Reconstruction No. 5 is the latest work in the extensive cycle of so-called reconstructions that Daniel Nováček consistently produces as his main authorial program. Although it carries the most substantial theme in terms of content, it also retains the recognizable minimalist “manual” visual language we have become accustomed to over the years.
Reconstruction No. 5 can thus be considered a temporary culmination of the tension that in the first four parts of the cycle we perceive as rather subordinate to the individual micro-stories and whose gradation becomes apparent only in comparison with the individual parts. The four-channel screening includes a film triptych with a commentary from the narrator that appears in the fourth video. In a calm, almost machine-like language, she gradually introduces us to a post-apocalyptic fictional world in which algorithms, game strategies and rules determine individuals’ fate.
The people of this version of the future are not seen as unique and self-determining individuals, but instead as units deterministically subject to strict categorization. This inevitably entails a weakening of interpersonal relations, which shows that the cruel consequences of the rationalization of society is the impossibility of human happiness. Tomorrow’s revolution seems as an illusion, and love as the main weapon of social change of utopias.
