Daisies (Becoming a garden/ a plant/ a transplant) / Listening to the Plants Symposium
performance by Jana Zatvarnická and Zuzana Žabková performance at park of Faculty of Pharmacy
October 12, 2023, 5.00 pm, tranzit
Event will be held in Slovak.
Daisies
(Becoming a garden/ a plant/ a transplant)
Jana Zatvarnická, Zuzana Žabková
“What plant are you transitioning into?
I am pissing thorns to get rid of my melancholy. My face is not really smiling because it's a big rose petal. I am lying on my bed of stones and my nervous system is turning into lianas that take me higher. Higher than the smoke of my burning green hands can reach. They gave me the right to stay in my own silence. Our bodies are transitioning. They are blooming, glowing, drying out, rotting, dying, growing again. It's somehow a painful and exciting process. We breathe better in this transplanted body. We are nurtured better. We don't want to go back to being humans. We want to take our time to grow slowly.”
The collaborative project Daisies brings together artists Jana Zatvarnická and Zuzana Žabková to explore the impact of Anthropocene on questions of heritage in the fields of botany, anthropology, and somatic-medicinal issues. The project's title is inspired by the new wave movie Daisies by Czech director Věra Chytilová, and rethinks its legacy through posthuman theories and the agency of symbiotic bodies in the era of climate nightmares. The artists’ performance will be a ritual of vegetal autopsy and the symbolic rebirth of bodies as plants.
Jana Zatvarnická in her practice traces the history of humanity, plants and other life forms with focus on re-learning our "apparent" self-evidence. She is interested in post-human theories, transmutation and visionary stories, rituals, magic, and eco-feminist practice. As a part of her interdisciplinary practice (painting, installation, lecture art) she collaborates with researchers from the fields of botany, ecology, archaeology, speleology incl. research at Klassik Stiftung (Weimar, DE), at the National Herbarium at UWI (Trinidad) and at the Grupo AJAU (Merida, MX). She participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions (Museum K21 in Düsseldorf, Gallery Meno Parkas, East Slovak Gallery) and residencies (Hydra_Pace (SLO), Budapest Galeria (HU)). She received a VUB painting award and was nominated for STRABAG Award. She studied at the Kunstakademie in Düsseldorf and works in Kunstsammlung NRW in Düsseldorf.
Zuzana Žabková is involved in art, dance, magic, choreography through performance, video, and installations. In her practice, she pokes failing utopias. She works alone and together with friends to reconsider ways of valuing labour and care. She is a co-founder of the platform bjornsonova, which is a fictional character, a community and a dancing multi-body. She studied fine arts, dance and choreography in Bratislava, and choreography and performance at the Institute for Applied Theatre Studies in Giessen. As bjornsonova, she attended the Collective Research postmaster’s program at the Royal Academy of Art in Stockholm. In 2021 she was the winner of the Jindrich Chalupecky award. She has worked as a dramaturg at the SE.S.TA Centre for Choreographic Development in Prague, and is curently curating the Implantieren performing arts festival in Frankfurt am Main.
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Event is part of the Listening to the Plants Symposium curated by Judit Angel and Lýdia Pribišová, organized by tranzit.sk within the Art Connected 2023 subprogram and Kunsthalle Bratislava, within the framework of A Plant programme.
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ERSTE Foundation is main partner of tranzit.
Supported using public funding by the Slovak Arts Council.
Project has been kindly supported by the Austrian Cultural Forum Bratislava, Brazilian Embassy in Bratislava, Faculty of Pharmacy UK, IGR Bratislava, Slovak Pharmaceutical Students' Association.
Media partners:
Artalk.sk, Flash Art CZ & SK, Kapitál, GoOut.net
