Artist: Jakub Jansa
Exhibition title: The Garden of problems
Curator: Sandra Baborovská
Part of venue: Thinking Through Film
Location: 1. floor of the the Stone Bell House, GHMP, Prague
Dates: 8. 11. 2023 – 18. 2. 2024
Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artists and GHMP, Prague, foto: Jan Kolský

We get to the bottom of multiple problems here – with celeriac ontology, black magic, humour, losing vision of the future and especially with taking root.
The exhibition The Garden of Problems presented a compilation of episodes from Club of Opportunities, spanning an entire floor of the historic House at the Stone Bell. It was one of three independent chapters of the curatorial concept Thinking Through Film. The exhibition is a set of several video installations with performative elements, mixing an accomplished visual language with humour, contemporary leftist theory, and exploration of political strategies on social media, but also including comedy, absurdity, and playfulness.

Author and director: Jakub Jansa
Collaborators: Kamil Nábělek, Kryštof Hlůže, Karolína Juříková, Oliver Torr, Dominik Dabrowski, Alice Krajčířová, Sebastian Kučkovský, Iryna Drahun, Matěj Martinec, Kryštof Hlůže, Eliška Pitráková, Nicolas Atcheson, Růst Cakes Performance: Jan Kostiha, Ester Geislerová., Kamil Nábělek,
Trin Alt Vajd, Mark.ta VuTru, Dexton Kotora, Katsuhiro Iwashita, Veronika Čechmánková., Jakub Samek, Zai Xu, Linda Vondrová., Rokhaya Gueye, Anita Lubadika, Adéla Sobotková., Mary Nguyen, Linh Nguyen, Agáta Hrnčířová.

1.
We follow the character of the Seer (Oracle), who no longer has a vision of the future and feels anxious. We witness the Seer touching all celeriacs and giving them tattoos with socially beneficial functions. The form of a confessional interview is complemented by emotional, music-tinged interludes, as the Seer tattoos the celeriacs with the names of various positively perceived occupations or rather functions or destinies. A deconstruction of storytelling in relation to expected role choices and expected scenarios is at the core of the work.

2.
The character of the Red Herring, a hybrid creature between a human and a celeriac, is introduced. And now he’s challenging his origin, i.e., revolting against the Seer. He discovers that mythology is mere narrative. By taking control of this narrative, he can steer it in a different direction. He leaves his safe place within the myth to enter the battlefield and fight on a political level. He finds his own individuality and becomes a dark-side influencer

3.
Red Herring works in an avocado bar, where he compares himself to elites—the avocados. He wants to become part of the higher vegesociety. In the process, he must undergo an insulting battle with his inner self. He doubts himself and experiences an identity crisis.

4.
We observe the celerist in yet another surprising situation - he gains status in the vegesociety and is invited into avocado circles. However, he cannot internally relate to this new social
class. At the same time, he has already made a break with the environment from which he emerged. He experiences an intense sense of rootlessness and can only be relieved by class and social coming out. He founds a movement for uprooted vegetables.

5.
In the position of the hot vegetable of the season, the celerist is invited to speak at the Flower Union’s gala event. The supernatural figure of the Seer, no longer able to predict the future, takes over the second part of the programme and activates the decorative flowers in an eco-sexual celebratory ritual. The Seer shows the plants that if they put their pistils and calyxes together, they can reach out to the public and change the course of things. So let’s hope that the ability to see into the future returns again.

A film directed by Jakub Jansa, created for Flower Union exhibition produced by National Gallery Prague, as part of Czech Presidency of European Union 2022, Curated by Michal Novotný.

Opening Ceremony
10min, 4K video, 2022


What happens inside a floral puget during an important political meeting? Maybe flowers are not only decorative, beautiful and even more beautifully smelling. But what if they could be more proactive and get involved in issues of global proportions?


In the world of plants, flowers have an irreplaceable representative and diplomatic role. Now they even have their own union, an infinite union in the circle of medicinal flowers. Their garden ceremony for the opening of the presidency is given in the form of what is known as an "appreciation dinner", a type of gala dinner, in our world, held for the elites and the media. As in the people's world, a comedian is invited, here in the form of a “Celery-man”. Hybrid characters between vegetable and human.

The supernatural figure of a claivoyante, no longer able to predict the future, takes over the direction of the second part of the film, activating decorative flowers in the form of an eco-sexual festive ritual. The fortune teller shows the plants that by putting pistils and calyxes together they can reach out to the public and change the course of things. So hopefully her ability to see into the future will return.

