Tactilism in Jan Švankmajer’s Art

    One of the most important filmmakers to emerge from the surrealist movement, Švankmajer contributed greatly to tactile art with his book (Touching and Imagining), his sculptures, tactile objects, poetry, a compilation of tactile art history, and experiments with the Czech-Slovak Surrealist group during the 70s, despite the censorship by the communist government.

(Cover of Touching and Imagining showing 

one of his tactile objects)

    Švankmajer believes that any aestheic activity initially starts with a utilitarian need and only later becomes independent of it, just like sexuality when freed from its function and serves as an aestetic body experience. Since touch is long associated with labor and utilitarianism, we must find new ways to create tactile aesthetic experiences now that humans are mostly liberated from it. Touch activates imagination in a unique way, which he calls "tactile imagination." Because language is inadequate to express complex bodily feelings, one must be poetic to describe them, thereby activating linguistic imagination. As touch is a hyperactive sense in kids, later inhibited by society, he believes that through tactile memory, one can reach repressed childhood memories and deeper layers of consciousness. This concept can be easily seen in "Down to the Cellar (1983)" and "Alice (1988)", where we experience the movie from the perspective of a little girl.

(Alice, 1988)

    The way he uses darkness, close-ups, and exaggerated sound effects in 'Down to the Cellar' forces us to rely less on our vision to identify the environment and engage other senses. He uses a surrealist tactility, combining irrelevant things, such as coal dough and coal bed, so as to activate the viewer's analogical associations. 

(Woman making dough with coal and eggs, Down to the Cellar, 1983)

    He uses "gesture sculpture" in many of his films, in which clay is imprinted directly with emotions.

(Dimensions of Dialoque, 1982)

      

    

    He believes all objects have auras and are charged with emotions through touch, and he uses them in a way that strips away their utility. He creates this absurd reality by twisting everyday objects in such a way that makes us relate yet feel completely unrelated, to force the limits of imagination.

(Alice, 1988)