CD
1. Colorum Naturae Varietas / The Strange Gaze festival
2. Big skin 3. Night signs
4. Talking water
5. Boreholes
6. An immediate Space and The Space of Memories II
7. Stone on stone friction
DVD
A selection of movies, videos and documents from the years 1967-2017
CDs and DVDs of one of the most remarkable Czech visual artists were published on his 70th birthday.
Milos Sejn works in the fields of visual art, performance and study of visual perception, and conducts workshops, such as Bohemiae Rosa. Sejn’s artistic vision formed when he was young and when he undertook many trips into the wilderness. It embodied an inner need to get closer to the secret of nature and observe the miracles that happen in it. From the beginning of the 1960s he took pictures, drew, collected and described his observations of nature during these wanderings. Sejn’s present-day interest is in the relationship of nature and art as intrinsic needs of the mind, and focuses on immediate creative possibilities, based upon relations between historical humanized landscapes and intact nature. He consciously works in the areas of expressive language among text, visual stroke, body movement, voice, and expansion into space.
The CD contains a variety of "field recordings" as well as "Ambient Symphony" by Colorum Naturae Varietas, the DVD contains 27 video recordings of various performances, documenting creation, videoart, dreamlike visions, drawings, natural images, etc. The extensive interview is an abridged version appeared in Revolver Revue No. 103/2016.
Overall, it is an unusual, uncensored probe into the soul of a versatile artist who, in his work, treats "beyond the limits".
It is also available in the English version.
Milos Sejn works in the fields of visual art, performance and study of visual perception, and conducts workshops, such as Bohemiae Rosa. Sejn’s artistic vision formed when he was young and when he undertook many trips into the wilderness. It embodied an inner need to get closer to the secret of nature and observe the miracles that happen in it. From the beginning of the 1960s he took pictures, drew, collected and described his observations of nature during these wanderings. Sejn’s present-day interest is in the relationship of nature and art as intrinsic needs of the mind, and focuses on immediate creative possibilities, based upon relations between historical humanized landscapes and intact nature. He consciously works in the areas of expressive language among text, visual stroke, body movement, voice, and expansion into space.
The CD contains a variety of "field recordings" as well as "Ambient Symphony" by Colorum Naturae Varietas, the DVD contains 27 video recordings of various performances, documenting creation, videoart, dreamlike visions, drawings, natural images, etc. The extensive interview is an abridged version appeared in Revolver Revue No. 103/2016.
Overall, it is an unusual, uncensored probe into the soul of a versatile artist who, in his work, treats "beyond the limits".
It is also available in the English version.
www.guerilla.cz
Detailed content:
Colorum Naturae Varietas, the Strange Gaze festival, CAFE9 / ROXY, Prague October 18th 2000 / 25:47
A complex performance on the interstice of performance, theatre, processual installation, concert and VJ movie. Miloš Šejn – sound performance with objects and colours / Miloš Vojtěchovský – CD Rom Col. Nat. Varietas scratch / Martin Alacam – electric guitar / Markus Godwyn – percussion / Michal Kořán – samples.
Big skin, ifa Gallery, Berlin November 17th1995 – January 1st 1996 / 5:10
An eighteen part and eighteen channel sound and image installation interconnects a series of a carbon monochromes created in one of the caves in the Borek rocks with a soundscape of the environment of ponds, forests, creeks, valleys and caves.
Night signs, the Javoří creek in the Krkonoše mountains, August 31st 1991 / 8:50
I am walking slowly at night through this narrow valley full of waterfalls and falling rock. At times I stop and listen.
Talking water, the Javoří creek in the Krkonoše mountains, August 29th 1991 / 2:06
The layer of sound close to the edge of a rippling water surface reveals the hidden language of water in this concrete place.
Boreholes, Devil’s steps in the Bohemian Karst, August 7th 1999 / 6:00
I am using the vertical blasting boreholes on the edge of a chalk quarry as sound resonators for falling stones and sand. Each of the holes bottom out at the level of the subterranean waters on the surface of a rock topped by a snow-white miniature mountain, as the mining machine left it.