The work is also an open homage to several works of art history, such as Annie Sprinkle's Marriage to the Earth, or John Baldessari's Teaching the Alphabet of Plants, or Taryn Simon's series of photographs depicting bouquets standing on tables during important political meetings.

Director: Jakub Jansa
Script: Jakub Jansa, Dominik Dabrowski, Alice Krajčírová DOP: Kryštof Hlůže
DOP assistant: Tomáš Merta
Editor: Sebastian Kučkovský
Music: Oliver Torr
Costumes: Overall Office (Karolína Juříková, Kristýna Nováková) Photography: Iryna Drahun
Performance: Jan Kostiha, Ester Geislerová, Kamil Nábělek, Trin Alt Vajd, Markéta Vutru, Dexton Kotora, Katsuhiro Iwashita, Veronika Čechmánková, Jakub Samek, Zai Xu, Linda Vondrová, Rokhaya Gueye, Anita Lubadika, Adéla Sobotková, Mary Nguyen, Linh Nguyen, Agáta Hrnčířová
CGI: Matěj Martinec
Production: Agáta Hrnčířová
Make-up: Majda Vaverková
Mask: Eliška Pitráková
Sound master: Nicolas Atcheson
Grading: Kryštof Melka
Lights: Tomáš Prajsler
Focus puller: Mihir Khulkarmi
Costume assistant: Františka Králíková
Cake: Růst Cakes
Special thanks: Plevel (Beáta Melková), DJ Bingo, Umprum, Vít Svoboda, Jaroslav Gazda, NG Prague

Council of the European Union,
Brussels, Belgium
12th July – 31th December 2022
National Gallery, Prague
10th February – 7th May 2023

The project was conceived by: Jan Brož, Barbora Fastrová, Johana Pošová, Jakub Choma, Jakub Jansa, Valentýna Janů, Martin Kohout and Overall Office (Karolína Juříková and Kristýna Nováková).

And was produced by National Gallery Prague, as part of Czech Presidency of European Union 2022, Curated by Michal Novotný

As a part of this year’s Czech Presidency of the Council of the European Union, nine young Czech artists and designers created decorations for two buildings in Brussels. These artists decided to use their work to express the values that the European Union embodies for them and which they believe it should continue to embody in the future. They also tried to highlight the idea of Europeanism rather than to simply present the Czech Republic as one of the member states. Their collective project, as well as their individual endeavours, are linked by the concept of a community of plants sharing a single piece of soil, thus also stressing the environmental agenda, which will reverberate strongly during the Czech Presidency.

The main symbol of the Czech Presidency is a wreath of twelve medicinal plants, and this has been incorporated in the design of the large, ecologically-manufactured carpet installed in the main area of the atrium in the building where Council meetings are held. The weaving of wreaths is an ancient, not only Slavic, tradition. Young unwed women cast wreaths into the river during the solstice to guarantee their romantic future. This symbolised not only the vitality of youth but also the natural continuation of life after leaving one’s home hearth.

In keeping with the main symbol for the artistic presentation of the Czech Presidency, the artists chose to replace the twelve gold stars on the EU flag with twelve medicinal plants from different European regions. The resulting wreath, in which the stems of each plant are twisted around those of the previous one to create a more interwoven and stronger bond, embodies a gesture promoting a stronger European togetherness between all of the EU’s unique and distinct regions. A union, which does not exclude local identities, folklore, or traditions.

Močvara Gallery, Zagreb
October 26-28 2021

Writer and Director: Jakub Jansa
Character Development: Kamil Nábělek, Jakub Jansa
Camera: Kryštof Hlůže
Sound: Oliver Torr
Performance: Jan Kostiha, Soňa Beaumont, Ester Geislerová, Jakub Jansa
Costumes: Karolína Juříková, Daily Menu
Post-Production: Šimon Hájek, Jakub Jansa
FX, Colorgrading: MagicLab, Vojtěch Štětka
Sound Recording: Juras Karaka, Tomáš Jiřička
Lights: Petr Cuker
Masks: Eliška Pitráková
Makeup Artist: Vendula Niklová
Technical Crew: Michal Pustějovský
Dramaturgy: Jan Strejcovský
Screenprinting: Matěj Doležel
Backstage Photography: Iryna Drahun
Runner: Maria Jančová
Thanks to: FAVU, UMPRUM, Autoclub ČR

The motif of the Celerist’s “coming of age” continues in the seventh episode, created for the Jindřich Chalupecký Award. Again, the external context provides an interior motive for the entire episode. The Celerist has finally scaled the imaginary vegetable social ladder and joined the avocado group. At the same time, he finds himself unable to fully sympathise with the new context; he experiences an existential crisis and decides to “come out” about his class and social background. Jansa himself comes from a position outside of the cultural centre. The need to change the social structure, the difficulty of which, in the art world, lies mainly in grasping what the art scene is talking about addressing at any given time, is also a critique of the mythology of work, sport and self-discipline as a tirelessly promoted opportunity for liberation, a mythology of equal opportunities. Here again, Jansa used recycled materials in the installation, mirrored boards from film sets.

