Czech animation from Ostrava. Denisa Jánská

      Czech animation from Ostrava

       Authors: Denisa Jánská, Monika Horsáková

      Translation: António Pedro Nobre, Kateřina Julinková, Vladimír Málek

      Proofreading: Monika Horsáková

      Graphic: David Johanides, Lukáš Najbrt

      Cover: Milan Lesniak

      Illustrations: Milan Lesniak

      Production: Jana Málková, Vladimír Mráz

      Publisher: QQ studio Ostrava s.r.o., www.qq.cz

      Imprint date: 2010

      Copyright: QQ studio Ostrava s.r.o. 2010

      Prologue

      Ostrava thanks in no small part to black coal was predestined to become a mining and industial city. The region was settled by people, that either extracted this „black gold“ from the mine pits or processed it at the foundries and smelting works.

      The taste and need, innate in all people for the aesthetic leads to creation and further artistic Stimuli. After a hard working day, people need to turn their minds to the more expressive aspects of their character, but whatever rate of human work and production in any dialectical relation can be considered, the fact is, that Ostrava started to give birth to actors, artists, musicians, journalists and other creators with tight relation to artistic production. Ostrava has become their home, Perhaps to some not the most asthetically, in the classical sense, pleasing place in the whole world, in time she instilled in the hearts of her citizens the ambivalent character of an industrial city and also a centre for cultural events in the region, with huge potential for artistic and cultural inspiration and aspiration.

      This city bears the profound mark of a genius loci due to its underground richness and the hidden power of the smelting-works, where the captivating architectural beauty of factories and head-frames spring forth in the surface, creating the rugged topography of the Ostravians living space. The artistic oeuvre here has always drawn its power and flavour from the black industry, in the same way as alchemists did at the workshops that they established in the monumental spaces of the cathedrals. Galleries of fine art, theatres, museums, TV studios, many cultural centres, clubs and cafés sprouted in the middle of the shafts and factories all over Ostrava, with gatherings, authorial readings and concerts taking place on them. The City's fundamental heart of culture and artistic life pulses strongly yet

      .