CLUB OF OPPORTUNITIES
E09: PUMPKINVILLE

A short film and installation deconstructs the myths of tradition and identity as tools of political manipulation.

Pumpkineville (15mins, 4K)
a new commissioned film
and installation

at

Steirischer Herbst: Horror Patriae
Curators: Ekaterina Degot,
Pieternel Vermoorte, David Riff
Neue Galerie Graz, Austria
September 19 – February 16, 2025

Pumpkinville, a short film (15mins, 4k) and installation commissioned by Steirischer Herbst 2024 follows Celerist, a noir detective trapped in a surreal world akin to The Truman Show, where a Styrian pumpkin—symbolizing Austria’s “green gold”—remains unaware of its artificial surroundings. Jakub Jansa crafts a satirical allegory of neoliberalism and nationalism, using human-vegetable beings to expose class hierarchies and ideological mechanisms of the Global North. Pumpkineville deconstructs the myths of tradition and identity as tools of political manipulation, revealing how false nostalgia and illusions of stability fuel contemporary nationalist ideologies.

The short film Pumpkineville was created under professional filmmaking conditions with the contribution of a film crew. The film was shot on various locations, including a film studio utilizing a large-format LED wall, allowing for a real-time combination of realistic and digitally generated environments.

Steirischer Herbst (SH) is an annual interdisciplinary contemporary art event that has served as a platform for innovative artistic projects since its founding in 1968 in Graz, Austria. SH is renowned for commissioning and premiering new works, often in collaboration with prominent artists. In the past, it has supported new productions by artists such as Hito Steyerl, John Baldessari. SH also premiered one of John Cage’s final works in 1992. In 2017, the festival presented a film adaptation of Elfriede Jelinek’s novel Die Kinder der Toten, directed by the Nature Theater of Oklahoma, which won the FIPRESCI Prize at Berlinale. This tradition continues in 2024, as SH has supported the creation of Pumpkineville, a new short film by Jakub Jansa, presented at the Horror Patriae exhibition in Neue Galerie Graz.

author: jakub jansa
dop: kryštof hlůže
producer: kristýna kapounová
production company: closer
performance: jan kostiha, jamilya andreyeva, soňa beaumont,
patrik petr, peter hosking, olesia adamovich
editor: sebastian kučkovský
costume designer: karolína juříková
make-up artist: tereza tartusa
dramaturgy: alice krajčířová
music & sound: oliver torr
production assistant: julie sroková
1st ad: max horn
costumes assistant: adéla holušková, valerie jurčíková,
alex pýchová
make-up assistant: markéta němcová
b cam: filip smil
1st ac: jakub volena
2nd ac: tony šmaus
sound recordist: tom richman
lights: ondřej puritscher
lights trainee: lukáš masák
propmaster: henry trung
prop guy: patrick-djouno djakoualno
bts: shot by us
colorist: kryštof melka
graphic design: martin groch
sfx: eliška pitráková
location: autoklub české republiky, fzg studio
walkies: jakub koula - kluci base
extras: emel ameti, barbora gábová, daniel batrla, sergey akentyev,
timur mirzakulov, julia chumakova, tatiana rozenberg

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The Garden of Problems

GHMP, Prague City Gallery
8 November 2023 - 18 February 2024

We get to the bottom of multiple problems here – with celeriac ontology, black magic, humour, losing vision of the future and especially with taking root.

Artist: Jakub Jansa
Exhibition title: The Garden of problems
Curator: Sandra Baborovská
Part of venue: Thinking Through Film
Location: 1. floor of the the Stone Bell House, GHMP, Prague
Dates: 8. 11. 2023 – 18. 2. 2024
Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artists and GHMP, Prague, foto: Jan Kolský

The first floor of gothic Stone Bell House, is dedicated to Jakub Jansa’s Garden of Problems project, which for the first time brings together episodes from the Club of Opportunities series, dating from 2017 to the present. Viewers visit the gallery instead of “Netflixing.” The Garden of Problems show presents seven successive episodes in seven halls, which together form a complex story.The series thematizes social issues of our time and raises questions about authority and cultural and class relationships. Underprivileged entities turn into elites and vice versa, with new opportunities arising during this transformation. Each episode creates situations between reality and fiction, gradually revealing the story through video, objects, set design and acting performance.

