The trajectories of our life and career journeys can be straightforward, or they can be convoluted, with many sharp turns, nooks and crannies, and detours along the way. The changes and challenges that life has in store for us can be great. What matters most is that they eventually lead to a happy and fulfilled life – and not just in career terms. The following stories of personalities from among AMU graduates illustrate this statement.
Interconnecting people: this is the lead theme that unites the vast range of activities Kajetán pursues both professionally and in his spare time. With that said, in his case it is quite difficult – and maybe entirely impossible – to differentiate between the two, whether it is organising various cultural and social events or his involvement in Alena Antonovičová’s Café Arhuacos project that imports coffee grown by the Arhuaco tribe in Colombia, helping the indigenous people regain the territories they lost during the colonial times. “From the Heart of the World: The Elder Brothers’ Warning and Aluna, two famous films by Alan Ereira, offer valuable insights into the matter,” notes Kajetán who was lucky to meet the British writer, historian, and documentary filmmaker in person and subsequently organised a screening of his films at Prague’s Bio Oko cinema, accompanied by an exhibition of photographs from Colombia. The proceeds from the event went to Ereira’s non-profit organisation which supports Colombia’s indigenous peoples. All along, the graduate photographer manages involvement in more projects. He has recently exhibited the Colombian photographs as part of the official unveiling of an expo in the Vychovatelna public transport stop underpass as under the Praho! project. Kajetán studied photography in the high school of graphic design in Prague’s Hellichova Street, then at FAMU, and he keeps applying the way of thinking, his vision, and the perception of the world he developed in school to this day. “The way I think and work today is largely informed by my studies. I studied at the Department of Photography, though a large portion of my activities involved production, curatorship, and other organisational work in the sense of being in contact with audiences, with people. My pursuit has always been to create a certain type of platforms, whether local, physical, or virtual, that allow us to achieve a shared goal during such meetings. I like being with people and connecting them. This does not have to stem from their affinity – even a combination of ambivalent charges can give rise to something that, eventually, will make all of us progress further,” Kajetán explains. He adds that the sheer range of various types of activities is also the result of the fact that he is unable to only do routine activities on an everyday basis for extended period of time. During his stay at the Bezalel Academy of Arts & Design in Jerusalem, he organised a site-specific exhibition in the Nabi Musa desert mosque complex under the auspices and with the support of United Nations UNDP Palestine. He currently works as an event specialist in the field of event marketing. “I have some projects in mind that I want to make reality, and it’s my free stuff. I want to earn enough to create freely,” Kajetán concludes.
2. August 2023
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