Filmoteka Muzeum

Game at Grobovka Park is an exercise from the early period of Zbigniew Libera’s work with students from the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague. During the meetings, students re-enacted the activities performed in the past by the members of Oskar Hansen’s studio, hence the structure of the eponymous game, resembling Game on Morel’s Hill from 1971. It is this activity that the title of the present footage refers to.

The activity involved students from Grzegorz Klaman’s studio at the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk, on a visit in Prague, as well as students of the Prague Open Form Studio (POFS) of Zbigniew Libera. The students of the POFS and Klaman’s students had already carried out a similar exercise in Gdańsk. Here, they are divided into three teams of five, with representatives of both studios in every team. Like in Game on Morel’s Hill, participants use colour fabrics to perform the activity. However, there are differences between the two projects: in the exercise in 1971 there were only two groups – black and white, whereas in Game at Grobovka Park there are three groups: blue, red and white. The allusion to the colours of the flag of the Czech Republic comes across as obvious.

Initially, the blue group is located at the top, the white one in the middle, and the red team at the bottom. The teams then interact with each other or perform hermetic actions. At some point, the groups unite and wrap each other in fabric, then the blue team is dispersed, with one of the participants ending up on a tree. Students make full use of their surroundings to play the game and involve passers-by, e.g. carry a man resting at the park down the hill. They also take notice of the comments by passers-by, who inspire them to arrange the flag of the Czech Republic. However, one of the groups considers the use of the national symbol highly inappropriate, which leads to wrapping the wooden poles in red fabric and ending the game.

References: Ł. Ronduda, Zbigniew Libera’s Open Form Studio, Prague 2011; M. Rumin, Game on Morel’s Hill, “Piktogram” 5/6, 2006.