Kontakt Video Klub

The Cynics Republic – week 1

Dishonor – A critical alternative to competitiveness

Videoklub is inspired by the Croatian organization Kinoklub, which translates as “Cinema Club.” The Kinoklub was founded in Zagreb in 1928 as one of the earliest amateur film clubs in the region. The 1950s saw it become an important venue for screenings and discussions—one that was frequented by renowned Croatian filmmakers like Mihovil Pansini as well as by the performance artist Tomislav Gotovac. As part of the exhibition “The Cynics’ Republic” at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris and on the occasion of Kontakt’s 20th anniversary, the Kontakt website is featuring its own “Video Klub” with a number of videos and films selected by Pierre Bal-Blanc that will alternate on a weekly basis during the exhibition’s three-week run from 13 November to 1 December 2024. The exhibition is situated in the context of performative practices from antiquity to the present that revaluate forms of ancient cynicism-truth, self-sufficiency, endurance, sobriety, and free sexuality, principles that also relate to the selected videos and films.

For the cynic, the systematic practice of dishonor is invaluable, arming him with resistance to others’ opinions, beliefs, and traditions. To hold out one’s hand, a gesture infamously tied with poverty, of dependence in its most unbearable form, confronts the beggar with themselves as insulted, despised, and humiliated by others. Ultimately dishonored.

When asked why he was begging alms of a statue, Diogenes replied: “To practice being turned down.”

With Igor Grubić, Tibor Hajas, Hans (Ashley) Scheirl, Roman Stańczak, Slaven Tolj, Ivan Ladislav Galeta, Karol Radziszewski, Vătămanu/Tudor, Geta Brătescu, Ion Grigorescu, Raša Todosijević, Mladen Stilinović, Cezary Bodzianowski, Mara Mattuschka, Norbert Pfaffenbichler, Mark Ther, Sanja Iveković, Stuart Brisley, Želimir Žilnik.