jaroslav malík

I have been living and working in Ostrava for eight years. I have created a few cycles e.g. “Probable People“, “the1st Small Exhibition of Postage Stamps“, “ Requiem Motifs“ or “Sokolská 107“. But I have been thinking about “ Magic Ostrava“. I have been afraid to do it for a long time – I´ve been looking for methods and waiting for the advice of fortune. I don´t like to work in a hurry – to take photos in the morning and to exhibit them in a gallery in the evening. I know – a lot of snaps of Ostrava exist. Some are very nice and others are not. There are lyrical, romantic, common and documentary photos. I would like to record the Ostrava city of my dreams. Mines, chimneys, maybe even miners, towers, foundries, still-lifes and pubs. It should be Ostrava with its poetry, drama, absurdity, comicality, grotesqueness or magic moments. The Gothic is typical of Prague and the industrial of Ostrava. I have used a special panoramatic instrument for my work ( it was sent from Russia) and I´ve used big wooden rooms remeniscent of those old “ black times“. Oh! I couldn´t find a lot of things and motifs! I´ve found only museums with fees, an ugly highway and , for example, Do Not Enter , This Property is Guarded by Dogs (by Security Agency.) When I was at VŽKG Hall I was pursued by such an agency – its off-road Mercedes driver spoke with an accent of some eastern nations. But I have found beautiful sewers and drains, garages and puddles in Přívoz, a railing and fragment of a public fountain in Kunčičky, portraits of deceased people on tombstones, a statue a miner near a petrol station, a public W.C. in Vítkovice…. There will come a day when Ostrava will turn into a modern, cultural, business, and educational centre. But it´ll be its end. It´ll be the end of its glory. We have a lot of such reduntant “in cities“ and they all look just the same. It´s a pity but even brave greenpeacers who chain themselves to the Temelín towers and pose for cameras under horses´ hoofs at the Grand Pardubice horse race are not able to help. And of course if they could it would be no use. Everybody knows why. Thank heaven that there are a few local fellowships who do something. I have been taking photos according to my feelings, and I was suprised by the final impression. So little in he way of chimneys, and slag heaps, no furnaces, miners, miners´ settlements, or pubs. And I can´t do anything with it and I can´t do anything with myself. Thank god there are such people who messed it ap many years ago.

Yours sincerely, Jaroslav Malík
photographer, teacher, cyclist, cactuses breeder, etc