An immediate Space and The Space of Memories II, International symposium Hermit, the Plasy monastery, June 20th 1992 / 11:32
For several hours I am closed off in a small decrepit room, adjacent to the corridors surrounding a paradisiacal courtyard in the Plasy monastery. I am collecting pieces of peeling plaster, I mix them with water and within a stripe on the floor I am building a two-part installation of twelve steel bowls, gradually filling them with this material. I throw the contents on the walls in twelve gestures and by twelve vertical strokes I divide the walls visually. What I am doing can be only seen through a keyhole in the door. All my activity is however recorded with contact microphones and the sound is transmitted via echomodule to the whole space of the cloister. With the technical assistance of Aleš Müller.
Stone on stone friction, Kladivo cave in the Prachov rocks September 12th 1990 / 17:47
In one of the sandstone caves I rub stone on stone until I am too tired.
DVD/VIDEO
Grass, 1967 / 2:42
Hallucinatory view into waving grasses. Digital transfer of a Super8 colour film.
Echo, 1979 / 5:19
A reflection of sunbeams on water surface, cast on a rock in a narrow turning of the valley Plakánek by the Kost castle. Digital transfer of a Super8 colour film.
Spring, 1979 / 4:00
The churning sandy bottom of the spring creates infinite landscape variations, which start and stop, again and again. Digital transfer of a Super8 colour film.
Fire signs, 1983 / 6:22
Gestures of fire in reaction to the walls and environment of the night atmosphere inside the Zebín quarry. The recording is a later reconstitution of the lost recording. Digital transfer from Hi8.
On the peak – Zebín September 10th 1988 / 7:11
A large format processual drawing on the peak of Zebín hill in the Bohemian Paradise; a work from the series “The world inside the world”. Stones, fruits, herbs and fire are the media of the bodily interaction with the place. Zebín is a shorter version of the original half-hour recording on VHS.
Restriction of the space by fire, July 26th 1989 / 3:32
A strip of paper, dropped down off a quarry ledge and then set on fire creates an intact fire drawing, reacting to space, the shapes of rocks and also the wind. This action is part of 1. auto-da-fé of THE SOFTHEADS. Digital transfer from VHS.
Grand G/SOL, 1993 / 16:28
Sun beams oscillating on the surface of the water, recorded with a delayed video reverb using the period imperfect sensor on a VHSC camera. The video is part of the sound installation TO THE EARTH in the Prague town Gallery. The sound is generated directly from the image alterations with an electromagnetic collection of X beams, transmitted through the cathode ray tube of the television screen.
AQVA SPECVLVM / Videosonic Body Screening, International festival FUNGUS, the Plasy monastery 1994 / 7:23
I was after a total encounter of the cloister premises from the water basement (which fascinated me most) through the ground floor with the chapels to the roof. The image of my body’s action in the water mirror was scanned and at the same time sound decoded and then presented online as a video installation in the St. Benedict chapel. Then sound from the other speakers was broadcast through the whole building of the cloister. No visitor could see or experience everything in its entirety, but only partly, when going through the building. Transfer of the recording on SVHS.
NO DATE, ARCHA theatre in Prague, 1995 / 6:21
An excerpt from a recorded performance of the workshop of Katerina Bakatsaki and Frank van de Ven. Choreography Frank van de Ven, stage design and performance Miloš Šejn and others.
Solos & Duo, 1995 / 15:43
A performance with Frank Van de Ven based on a bodily observance of the site of a former forest theatre in the Dobřeň valley of the Kokořínsko region. Part of a digital transfer of a VHS recording.
White Rock, 1996 / 4:07
Performance inside a rock labyrinth in the western part of the Krkonoše mountain range, recorded by the Cine Dance auto-capture method (the performer is also cameraman at the same time). Transfer of the recording on video 8mm.
Waterfall, 1998 / 1:04
A body in contact with the waterfall at Javoří creek in the Krkonoše mountains. A short sequence, presented as a video loop. Transfer of the recording on video 8mm
Face, 1999 / 11:56
A body in contact with the waters of Javoří creek in the Krkonoše mountains. A short sequence presented as a video loop. Transfer of the recording on video 8mm.
Golden horse, 1999 / 1:59
A hallucinatory text comprising two different performances of the author and Frank van de Ven in one video. A mixture of recordings on VHS and video 8.
Colorum Naturae Varietas, the Strange Gaze festival, CAFE9 / ROXY, Prague October 18th 2000 / 9:17
A complex performance on the interstice of performance, theatre, processual art installation, concert and VJ movie. Miloš Šejn – sound performance with objects and colours / Miloš Vojtěchovský – CD Rom Col. Nat. Varietas scratch / Martin Alacam – electric guitar / Markus Godwyn – percussion / Michal Kořán – samples. A section of the digital videorecording
on miniDV.
