VIVE LA FRANCE!
Works by students of the Studio of Fashion and Footwear Design of the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague — UMPRUM, inspired by French culture and art.
This emphatic exclamation of young artists from the Czech countries of Central Europe does not hopefully sound like the opening of a sports match here in Paris, a city in the country with a rich history and a famous artistic reputation! And is this a suitable title for the showcase of artistic inven-tiveness of the students of Fashion and Footwear Design at the Prague´s UMPRUM, a vocation school founded in 1885, bearing the proud address of Jan Palach Square for a few recent decades, commemorating the tragic sacrifice of a young life during the unfree times in the Czech Repub-lic´s history? How everything actually originated.
At the beginning of one of the last semesters, professor Liběna Rochová assigned France as the initial topic for the content of the next study programmes of all fashion design levels and classes. It was not; however, about French fashion or about paying homage to its world-famous classics in the field, it was about what France meant to the current genera-tion of young Czechs. All the students were asked to choose a motif, a certain quality or “essence” of the country and its culture, a personality and their work appealing to them personally as the base to research, deepen, develop andreflect in a small collection of clothing artefacts. All the work was then accompanied by the renowned care of Vojtěch Novotný, the professor´s assistant, while the photographic look of the final products was embraced by the students of the photography studio of the same uni-versity, supervised by Štěpánka Stein, the photographer.
Brief captions of the exhibited works will tell the visitorswhat inspired the particular artist. The spectator will find here, for example, the name of Boris Vian, whose Foam of the Daze was loved by many generations of Czech youth, André Breton who still resonates in Czech pre-war and post-war surrealism, extraordinary Simone de Beauvoir and the now less distinctive personality Collete, and many painters and designers: Paul Gauguin, Yves Klein, abstrac-tionist Soulages, designer Pierre Paulin. Czechs and French alike will be happy to recollect the famous mime Gaspar Deburau, born to parents in the Czech town of Kolín, and Béjart, a modern ballet magician. Other French charac-ters inspiring students are Asterix, the great-grandfatherof the French, and his opposite “les précieuses”, rather affectionate ladies of the seventeenth century, and there is also a whiff of French perfumes. And yet, many visitors, either natural or professional critics will say: “After all, is that enough to celebrate all of France?” and the Prague students will admit with hyperbole: “Probably not....” and borrow Boris Vian´s: it is “like a farmer ploughing through apricot jam with his fork”.
Head of the Studio: Liběna Rochová
Assistant of the Studio: Vojtěch Novotný
Concept: Magdalena Rochová
Cooperation: Helena Jarošová, Vojtěch Novotný
Graphic design and typesetting: Jakub Novotný
Technologist of Footwear & Accessories Production: Zuzana Jirsová
Garment Production Technologist — dressmaker/tailor: Jana Skowronková
Garment Pattern Construction: Blanka Inič
Translation and Proofreading: Marie Dudilieux (French), Irena Vodáková (English)
Production: Michaela Kaplánková
Public Relations: Kamila Stehlíková, Tereza Škvárová
Architects: Magdalena Rochová, JRA Jaroušek Rochová Architekti
EXHIBITING: Students of the Studio of Fashion & Footwear Design: Šimon Žák, Tereza Fodorová, Barbora Fialová, Daniela Smolařová, Anna Ryšánková, Magdalena Rajnohová, Hana Valtová, Júlia Sadloňová, Valerie Vrbová, Vojtěch Bašta, Tobias Schubert, Jaroslav Vích, Jan Smejkal, Valérie Jurčíková, Kristýna Lovas Šenkýřová, Barbora Kotěšovcová, Tomáš Němec, Alexandra Gnidiaková
PHOTOS: Students of the Studio of Photography II: Adéla Zlámalová, Viktorie Macánová, Samuel Alexander Petráš, Jakub Demartini, Iurii Ladutko, Štěpánka Stein (supervision)
