit of the unreal
and in that perverse solitude we could not talk about life
and we were not allowed to talk about death.