The Yes No Yes exhibition takes its inspiration from questions connected to the environment and circumstances leading to the emergence of the moving image. The aim is to follow a range of effects (sometimes called “special effects”), the manipulation of the image, and spontaneous gestures which influence them in their making. The inspiration for the exhibition came from the first Czech video artists, who often used video technologies in very intuitive ways. The video as an object in and of itself carries historical significance related to the development of the audio-visual arts, while simultaneously being connected to contemporary ways of grappling with what is known as the moving image, not only in the context of cinematography and visual arts but also in, say, music, fashion, and other forms of pop culture. The exhibition borrowed its name from the video Yes No Yes (1992) by Radek Pilař – a painter, illustrator, experimental animator, videographer, arts organizer and pedagogue. In the 90s, Pilař participated in the foundation of a workshop focused on electronic animation at the FAMU film school. He also worked shortly at the Faculty of Fine Arts (FaVU) at the Brno University of Technology, where, in 1992, he became the first director of the atelier for electronic multimedia art – today’s Video Atelier.
VIDEO ATELIER FT. MARTIN MAZANEC & JAN ŠRÁMEK
In the 2021/2022 academic year, the Video Atelier of the Faculty of Fine Arts (FaVU) at the Brno University of Technology in Brno is home to 23 students in the Bachelor’s and Master’s programs. Dialogues about projects and themes are led across the atelier, and each project is then coordinated by a larger or smaller group of artists. Some of these projects include the concept of the cinema and gallery Bat Cave Cinema (Café Pilát Brno / Galerie TIC, Brno 2020–2021), the performative exhibition Mixtape (Institut za Aplauz, Belgrade 2019) or curation of the exhibition of works by graduates of FaVU in Brno called 29 (Dům pánů z Kunštátu, Brno 2017).
The following students study at the Video Atelier: Simona Duďáková, Martin Hurych, Jaroslav Kaláb, Martin Dominik Kratochvíl, Maria Lopatyuk, Lukáš Prokop, Daniel Rajmon, Kristýna Sidlárová, Ondřej Silný, Matěj Sláma, Adam Smolek, Adam Smrekovský, Tamara Spalajković, Jan Staniczek, Marek Ščudla, Jan Šrámek, Risto Ilić, Nikol Urbanová.
Starting in the 2017/2018 academic year, the Video Atelier of the Faculty of Fine Arts (FaVU) at the Brno University of Technology is led by curator and moving image historian Martin Mazanec, together with visual artist and illustrator Jan Šrámek.
