Corner the Rooster
Project SOUTOK / Tomáš Žižka, Forgotten Orchestra Of Dreamland (F.O.O.D.) and Collective (Czech Republic)
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Sunday Oct 8 / 16:00–19:00, The confluence of the Berounka and Vltava rivers
/ Transportation from/to the center provided
One-day multi-genre – event for the 4 + 4 Days in Motion
The long-term site-specific project SOUTOK (CONFLUENCE) is dedicated to a place on the periphery of Prague where the Berounka and Vltava rivers converge, where the historically strong meanings of the landscape around the confluence of these rivers are open for exploration. It is an ancient crossroads and a distinctive spot in the Czech mental topography. Over the centuries, the peculiar river landscape has turned into a semi-forgotten periphery of Prague, and the plan is to transform it into a suburban park. The SOUTOK project can, therefore, also be understood as a cultural-entertainment and popularization program for the public.
The confluence of the Vltava and Berounka rivers is an island: a Prague anteroom, an interfluve, a peninsula, a lake, a refuge, and a mysterious corner. Even this could be the cryptic name of this landscape. Yes, even as a refuge. For our activity at the confluence, we found a dramaturgical refuge at the tip – under the Strakonická motorway in Lahovice, where there is a horse farm and a popular spot for fishermen and the occasional tourist. It’s a welcoming haven for day and evening artistic events.
With the project “Corner the Rooster,” we want to follow the traditional solar festival, in which the symbol of the rooster (one of the attributes of St. Vitus) represents the balance of day and night. We’re interested in the polarity of the Sun and the Moon, in the notion of the program as a process on the one hand, and finality – completion on the other. The artistic expressions and solutions of local and newly arrived participants are added to the scales – this is where the tension and dynamics lie.
SOUTOK is a grouping of initiatives working together to change this location. It is also a living organism, and like any living organism, it is changeable. Its meaning can change unpredictably into unexpected contradictions independently of its original role. Even in the case of a specific space such as a plein air or architecture, there are many examples of buildings and zones without designation, losing their original use and left to their fate. There is no free indeterminate space; every place is marked, enshrouded in a network of meanings that needs to be decoded.
The spaces where we live and spend our time sometimes seem incomprehensible, so we try to define them. Sometimes, the sense of space is lost before our eyes in the dynamics of time. Artists who have long since left the established institutions of galleries, museums, and theatres are responding to public space and trying to recontextualize it into “interpretation centers” or areas.
We have a professional interest in public space, viewed from the perspective of an urban planner, landscape architect, scenographer, theatre designer, and conceptual artist, but also an archaeologist, anthropologist, or biologist.
Concept and execution: Tomáš Žižka and Collective
Acting:
Forgotten Orchestra Of Dreamland (F.O.O.D.)
Milli Janatová – vokál, perkuse
Tereza Kerle – perkuse, vokál
Jan Holeček – klarinet, midi klarinet, elektronika
Michal Kořán – elektronika
Michal Hrubý – klarinet
Petr Varju – tenor sax, elektronika
Jaroslav Kořán – bubny, elektronika
Tomáš Žižka – kořen
Jana Nunčič – speciální instrumenty
Michael Delia – kalimba
Martin Janíček and Kristýna Mikulková – sound and instrumental recordings of the Symphony for BerounkaThe project was developed with the Institute of Planning and Development of the City of Prague, the Academy of Performing Arts, and the University of Economics.