Venues:
(1) Jindřich Chalupecký Award
September 24, 2021 - 30/1/2022
Moravian Gallery, Brno

(2) Močvara Gallery, Zagreb
October 26-28 2021

Writer and Director: Jakub Jansa
Character Development: Kamil Nábělek, Jakub Jansa
Camera: Kryštof Hlůže
Sound: Oliver Torr
Performance: Jan Kostiha, Soňa Beaumont, Ester Geislerová, Jakub Jansa
Costumes: Karolína Juříková, Daily Menu
Post-Production: Šimon Hájek, Jakub Jansa
FX, Colorgrading: MagicLab, Vojtěch Štětka
Sound Recording: Juras Karaka, Tomáš Jiřička
Lights: Petr Cuker
Masks: Eliška Pitráková
Makeup Artist: Vendula Niklová
Technical Crew: Michal Pustějovský
Dramaturgy: Jan Strejcovský
Screenprinting: Matěj Doležel
Backstage Photography: Iryna Drahun
Runner: Maria Jančová
Thanks to: FAVU, UMPRUM, Autoclub ČR

The 7th episode of the Club was made for the Jindřich Chalupecký Award 2021 exhibition. It portrays Celeriac again in a surprising situation: he has symbolically moved up within the vegesociety and been invited into Avocado circles. However, he cannot relate internally to this new social class and, despite the respect he has earned, feels no sense of belonging with anyone around him. At the same time, he has already broken ties with his home environment. He experiences an intense feeling of rootlessness and the only thing that can help is a coming out of his class.

I's so physical
(6-channel video, full HD)

Venue: Meetfactory Gallery, Prague
Date: 25. 5. - 16. 8. 2020
Curator: Tereza Jindrová
Commissioned by MeetFactory for Spiritualities show including artists Jakub Jansa, Melanie Bonajo, Priscilla Telmon & Vincent Moon

   Jansa deals uniquely with collective trauma, using exaggeration and playfulness. Simultaneously, he diverts the theme of spirituality onto another path. An absurd tale about a fictitious conspiracy of tapeworms, who narrate the story, raises a sarcastic eyebrow at the idea that “leaving the body is so fucking easy today”. In the background, then, remains a question we each must ask ourselves: how do we want to, and how can we experience authentic connection with the world around us and achieve inner transformation while remaining aware of the daily material reality of all of those bodies
  → Complete text by Tereza Jindrová in PDF

Camera: Kryštof Melka, Sound design: Eva01, Sound recording: Petr Kolev, Performers: Viola Tůmová, Jan Kostiha,
Soňa Beaumont, Patrik Petr, 3D: Josef Mrva, Styling: Karolína Juříková, Photo: Studio Flusser © 2020

CLUB OF OPPORTUNITIES S1: PAF Pioneer Works
(Exhibition creates an environments, where the narrative is gradually revealed through video, various objects, and ongoing live action)

Venue: Pioneer Works, New York
Curator: PAF & Alexander Campaz
Date: November 20th, 2018

   PW presentation of The Club offered five previous episodes in one place. Exhibition created a situations which hover between reality and fiction. Through mixed genres - from drama to absurdity - The Club thematise archetypal social topics and gradually uncovers the anatomy of mythology and storytelling. Over the course of the past episodes, low forms elevate in status into the high ones and vice versa. Somewhere during that transformation, new opportunities were created.
   The main hero of the whole story is the overlooked vegetable - Celeriac. The main storyteller is Kami Nábělek, a fairly eccentric Prague philosopher who makes live appearances at The Club’s openings and then on occasion during the run of the shows. He delivers speeches full of scientific and pseudoscientific concepts and  reveals key moments in the current story.

Cast: P.Petr, J.Kostiha, E.Geislerová, K.Nábělek, Live performace: K.Nábělek, J.Jansa, Camera: K.Melka, K.Hlůže, J.Jansa, Production: PAF, A.Campaz, Nela Klajbanová Photo: J.Jansa, W. Wlodarczyk © 2018

   “April showers bring May flowers (Ep.2)” co-author: Karolína Juříková.
   Work was part PAF New York 2018, commissioned by PAF, with Pioneer Works support.

