Insectum K.

A dance for one man, one table, one chair, one light and one sound.

EIN TANZ FÜR EINEN MANN, EINEN TISCH, EINEN STUHL, EIN LICHT UND EINEN KLANG.
29. November 2024, 19:30 performance, 20:00 artist & expert talk

A half-naked body and its groping way across the table top, illuminated by a single light bulb, surrounded by an „unknown universe“ that speaks to us with the urgency and insistence of a Francis Bacon painting about man’s fundamental position in the world: the fragility, transience and unpredictability of his existence…

In cooperation with Tschechisches Zentrum Wien this special evening will be presented at Schubert Theater Vienna accompanied by an artist and expert talk about Franz Kafka and his works. The narrative, which clearly draws inspiration from Kafka’s „The Metamorphosis of Gregor Samsa“, was presented in many theatre spaces as well as galleries, cafes, music halls and libraries. It was nominated for the Best Interpretation Award (Czech Dance Platform) and won the special award for choreography in (Choreography show Choceň).

After the performance, the artist Hoanza Malik will discuss the significance of Kafka for contemporary art with the author Radek Malý. Radek Malý’s book “Franz Kafka – A man of his and our time”, with illustrations by Renáta Fučíková, is a reminder of the important and unique cultural symbiosis that the coexistence of Czechs, Jews and Germans (not only) meant in Prague.

Ein halbnackter Körper und sein Tasten über die Tischplatte, beleuchtet von einer einzigen Glühbirne, umgeben von einem „unbekannten Universum“, das mit der Dringlichkeit und Eindringlichkeit eines Francis-Bacon-Gemäldes zu uns über die grundlegende Position des Menschen in der Welt spricht: die Zerbrechlichkeit, Vergänglichkeit und Unvorhersehbarkeit seiner Existenz…

In Zusammenarbeit mit dem Tschechischen Zentrum Wien wird dieser besondere Abend im Schubert Theater Wien präsentiert, begleitet von einem Künstler- und Expertengespräch über Franz Kafka und sein Werk. Die Erzählung, die sich deutlich an Kafkas „Die Verwandlung des Gregor Samsa“ anlehnt, wurde in vielen Theatern, aber auch in Galerien, Cafés, Musiksälen und Bibliotheken aufgeführt. Es wurde für den Preis für die beste Interpretation (Tschechische Tanzplattform) nominiert und gewann den Sonderpreis für Choreografie (Choreografie-Show Choceň).

Nach der Performance wird der Künstler Hoanza Malik mit dem Autor Radek Malýs über die Bedeutung Kafkas für die heutige Kunst diskutieren. Radek Malýs Buch „Franz Kafka – Ein Mensch seiner und unserer Zeit„, mit Illustrationen von Renáta Fučíková, erinnert an die wichtige und einzigartige kulturelle Symbiose, die das Zusammenleben von Tschechen, Juden und Deutschen (nicht nur) in Prag bedeutete.

Direction and design: Jan Komárek
Creation and performance, production: Honza Malík
Technical support: Lukáš Benda
Duration of performance: 30 minutes
Artist & Expert Talk following the performance: 30 minutes
Entry: 20 EUR, students: 15 EUR

The creation of the project at the turn of 2007/08 was supported by: NANOHACH comp., Society for Dance and Music Education, Duncan Center Conservatory, Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic, Praha.eu (Portal of Prague)

