Messages in an Emergency
a collection of texts and videos from 2008 and 2009

The messages may be divided into two parts - text and video. The texts consist of an essay, a short story and two letters. They are the size of the human body and hang in space. Their primary task is to confront readers with their own corporeality. Reading thus becomes not only a cryptographic process taking place in our minds, but above all a physical act. The second part of the work consists of one video-story and three video documentations of performances –Naming, Father’s Mouth and Čelechovský/Mrázek. In the last mentioned, I managed to arrive at a situation which I decide to call confrontational reading. Thanks to this video I found an answer as to how thematize language. Simply, through reading out loud. This allows me to achieve interesting situations confronting language with the physicality of the reader, the listener and my own. Hence the term confrontational reading. Since then I have endeavoured to organise all my live actions, performances and happenings exclusively according to this method, which I am developing and perfecting.

Possible Instructions For Seeing Oneself, 2009
short story
2nd version, durst print, 118,5 × 175 cm

Possible Instructions For Seeing Oneself, 2009
short story
2nd version, durst print, 118,5 × 175 cm

Progress Report, 2009
letter
durst print, 118,5 × 175 cm

Sometimes it Really Happens But if it Happens Again… , 2009
essay
durst print, 118,5 × 175 cm

Čelechovský / Mrázek, 2009
confrontational reading
HD video, 16. min. (vimeo.com/video/8174375)

Father’s Mouth, 2008
a one act play for two people
2nd version, 2009, documentary video of a performance
HD video, 14:01 min. (vimeo.com/video/9016882)

Visible Similarity, Hidden Difference, 2008
short story, 2009
video, 6 min. (vimeo.com/video/9017069)

Naming, 2008
a play involving two people
1st version, 2009, documentary video of a performance
HD video, 3 min. (vimeo.com/video/9016617)

photo: author’s archive and Martin Polák