We can forget about the body

What does "believing with your body" mean in an anxious era? Is impurity as liberating as purity? And can the body give us faith when reason falls short? tranzit.cz invites you to the third edition of its performance art festival, a one-day showcase titled Bodies Craving to Believe, presenting diverse perspectives on queer corporeality through six Czech and international premieres. The event will unfold across three distinct spaces within the unique architectural landmark of the Old Wastewater Treatment Plant in Prague-Bubeneč, which retains the original filtration and sewage treatment structures. 

The program will open with Aliza Orlan, a Bratislava-based visual artist working across drawing, textile installations, performance, and poetry. In her performance and installation thorns grow out of my body, she draws on portrayals of femininity in fairy tales, mythology, and pop culture. This intimate, personal work spotlights the trans feminine experience of physicality and the crossing of gender boundaries. Artist Dominik Styk is deeply influenced by his studies in scenography. His work frequently uses textiles and wearable objects that reference the human body. In the absurd dance burlesque Pissed Prophet, which he will present at the festival, personifications of a bladder and a fish act out a story that weaves together physiological processes of the human body with their anthropological interpretations. CTM & Skjold Rambow will present their joint project Bow, first performed at German audiovisual festival Berlin Atonal 2023. The piece stages a dialogue between contemporary dance and cello music with classical elements, directing the audience's attention to subtle changes in behavior and shifts in body posture. Since 2022, Miriama Kardošová has been performing in the persona of Victoria Oren. Through this alter ego, she creates performances that emphasize direct emotional and physical interaction with the audience. As part of the festival, she will premiere a new performance, Shake my hair over the dirt we sweat off, in which she "encounters her own femininity and fights against patriarchal expectations and stereotypes, which she sings over and shouts down in lively and hysterical euphoria". Alex Franz Zehetbauer is a performance artist and singer who works at the intersection of performance, music, visual arts, and choreography. His queer stand-up show sixsixsix, in which he takes on the character of a jester who "transforms reality”, foregrounds repressed and uncontrollable areas of human physicality. The festival will host the Czech premiere of the project, which was originally created for the festival steirischer herbst in Graz, Austria. eva susova is an interdisciplinary artist who explores the connections between embodied knowledge, the female voice, and systems of power and control. In collaboration with Amsterdam-based artist Publik Universal Frxnd, they use breath, laughter, and spoken word, combined with live cello performance, to create a performative "queer assemblage with a touch of eroticism."