Night body, 2001 / 2:30
A night performance of contact with water of the Lhotecký pond under St. Anna hill. An infrared camera is hung on a branch, bending over the water’s surface. Digital transfer on miniDV.
SARVANGASANA, December 24th 2001 / 1:38
A personal night ritual: a naked body in the posture of a candle is balancing in a piercing frost, the head bogged down in the snow.
SPELAEVM VENERIS, 2003 / 7:03
Duet of the author and Frank van de Ven is an interview with Josef Mánes in the middle of his signature motif, “Adam’s bed” by Hrubá Skála. Digital transfer on miniDV.
HORTVS WINARIENCIS MAYRAV, 2008 / 7:11
Performance, recorded with the Cine Dance method in a former lignite mine in Mayrau at Vinařice. Digital transfer on miniDV.
GARDENING, 2009 / 29:41
A complex video movie based on the relationship of plants and the genealogy of the author. By looking through family albums, plant indices dissolve, accompanied by one movement symphony by Eric Satie. The video was used as part of several performances by the author, e.g. in the Uppsala castle (2010) and in MANGHA / Museum of Japanese art and technology in Kraków (2012).
BOOKS, 2009 / 5:28
Video documentation of the author’s artist books, composed as a film. Digital transfer on miniDV.
LUNETTES LIGHT, 2009 / 8:04
A recording of a light installation in Valdstein loggia in Libosad near Jičín. Colours, colours, and more colours found in this area.
EARTH EYES WIDE SHUT, 2012 / 9:48
The sun setting in Bavarian forest in Germany, seen through a hole in the fingers. My voice roars into the landscape. Motorola telephone.
FREEZING COLOURS, January19th 2016 / 6:58
White countryside of the pond Šibeník near Jičín, seen through saliva and solarisation software. Motorola telephone.
AGARA, 2016 / 40:31
Painting and drawing as a graphic text on the bank of the river Ohře by Počedělice. Each gesture, line or trace is at the same time a recording/an expression of the seen and spoken. My mind, eyes, mouth, hands, body are in action. A shortened recording by a field camera GoPro Hero 4.
AGARA RIVER, 2016 / 16:37
How the body of a river sees a landscape above itself. Alterating images from underneath the water’s surface of the river Ohře upwards the sky, recorded by a Motorola cell telephone camera. A connected solarisation filter reveals other layers of reality.
OÍR ARRAN, Semptember 17th 2016 / 21:27
A drawing as a graphic text in the surge of the Irish peninsula. Each gesture, line or a trace is at the same time a recording/an expression of the seen and spoken. My mind, eyes, mouth, hands, body are in action. A shortened recording by a field camera GoPro Hero 4.
DOCUMENTS
Written paintings, 1980 – 2017, slideshow
Texts, 1969 – 2017, pdf
Biography, pdf
Concept, texts, producers: Vladimír Drápal, Miloš Šejn
Photo: Jaroslav Brabec, Jiří Jiroutek, Miloš Šejn archives
Layout: Petr Kuranda
Audiomix, mastering CD: Vojtěch Komárek
Translation: Eva Turnová
Edition of this work was financially supported by the city of Jicin
We cooperate with the book publishing Verzone (www.verzone.cz)
© Guerilla Records 2017
Rybalkova 1140, 440 01 Louny, Czech Republic
www.guerilla.cz, info@guerilla.cz
Colorum Naturae Varietas, the Strange Gaze festival, CAFE9 / ROXY, Prague October 18th 2000 / 25:47
A complex performance on the interstice of performance, theatre, processual installation, concert and VJ movie. Miloš Šejn – sound performance with objects and colours / Miloš Vojtěchovský – CD Rom Col. Nat. Varietas scratch / Martin Alacam – electric guitar / Markus Godwyn – percussion / Michal Kořán – samples.
Big skin, ifa Gallery, Berlin November 17th1995 – January 1st 1996 / 5:10
An eighteen part and eighteen channel sound and image installation interconnects a series of a carbon monochromes created in one of the caves in the Borek rocks with a soundscape of the environment of ponds, forests, creeks, valleys and caves.
Night signs, the Javoří creek in the Krkonoše mountains, August 31st 1991 / 8:50
I am walking slowly at night through this narrow valley full of waterfalls and falling rock. At times I stop and listen.