Club of Opportunities – episode 6:
Ten Years Night
Venue: Mihelic’s Gas Station, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Date: September 26 – October 29, 2019
(Exhibition creates an environments, where the narrative is gradually revealed through video, various objects, and ongoing live action)

The character of philosopher Kamil Nábělek walks through the screens and gives a permanent guided tour of the exhibition. He reveals key moments in the current story. The sixt episode is based in Mihelic’s Gas Station, reminding us of celeriac.

The sixth iteration of an immersive multi-channel art project that explores polyphonic ideas about the nature of reality in the 21st century, albeit with a silent twist. Instead of bombarding viewers with overly didactic wall labels and long convoluted texts, the video installation is composed of narrators who debate the nature of reality from the perspective of a celery root.

→ Complete text by Dorian Batycka in PDF

Cast: P.Petr, J.Kostiha, E.Geislerová, K.Nábělek, Live performace: K.Nábělek, J.Jansa, Camera: K.Melka, K.Hlůže, J.Jansa, Graphic design: M.Groch, J.Horčík Photo: J.Jansa © 2019

We see Red Herring, a hybrid creature between a human and a celery, working on the Avocado Bar, where he is comparing himself with star avocados. And he wants to become a part of higher veggiesiety. During that he must undergo an insulting duel with his inner self. He is self-doubtful and experiences identity crizes. In the context of vegetable hierarchy celery finds itself on very low position. In the supermarkets we can find celery roots situated on the bottom shelves, avocados are always highlighted in the center.

CLUB OF OPPORTUNITIES EP. 5: Keeping in Line
(Exhibition creates an environments, where the narrative is gradually revealed through video, various objects, and ongoing live action)

Venue: NoD Gallery, Prague
Date: 23. 10. - 26. 11. 2018
Curator: Pavel Kubesa
Text: Domenico de Chirico

   Red Harring is here ready to fight against himself in a cerebral and almost videogame-y "mise en scène" centred around his own two battling personalities, each constantly trying to take control of his attitude towards the outside world.
   His poetry, seemingly twisted and dreamlike, is based on expanded and elaborate metaphors and his language, carefully structured and polished, turns out to be intentionally rhetorical, a sort of subversive declamation designed to deconstruct the more traditional spoken narration.
   Based on his empirical experience, he describes characters and archetypal situations deliberately transforming their nature through a motion that goes from the top down and viceversa, so as to achieve a distinctive poetry and structuring the plot from time to time to create multiple interesting themes and to show various possible points of view.
   → Complete text by Domenico de Chirico in PDF

Camera: Kryštof Hlůže, Performance: Patrik Petr, Jan Kostiha Jakub Jansa, Kamil Nábělek, Graphic design: Jan Horčík Photo: Tomáš Souček © 2018

CLUB OF OPPORTUNITIES EP. 4: Britannica Bootcamp
(Exhibition creates an environments, where the narrative is gradually revealed through video, various objects, and ongoing live action)

Venue: CEAAC, Strasbourg, France
Date: September 20 – October 28, 2018,
Curator: Elodie Gallina

Oh yes! We're here. This is the fourth episode of The Club of Opportunities. We're in the middle of a story which started a little bit earlier, let's say in some mythological proto-form and maybe the story is only starting to show itself. We don't know yet.
   Other celerists are shocked by Red Herring’s acting, but they don't know how to react. That's why they are looking for help.
They are based in the departmant called Britanica Bootcamp, reminding us of a hybrid of training camp and library. Soo, on which page to start, hm?
   → Complete text by Kamil Nábělek in PDF

Camera: Kryštof Hlůže Kryštof Melka, Performace: Patrik Petr, Ester Geislerová, Jakub Jansa, Kamil Nábělek, Sound recording: Anna Žihlová, Graphic design: Jan Horčík Photo: Jakub Jansa © 2018

MY NAME IS RED HERRING,
CLUB OF OPPORTUNITIES, EPISODE III

Venue: Fotograf Galery, Prague
Date: March 20 - April 14, 2018
Curator: Jiří Ptáček
(Exhibition creates an environments, where the narrative is gradually revealed through video, various objects, and ongoing live action)

The character of Red Herring, a hybrid creature between a human and a celery, is introduced. And now he’s revolting against the origin that gave birth to him, so he is revolting against the Seer. He discovers that this mythology is simply a storytelling. By taking control of this storytelling, he is able to steer it in a different direction. So from his safe place, inside the mythos, he enters a battlefield and wrestles on a political level. He is individualizing himself and becoming dark-side influencer.

