The New York edition of PAF will continue on the previous series of events prepared in cooperation with Pioneer Works in 2016 and will present two evenings of new audiovisual performances by international artists.

PAF was established in 2000 and is a Czech platform for moving image, animation, and contemporary art. PAF organizes yearlong dramaturgical and production activities, curatorial exhibitions, projections, and workshops, and publishes books within its own PAF Edition. Its main output is PAF—Festival of Film Animation and Contemporary Art held annually in Olomouc, Czech Republic, and whose 17th edition takes place December 6–9, 2018.

All performances are commissioned by PAF, with support from Pioneer Works.

Ink Midget & Isama Zing: Prelude for light and fog

Prelude for light and fog is an audiovisual composition written for eight fog machines and four strobe lights. The very limitations of these machines serve as the main inspiration for exploration of the contrast of loud and quiet and light and dark.

Isama Zing is a producer, dj and member of Mäss micro collective. His compositions oscillate between carefully crafted post-industrial soundscapes and spontaneous bursts of euphoric energy, represented by his playful melodic structures. The collection of everyday motifs with frequent industrial mapping of territories has become a reverberation of civilizational machinery, processually crumbling apart and melting together again in Isama Zing’s music.

Ink Midget is a producer, DJ and a member of Mäss collective from Bratislava, Slovakia. Recontextualized club music would be the best way to characterize his work, as he often takes contrasting unrelated ideas and puts them into complex composition. This blended together with his typical raw metallic sound, results into unique bangers, making you wonder if to dance or leave the club ashamed, guilty and confused.

Jakub Jansa, Club of Opportunities

Jakub Jansa builds an immersive environment with hidden, inner dramaturgy. His exhibition projects become almost like some Netflix TV series. Each episode introduces new characters, plot and emotional twists. Unlike in films, it is not only about the scenes, the narrative is gradually revealed through video, various objects, and performances. Based on his personal experience, Jansa depicts the archetypal characters and situations. Freely changing the genres, going from high to low, he achieves a distinctive poetics. The way he balances on the expressive edge draws the audience in the playing field; some kind of a gaming experience full of forthright emotions, absurd connections, and subversive holds, ending in a mild fog. After a long-term investigation of the world of advancement propagation and foolish vision, Jansa currently examines the modern form of oral literature in the time of social-sitting. In his real-time epic Club of Opportunities, he depicts the characters of engaging storytellers and makes overlooked entities, such as celery root, more visible.

Working on his projects, Jakub Jansa cooperates with cinematographer Kryštof Hlůže and Kryštof Melka, fashion designer Karolína Juříková, philosopher Kamil Nábělek and many others.

Slowmotiondancer

Music project by Prague-based artist and producer Dominik Gajarský. Evocative vocals against slow, sober sounds. Slightly sardonic, yet oozing with emotion. His sound is rather unique – it combines field recordings and instrument samples with minimal electronic background. Gajarský works on soundtracks for theatre plays, his own exhibitions and nowadays he is working on a new album.