In our daily life, technology enables us to exist simultaneously in multiple places. We are immersed in a continuous negotiation with things, processes, and people that are not physically present. We commonly identify them as a “virtual presence”, as a sort of representation of an original that exists somewhere else. We place this “copy” at a lower level in the scale of reality as it cannot fully affect us. It cannot be touched and therefore cannot be considered truly real.
For some, the virtual world is a place to momentarily escape reality; others fear that it will replace it completely. For us, there is no conflict between the virtual and real worlds, together they create a continuum of mixed realities.
Unfolding the inner space outwards, and the outer space inside is a strategy to unwrap the various layers of reality. The performance is proposing a perceptual laboratory in which the audience members have the space to formulate their questions regarding their position towards reality and reflect on the existential and philosophical dimensions of being present.
Cristina Maldonado is a Mexican intermedia artist based in Prague (CZ), working in the fields of immersive art, participatory and relational art, video-performance, performative writing and site-specific performances. For the last two decades, she has been working independently directing, performing, mentoring and leading workshops. Currently, she is focused on the concepts of mediation and uncharted human relationships. She works with devised theatre and dialogical methodologies and she is researching how to bring art further into the process of creating knowledge.
Keya Singh (IND) is an intermedia artist specializing in video and performance art. She has been exhibiting and performing her work across galleries and festivals in the Czech Republic since 2018. Her work explores her own identity as it continues to morph into an amalgam of the culture she comes from, the people that raised her, the content she consumes as an adult, and her present environment. What interests her from the Insider research is the sense of self-image and self-representation, and how these relate to the world outside.
Eva Rosemarijn (NO/NL) got her MA degree in Directing of Devised and Object Theatre in 2019 at DAMU in Prague. After finishing her studies Eva worked as a dramaturg for Barbora Látalová, started creating sound designs for several performances, and is now director for her own company Teater Leikhus in Norway. Her directing practice focuses on creating contemporary performances understood as experiences. In her work, the audience’s presence is the core. In Insider she has been able to research the interaction between performer and audience in different realities, as well as their behavior and personal exploration in the in-between spaces we create.
Lea Kukovičič (SI) holds a degree in dramaturgy from the Academy of Theater, Radio, Film and Television, Ljubljana and a Masters's degree in directing from DAMU, Prague. She is a theatre maker, yet the conceptual aspect of her works is merging with visual art. In her creations, she focuses on how art can directly influence society. She leads projects by focusing on specific topics in collaboration with collectives of artists and non-artists to re-view, re-imagine and re-define the topic of attention and theatre. Kukovičič mainly works as an artist developing her own projects and only joins the creation of collaborative works with her friends. Insider is her first professional collaboration.
Lamija Čehajić (BA) is an intermedia artist based in Prague, conducting artistic research through the lens of feminist phenomenologies. She is interested in the relationships between the body and the landscape as geologies of presence and belonging. She is oscillating between practice and theory, working with a variety of media, from video and photography to text and sculpture. She is currently studying at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague and hopes to pursue another theory degree. She participated in the initial research of Insider, exploring possible tactile experiences and touch-scapes, and joined the team later as a performer.
Isa Juchniewicz is a visual artist based in Prague who has been working in collaboration with others, performing, researching, teaching and leading workshops. Working primarily with new media, performance & telematics, she explores non-traditional frameworks of belonging. By questioning how physical & virtual space can interact with each other, she aims to design experiences in which one’s senses and body can be extended and positively confused.