   His allusion to the temple narthex with minimalist furniture that reminds one of store shelves, but which also breathes a rhythm of colored lights, intensifies an atmosphere that approximates a business-spiritual transaction, in which devilish demand accommodates a supply of skills that allow us to live through at least a small portion of life without a feeling of humiliation. But what if this is all just a clown-show. The series is a series only thanks to the transplanting of plants which, of course, have the gift of being able to take root in any conditions. Myth is an optional game whose rules can be changed as the moment requires. Skills are just crutches for all the legless and armless who cannot submit an alternative to force-based solutions to “social issues.” Movement in ambivalent escapism and untrustworthiness is, however, grounds for asking who exactly is Red Herring?
   The character of Red Herring, a hybrid creature between a human and a celery, is introduced. And now he’s revolting against the origin that gave birth to him, so he is revolting against the Seer. So from his safe place, inside the mythos, he enters a battlefield and wrestles on a political level. He is individualizing himself and becoming dark-side influencer.
   → Complete text by Jiří Ptáček in PDF

Celerist: Patrik Petr, Live Performace: Jakub Jansa, Kamil Nábělek, Camera: Kryštof Melka, Kryštof Hlůže, Sound recording: Anna Žihlová, Graphic Design: Martin Groch
Photos: Tomáš Souček, Anna-Marie Bergrová, Kryštof Hlůže © 2018

CLUB OF OPPORTUNITIES EP. 2: April showers bring May flowers
(Exhibition creates an environments, where the narrative is gradually revealed through video, various objects, and ongoing live action)

Venue: AMU Gallery, Prague
March 14 - April 4, 2018
Curator: Lumír Nykl
Artists: Jakub Jansa & Karolína Juříková

If we wanna put it simply - It’s the story in which the character of SEER (Oracle) feels anxious in this world. She looks for a way to be more active in forming the surrounding world and herself. We witness the SEER touching every individual celery root and getting them tattoo with positive predictions - or functions. She is trying to realize her own ambitiotios and desires for hope.
   The collaborative exhibition of Jakub Jansa and Karolína Juříková is the second part of a series whose pilot version originated as an invitation to Jansa’s own Club of Opportunities. The bowling bar became the setting for a seminar devoted to the ontology of celery for all the senses.
   In this new, narrative episode featuring Karolína Juříková, our intrepid heroes relocate beneath the arched ceilings of GAMU for an initiatory séance of young stalks, their hag watching from backstage, where bodies flagrantly transform with the promise of a new beginning. An old sage rambles from her ritually refurbished throne, her avuncular visage showing signs of new hope. Through the rejuvenated language of folk verbiage, we call for a new spring of shared imagination.
   → Complete text by Lumír Nykl in PDF

creature: Ester Geislerová
camera: Kryštof Melka, Kryštof Hlůže
sound: Juraś Karaka
graphic: Martin Groch,
Jan Slabihoudek
production: Lenka Střeláková

Thanks to: Lenka Střeláková,
Jakub Chrenčík, Anežka Bartlová,
Eliška Žáková

CLUB OF OPPORTUNITIES EP. 1
Bowling Bar
The Club took place at Bowling Club on July 29th, 2017 in Prague, organized by Hunt Kastner.  

Composed By Jakub Jansa
Curator: Jan Vítek
Text: Christina Gigliotti
Performers: Kamil Nábělek, Michal Šupák,
Eva Spoustová, Soňa Tichá,
Camera: Kryštof Hlůže, Kryštof Melka,
Graphic Design: Jan Horčík,
Photos: Tomáš Souček, Filip Beránek, Filip Kopecký, Julie Slauka

The first episode offered various scenarios to interact with. First, Kamil Nábělek's lecture about the ontology of the celery, which brought this vegetables to the center of a new narrative. Second, the voice of an animated chipmunk transforms visitors into performers while encouraging them to imagine new opportunities for themselves. Third, live piano baroque rendition of Rihanna’s We Found Love in a Hopeless Place can be heard.

Through mixed genres - from drama to absurdity - The Club thematise archetypal social topics and gradually uncovers the anatomy of mythology and storytelling.

As a whole, the narrative is reminiscent of a typical TV series. Each episode of The Club (i.e. exhibition) introduces new characters and plot twists. Each exhibition creates an environment, where the narrative is gradually revealed through video, various objects, and ongoing live action.

→ Complete text by Christina Gigliotti in PDF