Author and director: Jakub Jansa
Collaborators: Kamil Nábělek, Kryštof Hlůže, Karolína Juříková, Oliver Torr, Dominik Dabrowski, Alice Krajčířová, Sebastian Kučkovský, Iryna Drahun, Matěj Martinec, Kryštof Hlůže, Eliška Pitráková, Nicolas Atcheson, Růst Cakes Performance: Jan Kostiha, Ester Geislerová., Kamil Nábělek,
Trin Alt Vajd, Mark.ta VuTru, Dexton Kotora, Katsuhiro Iwashita, Veronika Čechmánková., Jakub Samek, Zai Xu, Linda Vondrová., Rokhaya Gueye, Anita Lubadika, Adéla Sobotková., Mary Nguyen, Linh Nguyen, Agáta Hrnčířová.

1.
We follow the character of the Seer (Oracle), who no longer has a vision of the future and feels anxious. We witness the Seer touching all celeriacs and giving them tattoos with socially beneficial functions. The form of a confessional interview is complemented by emotional, music-tinged interludes, as the Seer tattoos the celeriacs with the names of various positively perceived occupations or rather functions or destinies. A deconstruction of storytelling in relation to expected role choices and expected scenarios is at the core of the work.

2.
The character of the Red Herring, a hybrid creature between a human and a celeriac, is introduced. And now he’s challenging his origin, i.e., revolting against the Seer. He discovers that mythology is mere narrative. By taking control of this narrative, he can steer it in a different direction. He leaves his safe place within the myth to enter the battlefield and fight on a political level. He finds his own individuality and becomes a dark-side influencer

3.
Red Herring works in an avocado bar, where he compares himself to elites—the avocados. He wants to become part of the higher vegesociety. In the process, he must undergo an insulting battle with his inner self. He doubts himself and experiences an identity crisis.

4.
We observe the celerist in yet another surprising situation - he gains status in the vegesociety and is invited into avocado circles. However, he cannot internally relate to this new social
class. At the same time, he has already made a break with the environment from which he emerged. He experiences an intense sense of rootlessness and can only be relieved by class and social coming out. He founds a movement for uprooted vegetables.

5.
In the position of the hot vegetable of the season, the celerist is invited to speak at the Flower Union’s gala event. The supernatural figure of the Seer, no longer able to predict the future, takes over the second part of the programme and activates the decorative flowers in an eco-sexual celebratory ritual. The Seer shows the plants that if they put their pistils and calyxes together, they can reach out to the public and change the course of things. So let’s hope that the ability to see into the future returns again.

Jakub Jansa, The Garden Of Problems, GHMP, Opening Ceremony, 2022, (the episode presents “The Problem with Art in Service”), video, 4K, 10′
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Jakub Jansa, The Garden Of Problems, GHMP, Opening Ceremony, 2022
Jakub Jansa, The Garden Of Problems, GHMP, Opening Ceremony, 2022
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Jakub Jansa, The Garden Of Problems, GHMP, Opening Ceremony, 2022
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Jakub Jansa, The Garden Of Problems, GHMP, Opening Ceremony, 2022
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Jakub Jansa, The Garden Of Problems, GHMP, Shame to Pride, 2021
Jakub Jansa, The Garden Of Problems, GHMP, Shame to Pride, 2021
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Jakub Jansa, The Garden Of Problems, GHMP, Shame to Pride, 2021
Jakub Jansa, The Garden Of Problems, GHMP, Shame to Pride, 2021
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Jakub Jansa, The Garden Of Problems, GHMP, Shame to Pride, 2021
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Jakub Jansa, The Garden Of Problems, GHMP, Shame to Pride, 2021
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Jakub Jansa, The Garden Of Problems, GHMP, Shame to Pride, 2021
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Jakub Jansa, The Garden Of Problems, GHMP, Shame to Pride, 2021
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Jakub Jansa, The Garden Of Problems, GHMP,  Hyglitised celeriac, 2023
Jakub Jansa, The Garden Of Problems, GHMP,  Highlighted celeriac, 2023
Jakub Jansa, The Garden Of Problems, GHMP, Keeping in Line, 2018
Jakub Jansa, The Garden Of Problems, GHMP, Keeping in Line, 2018
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Jakub Jansa, The Garden Of Problems, GHMP, My Name Is Red Herring, 2018
Jakub Jansa, The Garden Of Problems, GHMP, Keeping in Line, 2018
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Jakub Jansa, The Garden Of Problems, GHMP, Keeping in Line, 2018
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Jakub Jansa, The Garden Of Problems, GHMP, My Name Is Red Herring, 2018
Jakub Jansa, The Garden Of Problems, GHMP, April Showers Bring May Flowers, 2018
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Jakub Jansa, The Garden Of Problems, GHMP, April Showers Bring May Flowers, 2018
Jakub Jansa, The Garden Of Problems, GHMP, Entrance
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