The concept of the project was created by Tereza Stehlíková who invited me to be a part of it as a performer and photographer (more about it in her journal here). The outcome was a participatory performance as a part of Prague Quadrennial, scenographic festival. Participants would come to our base (starting point) where they got a tactile map and qr code for sound-guided walk through the place. As Tereza says:
"The Infra-ordinary Lab’s specific intention was to invite participants to connect more deeply with the genius loci of Holešovická Tržnice, originally built as an abattoir, through all their senses. The aim was to establish a more informed, more visceral, embodied but also emotional connection with the site, while also opening a reflective, meditative and internal space which would enable participants to form a more profound relationship to it. This was within the context of the Prague Quadrennial festival which itself invited artists to respond in some way to the experience of the pandemic and question some of the transformation our society has witnessed because of it.
The resulting participatory performance was framed as a “laboratory”, which invited visitors to become part of an experiment of reframing perception of everyday reality and situating oneself within it, by the simplest analogue means, a kind of return to childlike playfulness and immediacy, yet informed by other layers of meaning."
Important part of the project was also the research phase ongoing for one year, where I was fully involved in the last 3 months of the "intense" phase. This process also formed a group of people creating the final form of the performance (performers, photographers, artists and set designer).
"The performance also included interventions from laboratory assistants (i.e. performers) who offered participants the opportunity to experience part of the journey without a reliance on sight, by entrusting themselves in their hands, blindfolded. This was an intervention that was offered between two stations on the map. At other times participants were offered various simple “framing devices” with coloured filters, to explore their vision."
I photographed the whole process of the project evolution and actual performance, performed as the guide and also created a sound record of one of the halls where vegetables and fruits were sold (included in the sound guide). Thanks to that I was able to see the project from two different perspectives – as a performer and an observer of the running performance.
In the base was also a table with petri dishes where did performers or participants bring small things found in the area.
Between the days of performance was a pop-up event with a butcher making food, wine tasting, performance of Katja Vaghi and Amy Neilson Smith and dj set by Josef Sedloň.
