Architecture 19th MFDF Ji.hlava

photo: Štefan Berec

Ephemeral architectural form of the 19th International Documentary Film Festival Ji.hlava

Location
festival centers (primarily the building of the Vysočina Regional Gallery and festival cinemas), public space nearby, in Masaryk Square, etc.

Task
to adapt the interiors of the festival center to a temporary nature, to enliven the public space through architectural intervention, and to advertise the presence of the festival in the city

Architecture
We have been creating the architectural form of the festival since the 13th edition (2009). Not only in terms of design. We fully realize the solutions, construct, and dismantle them. The festival suffers from a stable lack of funding. The necessary “know-how” of the festival’s architectural form therefore lies in finding material sources that are extremely cheap, borrowed, or provided by sponsors. The enforced low-cost nature maintains a certain degree of punk resonance. At the same time, we want each year’s solution to be original. Each year, the festival is characterized by a specific theme or subthemes. We strive to respond to them. For the 19th edition, we prepared situations for social interactions. The subtitle of the year featured a wordplay with the anagram ETERNITY/OBJECTIVITY, and the concept of FREEDOM was primarily thematized. We placed eight large fire pits throughout the city in a unified festival steel design and prepared stacks of firewood next to them. During the festival, the fire burned – an eternal and objective principle of transforming matter into energy, the logs diminished and symbolized the passing festival time, festival guests encountered locals, roasted sausages together, or just warmed themselves in the chilly weather of the Vysočina region. They enjoyed a great degree of freedom, as the fires were not under continuous supervision.