06 Dec 2018

A Weakness for Raisins: Films & Archive of Ester Krumbachová and We're Having a Party at CCA Glasgow!

Following the temporary closure this summer, CCA is now open to the public and we're having a party for the local community, the residents of Garnethill, our long standing supporters and regular visitors. The evening begins with the opening of A Weakness for Raisins: Films & Archive of Ester Krumbachová.

Ester Krumbachová was a key figure in Czech New Wave cinema in the 1960s. She contributed significantly to films such as The Party and the Guests, Daisies, Valerie and Her Week of Wonders, Witchhammer, and The Murder of Mr. Devil, as a costume designer, stage designer, scriptwriter, author and director. After the 1968 Prague Spring and the subsequent invasion of Warsaw Pact forces, Krumbachová was one of many Czech artists effectively silenced and non-officially banned from Barrandov Film Studios until 1989.

Occasionally finding work in film, sometimes under a friend's name, she earned money from making amulets. Working with modelling clay and her kitchen oven, she created raw designs that combined many materials in each unique necklace. The pieces demonstrate her interest in alchemy, the esoteric and the transmutation of materials, and relate back to her innovative concepts in costume and set design.

In 1994, she published The First Book of Ester, a collection of 'intentionally unsent letters or letters forgotten unintentionally' punctuated by a series of dark fairytales. The archive is full of unsent letters, many torn into small fragments and stored in plastic bags. It seems likely that she made a selection from this collection for the book but much work remains to be done on them and on her communication/non-communication with the intended recipients of the letters. Likewise her fairy tales – often comic, twisted and biting – remain unknown to English speaking audiences and relatively unknown even in her own home country.

Krumbachová has returned to public consciousness recently as her papers, artwork, photography and clothes were donated to create an archive, which is overseen by curators Edith Jeřábková and Zuzana Blochová. The archive is beginning to shed light on Krumbachová's time, with many topics – agency, magic, materialism, gender, feminism, the interconnected nature of reality, and sensory forms of knowledge – remaining relevant today.

This exhibition is based on the only film directed by Krumbachová, The Murder of Mr. Devil, and displays key elements of her archive within a much broader context as artists ACID PRAWN (Sian Dorrer), Marek Meduna, Sally Hackett and France-Lise McGurn interact directly with, and respond to, her work. An entangled collaboration between Are, Dorrer and Meduna blurs the distinction between artworks, exhibition architecture and design in CCA1 and 3, with Glasgow curators Panel curating CCA2. A Weakness for Raisins will be accompanied by a series of screenings.

Curated by Are Prague and CCA Glasgow with guest curators Panel

Exhibition Partners: National Film Archive, Prague; Czech Film Fund; Czech Centre London; The Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague; the Barrandov Studio; BIONAUT; Czech Television; DW Agency, Prague; Glasgow Film Theatre; MAP Magazine; and Second Run. Supported by Creative Scotland, Glasgow City Council, the Ministry of Culture Czech Republic, Prague City Hall, and the Czech Centre London. Special thanks to Ivo Paik, Anja Kirschner, Jarmila Košnářová, Petr Václav, Václav Šeda – ADES.

From 9pm, the party continues as Sarra Wild of OH141 brings a night of DJs and a live performance from Kübler-Ross. We will be open right through to 3am with sets from Cucina Povera, Poisonous Relationship, Kübler-Ross and Sarra Wild.

DJ, curator and OH141 boss Sarra Wild is unapologetically disrupting the white male dominated electronic music scene in a number of ways. As a DJ, her sets are always unapologetic, exciting and bold, mixing all kinds of sounds to create a unique set every time. She is responsible for Grassroots Glasgow, a series of DJ workshops and panel talks which aim to encourage the inclusion of marginalised voices in the industry and as OH141 she has booked international acts such as Hieroglyphic Being, Pan Daijing, Gaika and most recently DJ Storm.

Katie Shannon and brothers Dave and Craig Clark are Kübler-Ross. A collective of Glasgow artists who stew myriad strands of electronic, experimental and dance forms into a whole that reeks of drama and excess, Kübler-Ross are trance as substance abuse. Wired and fired up, the live drum element has a distinctly Can-esque power that mixes with live modular synths and menacing, scrawled vocal glare.

Cucina Povera AKA Maria Rossi is a Glaswegian Finn and an experimental electronic music producer, writer, singer and DJ. Her latest projects lean towards more danceable productions and the preparatory stages involve tireless inspiration-seeking from fellow music makers, visual artists and otherwise prophetic friends near and far.

Jamie Crewe is an artist and DJ who also produces, sings, and performs music as Poisonous Relationship. Equally dedicated to rhythm and to heartbreak, they make emotional dance music full of slow unfoldings and sudden collapses. They have performed internationally, released 6 EPs and 3 albums since 2010, remixed songs for Holly Johnson, bottoms, and The 2 Bears, and produced for rappers Cakes Da Killa, Big Momma, and Karnagekills.