The Knedlo Zelo Wear crew embarked on an unconventional pilgrimage across the Czech Republic, exploring the open spaces in front of so-called kulturní domy (Houses of Culture). Featuring Tonda Záhorka, Štěpán Janda, Vojta Freitag, Michal Majer, Kuba Novotný and more. Filmed and edited by Javier Varillas.

These public spaces, far from being urban background in today’s post-socialist/neoliberal Czech towns, take center stage in the film. The wide-open plazas, with exposed-concrete platforms and granite-covered monumental forms, once embodied the socialist vision of collective order. Today, these very features have been taken over by skateboarders as elements for conveying spontaneous, uninstitutionalized individual expression.At this strange intersection of fixed function and fluid reinterpretation, skateboarding acts as a cultural connector, rebelling against both past and present notions of societal order. Kulturní Doom isn’t just a skate video, it’s a demonstration of how skateboarding re-imagines and re- appropriates post-socialist urban space. (Javier Varillas)