31 Endings/31 Beginnings

31 konc?/31 za?átk? (31 Endings/31 Beginnings) is the latest cinematic outing of the Prague-based art collective Rafani whose oeuvre includes using the National Gallery as a public toilet in protest against the then head of the institution. Their latest offering is more subtle and strives to merge a psychogeographic exploration of Prague from its balmy outskirts to the centre and back with portraits of the city’s movers and shakers from the music and art worlds: a multilayered exploration of the centre vs periphery issue.

So we‘ll see and hear noise musicians, painters, an anarchist, a design duo, a rapper or a widow of a tragically deceased painter (one of few women depicted) whose statements – Rafani later admitted that these were manipulated to the extent that the interviews served as manifestations of their predetermined theses – are often arbitrarily cut in the middle of sentences.

The directors were apparently inspired by the Joy Division movie and swapped Manchester with Prague. The flaneurist idea of the movie might seem overshadowed by questions regarding underground and autonomous creative identity, the sustainability of the current system and its uncertain future.

Rafani have been recently awarded the second place at the Artistic Personality of the Year prize for this film.

You can watch the trailer here.

Published February 01, 2012.