Infra-ordinary Lab, 2023
A site-specific participatory performance that invites you on a multi-sensory exploration of Holešovická Tržnice, framing perception and peeling the skin of the everyday to reveal hidden narratives.
We spend more and more time in clinical environments, often a sterile world of a reality mediated through a screen and experienced mainly audio-visually. We take our everyday, seemingly mundane reality for granted. We have become so accustomed to it that we no longer perceive it. Equally, we take our own bodies for granted, simply accepting the information our senses feed us without questioning what is happening. And increasingly, we are also relying on devices to tell us how we feel, how our bodies perform, counting steps, monitoring sleep…
This performance was conceived as a playful experimental laboratory to help participants question some of these habitual ways by framing your experience of a particular place. Through spoken and other sensory prompts, some of the hidden narratives of Holešovická Tržnice and its history were revealed, while also opening up space for imagination.
The project was part of an ongoing artistic research by artist and educator Tereza Stehlikova, which explores how our environment becomes an extension of our mental landscape, while also shaping it, and the role our senses play in mediating this vital relationship, as well as the impact of technology on it. These themes are further explored in the journal Tangible Territory, which Tereza launched during the pandemic and which invites artists and scholars to discuss these topics.
More abut the project:
https://pq.cz/prague-quadrennial-2023/projects-2023/pq-performance-rare-experiences/the-infra-ordinary-lab-tereza-stehlikova/
Read an in-depth reflection Experiencing the infra-ordinary : the power of imaginative spaces by Tereza Stehlikova and Katja Vaghi (Theatralia. 2024, vol. 27, iss. 1, pp. 112-144) https://digilib.phil.muni.cz/node/80028
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Tereza Stehlíková 