Painting into the Air

director: Radek Pilař

original title: Malování do vzduchu

year: 1963

running time: 3 min.

synopsis

In the mid-1960s, Pilař recorded a short sketch with the family of the writer and lyricist Václav Fischer in the Baroque complex Skalka near the town of Mníšek pod Brdy. He added an overpainting to the film, respecting the actions of the protagonists so that the characters would react to the coloured flying objects. Pilař made the untitled material into a video screener called A Film Sketch 1965 (ca. 1984), and later edited it with video effects under the title Painting into the Air (ca. 1991).

biography

Radek Pilař (1931–1993) was one of the leading pioneers of video art in Czechoslovakia in the 1980s. Lying at the intersection of animation, video, and applied forms, his work was inspired by visual expressionism, pop art, and post-war avant-garde film.