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The eighth edition of the Signal Festival will present 15 art installations. The new festival route in Holešovice will complete popular routes through Karlín and the historical nooks of Old Town. The festival’s burning topic is Plan B.
Organizers and visual artists want to ponder upon what a person can do for planet Earth and how to behave sustainably. Many artworks react to this year’s pandemic. The most outstanding names of this year’s edition are artists Milena Dopitová, Jiří Černický, and the designer duo Vrtiška & Žák. Famous foreign studios cannot be missing either. The festival also makes sure there are high-standard safety and hygienic measures the organizers consult with the epidemiologists. The festival of digital and creative culture will take place from Thursday 15 October to Sunday 18 October.
The 2020 festival edition is full of new challenges. Signal Festival has been planning to have new locations with smaller capacity and many measures that will make the festival as safe as possible. The installations are reasonably planned so no-one should stay for more than 15 minutes.
This year’s greatest new feature is the festival route in Holešovice. The grand 3D installation designed by the Spanish studio Onionlab ranks among the most anticipated works as it will turn the familiar venue of the Industry Palace at the Holešovice Exhibition Grounds in Prague into a unique experience.
Regarding the limited traveling cause by the world pandemic as well as the effort to avoid the significant carbon footprint left by the presence of international artists, this year’s edition focuses on the presentation of Czech visual artists. Conceptual and socially-oriented artist Milena Dopitová ranks among the most outstanding names. She will present the moving object installation Jeff at the hydroelectric power plant Štvanice, which will draw attention to the impact of the unhealthy existence of modern society on the nature around us. Visual artist, author of experimental and intermedia projects, and the head of the Painting Studio at the Academy of Arts, Architecture, and Design, Jiří Černický has prepared a mystical and impressive projection of water animals hidden in ocean depths, who can surprisingly turn into the carriers of a clear ecological message. His installation Archaic Topicalities can be found in the beautiful garden of the Convent of St. Agnes. Designers Roman Vrtiška and Vladimír Žák made an interactive, playful, and energetically independent kinetic installation Blooming of Light. The onlookers themselves can animate the techno-meadow flowers outside the Main Point building in Karlín.
The popular video mapping on the church of ss. Cyril and Methodius on Karlín Square cannot be missing. The German studio Weltraumgrafik tackles this year’s topic in a very interesting way. Their projection is abstract and hypnotic. They react to the world pandemic that has changed everything, but not necessarily for the worse. They see the catastrophe as a challenge and a new beginning.
Signal Festival systematically supports emerging Czech arts. Kateřina Blahutová, the winner of the open Signal Calling organized by the festival in association with PrusaLab, will grab people’s attention by the playful crowdfunding interactive installation Living Forest, reflecting the landscape deforestation. The festival has established strong partner cooperation with Time-Based Media at the Faculty of Art and Design at Jan Evangelista Purkyně University in Ústí nad Labem. Students will present their installations at the Klementinum courtyard.
The accompanying programme will take place at several venues. Michal Škapa prepared a neon installation on the occasion of 125 years of Prague Marketplace. Archa Theatre will host an audiovisual performance Vektroskop on 17 and 18 October. The scenographer of the night-long programme is Petr Nikl and will be lit up by Patrik Sedlák’s design and David Vrbík’s lasers.
About the festival
The festival was founded by producer Martin Pošta, curator Jan Rolník and artist Amar Mulabegovič from the art group The Macula. After the success of video mapping on the occasion of the 600th anniversary of the Old Town Astronomical Clock, which was carried out in 2010 by The Macula with Martin Pošta, the idea of a broader presentation of the field of lighting art in the Czech Republic arose through the festival. The preparations for the first year lasted a total of 3 years. The organizers managed to bring big names from all over the world to Prague and to establish the tradition of the festival of light with the support of the capital city of Prague, the city districts of Prague 1 and 2, and other partners.