Jan Komárek – director, lighting designer, composer, musician and art photographer
He studied at the Academy of Arts, Architecture, and Design in Prague (UMPRUM) – majoring in promotional graphics. Firstly, he worked as an apprentice in the puppet theatre DRAK in Hradec Králové. In the 1980s, he emigrated to France. He founded the puppet theatre MIMO and performed original shows as a puppeteer and clown. After that, he moved to Toronto, Canada, where he founded the SOUND IMAGE THEATER. The ensemble became professional and Jan received several prestigious Dora Mavor Moore awards for his works, for best direction, lighting design or music. In Toronto and Montreal he worked as a lighting designer for other ensembles as well. In 1989, he returned to Czechoslovakia on a tour with the performance Muzika. With the choreography Das Martyrium, he was awarded for the best production. He has been living and working permanently in Prague since 2000.
He created several author projects: e.g. Spaces in the dark – Narcisse en silence, Memento mori, Shadows of statues. He realised the design for the performance Dragonfly/Vážka (theatre 29, Pardubice), he is also the author of the performances Dance of the Paper Dancers (Czech Museum of Music), DeRbrouk and Crime and Punishment (for the NANOHACH ensemble), Awakening of genius loci (National Museum for Festival Next Wave). For several years, he has been working closely with the choreographer and dancer Andrea Miltnerová (Fractured, Dance of the Magnetic Ballerina, Magician Hyroshima, Cellestial Odyssey). As a lighting designer, he works with many choreographers and ensembles. In cooperation with the Institute of Lighting Design, he occasionally organises lighting workshops (Janáček Academy of Performing Arts Brno, Duncan Centre). Among his latest projects are the lighting design of Benjamin Britten’s opera Noye’s Fludde (National Theatre Prague), collaboration with Miro Tóth on the opera The Mystery of the Pole, lighting design for the concerts of the Berg Orchestra and the author’s performance Cabaret Velázquez.
In 2009, he was awarded the Personality of the Year 2011 (Festival …příští vlna/next wave…) and later also the Award for the best lighting design (2010, Czech dance platform). 

Honza Malík – dancer, teacher, occasional choreographer, program dramaturge, dance curator and producer of contemporary dance projects
He has been working as a freelance artist for over twenty years. He graduated from the Duncan Center Conservatory (1999). He has professional experience from the Prague State Opera, he was engaged in the Austrian Laroque Dance Comp., collaborated with the Minor Theater and the Forman Brothers Theatre. He was a co-founder of the ensemble NANOHACH (2004 – 2016), which he artistically led and with which he prepared over thirty productions. As the initiator of many contemporary dance projects, he produced dozens of performances by his colleagues, and the Let’s Talk about Dance (Mluvme o tanci) debate series.
For 15 years, he had been developing Michal Záhora’s work,since 2017 as part of the PULSAR group, under which, in addition to creation, he stimulates many other field-related activities, most recently the roadshow series Choreographer in the Ring, the interdisciplinary conference Role of the Artist Today, the project Innovation and Art – Absolutely Unacceptable! part I. and II., experiment Provoke (yourself) with dance! and collaboration with Belarusian artist Alena Ivanushenko.
Since 2007, he has been working at the Duncan Center Conservatory (subjects: folk dance as a source of creativity, methodology and didactics, member of the artistic council, school council, artistic coordinator). He is a lecturer at many educational seminars for dancers and teachers, and is a regular judge of regional and national dance shows in the Czech Republic. Since 2017, he has been dramaturge of the NU Dance Festival in Bratislava and a member of the commission at the Art Support Fund, as well as one of the dramaturgical councils for the 1st Slovak Dance Platform (2021).
He was nominated for the Best Performance Award in 2008 and the Dancer of the Year Award in 2010. He received the Best Actor Critics Award (2011, Russia), Personality of the Year 2014 (Festival …příští vlna/next wave…) and Dance Manager of the Year (2017, Czech Dance Platform).
In addition to the above activities, he has been devoted to Czech folklore for a long time. In the years 1981-2005, he was a member of the Song and Dance Ensemble in Rokycany, which he simultaneously shaped artistically and choreographically from 1996. As a choreographer, he collaborated with the Ondráš Military Art Ensemble in Brno, the Pilsen Folk Ensemble Mladina, the Prague Ensemble Gaudeamus and the ethnochoreologist Daniela Stavělova (creative collaboration on the works of Bohuslav Martinů Divertimento, Three Czech Dances, the Past in the Present project as part of the Year of Czech Music 2014 and on The Bartered Bride opera for the Austrian festival Styriarte 2011). He was one of the performers of a short film that worked with folk symbolism, Spring equinox/Jarní rovnodennost (2009, author Tereza Bušková). Most recently, he created a choreography of Oldřich and Božena (2016) for Strážnice International Folklore Festival and Such a dance/Takový tanec (2018) for the 50th anniversary of the ensembles from Rokycany.