Talking water, the Javoří creek in the Krkonoše mountains, August 29th 1991 / 2:06
The layer of sound close to the edge of a rippling water surface reveals the hidden language of water in this concrete place.
Boreholes, Devil’s steps in the Bohemian Karst, August 7th 1999 / 6:00
I am using the vertical blasting boreholes on the edge of a chalk quarry as sound resonators for falling stones and sand. Each of the holes bottom out at the level of the subterranean waters on the surface of a rock topped by a snow-white miniature mountain, as the mining machine left it.
An immediate Space and The Space of Memories II, International symposium Hermit, the Plasy monastery, June 20th 1992 / 11:32
For several hours I am closed off in a small decrepit room, adjacent to the corridors surrounding a paradisiacal courtyard in the Plasy monastery. I am collecting pieces of peeling plaster, I mix them with water and within a stripe on the floor I am building a two-part installation of twelve steel bowls, gradually filling them with this material. I throw the contents on the walls in twelve gestures and by twelve vertical strokes I divide the walls visually. What I am doing can be only seen through a keyhole in the door. All my activity is however recorded with contact microphones and the sound is transmitted via echomodule to the whole space of the cloister. With the technical assistance of Aleš Müller.
Stone on stone friction, Kladivo cave in the Prachov rocks September 12th 1990 / 17:47
In one of the sandstone caves I rub stone on stone until I am too tired.
DVD/VIDEO
Grass, 1967 / 2:42
Hallucinatory view into waving grasses. Digital transfer of a Super8 colour film.
Echo, 1979 / 5:19
A reflection of sunbeams on water surface, cast on a rock in a narrow turning of the valley Plakánek by the Kost castle. Digital transfer of a Super8 colour film.
Spring, 1979 / 4:00
The churning sandy bottom of the spring creates infinite landscape variations, which start and stop, again and again. Digital transfer of a Super8 colour film.
Fire signs, 1983 / 6:22
Gestures of fire in reaction to the walls and environment of the night atmosphere inside the Zebín quarry. The recording is a later reconstitution of the lost recording. Digital transfer from Hi8.
On the peak – Zebín September 10th 1988 / 7:11
A large format processual drawing on the peak of Zebín hill in the Bohemian Paradise; a work from the series “The world inside the world”. Stones, fruits, herbs and fire are the media of the bodily interaction with the place. Zebín is a shorter version of the original half-hour recording on VHS.
Restriction of the space by fire, July 26th 1989 / 3:32
A strip of paper, dropped down off a quarry ledge and then set on fire creates an intact fire drawing, reacting to space, the shapes of rocks and also the wind. This action is part of 1. auto-da-fé of THE SOFTHEADS. Digital transfer from VHS.
Grand G/SOL, 1993 / 16:28
Sun beams oscillating on the surface of the water, recorded with a delayed video reverb using the period imperfect sensor on a VHSC camera. The video is part of the sound installation TO THE EARTH in the Prague town Gallery. The sound is generated directly from the image alterations with an electromagnetic collection of X beams, transmitted through the cathode ray tube of the television screen.
AQVA SPECVLVM / Videosonic Body Screening, International festival FUNGUS, the Plasy monastery 1994 / 7:23
I was after a total encounter of the cloister premises from the water basement (which fascinated me most) through the ground floor with the chapels to the roof. The image of my body’s action in the water mirror was scanned and at the same time sound decoded and then presented online as a video installation in the St. Benedict chapel. Then sound from the other speakers was broadcast through the whole building of the cloister. No visitor could see or experience everything in its entirety, but only partly, when going through the building. Transfer of the recording on SVHS.
NO DATE, ARCHA theatre in Prague, 1995 / 6:21
An excerpt from a recorded performance of the workshop of Katerina Bakatsaki and Frank van de Ven. Choreography Frank van de Ven, stage design and performance Miloš Šejn and others.
Solos & Duo, 1995 / 15:43
A performance with Frank Van de Ven based on a bodily observance of the site of a former forest theatre in the Dobřeň valley of the Kokořínsko region. Part of a digital transfer of a VHS recording.
White Rock, 1996 / 4:07
Performance inside a rock labyrinth in the western part of the Krkonoše mountain range, recorded by the Cine Dance auto-capture method (the performer is also cameraman at the same time). Transfer of the recording on video 8mm.
