Visual stage at Pohoda 2024
The curator of the Visual Stage at Pohoda 2024, Ilona Németh, is bringing a series of projects that address current social and environmental issues and offer intermedia approaches to visual art.
03. July 2024
The exhibition "Kým plávame spolu“ (As Long as We Float Together) by Oto Hudec focuses on the relationship between humans and trees, highlighting their mutual cooperation in protecting nature. This exhibition project pays tribute to activists and conservationists who have tried to save endangered trees. The exhibition also includes an installation of a boat and a pine cone with performances presented at this year's Venice Biennale.
Jaro Varga presents the installation "Mlčanie nás neochráni“ (Silence Will Not Protect Us), a loose adaptation of Audre Lorde's book "Your Silence Will Not Protect You“. This interactive installation combines book titles with gestures of protest, encouraging active dialogue in the contemporary media and social context. The exhibition will also include workshops where visitors can create their own banners to be incorporated into various festival situations.
(Foto: @_isonative)
Diana Paulová's site-specific work "Tu Nateraz“ (Here for Now) explores themes of home and nomadism through a monumental tent peg. This object, essential to the temporary festival environment, reflects current social issues of migration and solidarity. Its monumentality and contextual specificity enhance its potential to become an iconic element of Pohoda Festival.
Viktória Revická presents the performance "Kvasný pohyb" (Fermenting Movement), which depicts the biological process of fermentation through performative gestures and sound interventions. The performance focuses on the non-human movements of single-celled organisms, evoking a new way of perceiving and being sensitive to micro-worlds. The project includes a workshop that allows participants to experience the fermentation process first hand.
(Foto: @_isonative)
Katarína Zagorski will perform "(NEBO) Chodenie v oblakoch" (Walking in the Clouds), in which a performer lying on the ground walks on a tightrope with their feet in the air. This poetic act, in which festival visitors can participate, creates a surreal experience of walking in the sky and symbolises the transition between reality and dreams.
(Foto: Sabine Maier)
Invited curator Nastia Khlestova presents the project "127 garage", a cultural space that originated in Kharkiv and now operates nomadically following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. This space serves as a platform for knowledge exchange and experimental formats aimed at developing new tools for understanding contemporary conditions and building horizontal hegemonies without borders.
The Visual Stage at Pohoda 2024 thus creates a dynamic space for dialogue and interaction between art and audience, where current issues and innovative artistic approaches in contemporary visual art converge.
PROGRAMME OF THE PERFORMACES, DISCUSSIONS AND WORKSHOPS:
THURSDAY:
18:00 – 18:30 Jaro Varga: Mlčanie nás neochráni (guided tour)
FRIDAY:
10:00 – 10:30 Jaro Varga: Mlčanie nás neochráni (guided tour)
10:30 - 12:00 Jaro Varga: Mlčanie nás neochráni (workshop)
12:00 – 12:30 Oto Hudec: As Long as We Float Together / Kým plávame spolu (performance)
12:30 – 13:00 Oto Hudec: As Long as We Float Together / Kým plávame spolu (guided tour)
15:00 – 15:30 Jaro Varga: Mlčanie nás neochráni (guided tour)
15:30 – 17:00 Jaro Varga: Mlčanie nás neochráni (workshop)
17:00 – 18:00 Katarína Zagorski: (NEBO) Chodenie v oblakoch (on the runway)
18:00 – 18:30 Oto Hudec: As Long as We Float Together / Kým plávame spolu (guided tour)
18:30 – 19:00 Oto Hudec: As Long as We Float Together / Kým plávame spolu (performance)
19:00 – 19:30 Jaro Varga: Mlčanie nás neochráni (guided tour)
19:30 – 21:00 Jaro Varga: Mlčanie nás neochráni (workshop)
SATURDAY:
9:30 – 10:00 Jaro Varga: Mlčanie nás neochráni (guided tour)
10:00 – 11:30 Jaro Varga: Mlčanie nás neochráni (workshop)
11:30 – 12:30 Viktória Revická: Ako sa stať kvasinkou (workshop @ Nay tanečný dom)
12:45 – 13:45 Nastia Khlestova: 127 garage (discussion @ Café Kušnierik)
14:00 – 14:30 Oto Hudec: As Long as We Float Together / Kým plávame spolu (performance)
14:30 – 15:00 Oto Hudec: As Long as We Float Together / Kým plávame spolu (guided tour)
15:00 – 15:30 Jaro Varga: Mlčanie nás neochráni (guided tour)
15:30 – 17:00 Jaro Varga: Mlčanie nás neochráni (workshop)
17:00 – 17:30 Katarína Zagorski: (NEBO) Chodenie v oblakoch (at the runway)
17:30 – 18:00 Viktória Revická: Kvasný pohyb (near the installation Tu nateraz)
17:30 – 18:00 Oto Hudec: As Long as We Float Together / Kým plávame spolu (guided tour)
18:30 – 19:00 Oto Hudec: As Long as We Float Together / Kým plávame spolu (performance)
19:00 – 19:30 Jaro Varga: Mlčanie nás neochráni (guided tour)
19:30 – 21:00 Jaro Varga: Mlčanie nás neochráni (workshop)
Visual stage partners: Jan Koniarek Gallery in Trnava, Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava
Curator: Ilona Németh
Production: Veronika Němcová, Michal Kaščák, Paula Poštolková
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For eight years, the Visual Stage has curated a diverse visual arts programme at Pohoda Festival, featuring the work of both internationally established and emerging local and international artists.
The Visual Stage aims to bring quality contemporary art to Pohoda Festival visitors through various forms of artistic expression – from installations, performances or objects to thematic discussion formats and interviews. Its mission is to stimulate and promote awareness of contemporary art, thus creating a space for the formation of a conscious civil society and the development of critical thinking.