Waterfall, 1998 / 1:04
A body in contact with the waterfall at Javoří creek in the Krkonoše mountains. A short sequence, presented as a video loop. Transfer of the recording on video 8mm
Face, 1999 / 11:56
A body in contact with the waters of Javoří creek in the Krkonoše mountains. A short sequence presented as a video loop. Transfer of the recording on video 8mm.
Golden horse, 1999 / 1:59
A hallucinatory text comprising two different performances of the author and Frank van de Ven in one video. A mixture of recordings on VHS and video 8.
Colorum Naturae Varietas, the Strange Gaze festival, CAFE9 / ROXY, Prague October 18th 2000 / 9:17
A complex performance on the interstice of performance, theatre, processual art installation, concert and VJ movie. Miloš Šejn – sound performance with objects and colours / Miloš Vojtěchovský – CD Rom Col. Nat. Varietas scratch / Martin Alacam – electric guitar / Markus Godwyn – percussion / Michal Kořán – samples. A section of the digital videorecording
on miniDV.
Night body, 2001 / 2:30
A night performance of contact with water of the Lhotecký pond under St. Anna hill. An infrared camera is hung on a branch, bending over the water’s surface. Digital transfer on miniDV.
SARVANGASANA, December 24th 2001 / 1:38
A personal night ritual: a naked body in the posture of a candle is balancing in a piercing frost, the head bogged down in the snow.
SPELAEVM VENERIS, 2003 / 7:03
Duet of the author and Frank van de Ven is an interview with Josef Mánes in the middle of his signature motif, “Adam’s bed” by Hrubá Skála. Digital transfer on miniDV.
HORTVS WINARIENCIS MAYRAV, 2008 / 7:11
Performance, recorded with the Cine Dance method in a former lignite mine in Mayrau at Vinařice. Digital transfer on miniDV.
GARDENING, 2009 / 29:41
A complex video movie based on the relationship of plants and the genealogy of the author. By looking through family albums, plant indices dissolve, accompanied by one movement symphony by Eric Satie. The video was used as part of several performances by the author, e.g. in the Uppsala castle (2010) and in MANGHA / Museum of Japanese art and technology in Kraków (2012).
BOOKS, 2009 / 5:28
Video documentation of the author’s artist books, composed as a film. Digital transfer on miniDV.
LUNETTES LIGHT, 2009 / 8:04
A recording of a light installation in Valdstein loggia in Libosad near Jičín. Colours, colours, and more colours found in this area.
EARTH EYES WIDE SHUT, 2012 / 9:48
The sun setting in Bavarian forest in Germany, seen through a hole in the fingers. My voice roars into the landscape. Motorola telephone.
FREEZING COLOURS, January19th 2016 / 6:58
White countryside of the pond Šibeník near Jičín, seen through saliva and solarisation software. Motorola telephone.
AGARA, 2016 / 40:31
Painting and drawing as a graphic text on the bank of the river Ohře by Počedělice. Each gesture, line or trace is at the same time a recording/an expression of the seen and spoken. My mind, eyes, mouth, hands, body are in action. A shortened recording by a field camera GoPro Hero 4.
AGARA RIVER, 2016 / 16:37
How the body of a river sees a landscape above itself. Alterating images from underneath the water’s surface of the river Ohře upwards the sky, recorded by a Motorola cell telephone camera. A connected solarisation filter reveals other layers of reality.
OÍR ARRAN, Semptember 17th 2016 / 21:27
A drawing as a graphic text in the surge of the Irish peninsula. Each gesture, line or a trace is at the same time a recording/an expression of the seen and spoken. My mind, eyes, mouth, hands, body are in action. A shortened recording by a field camera GoPro Hero 4.
DOCUMENTS
Written paintings, 1980 – 2017, slideshow
Texts, 1969 – 2017, pdf
Biography, pdf
Concept, texts, producers: Vladimír Drápal, Miloš Šejn
Photo: Jaroslav Brabec, Jiří Jiroutek, Miloš Šejn archives
Layout: Petr Kuranda
Audiomix, mastering CD: Vojtěch Komárek
Translation: Eva Turnová
Edition of this work was financially supported by the city of Jicin
We cooperate with the book publishing Verzone (www.verzone.cz)
© Guerilla Records 2017
Rybalkova 1140, 440 01 Louny, Czech Republic
www.guerilla.cz, info@guerilla.cz
