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 by artists Miriama Kardošová, Dominik Styk, eva susová, Aliza Orlan, CTM & Skjold Rambow, and Alex Franz Zehetbauer. The event will unfold on Friday, November 7, from 7:00 p.m. until late across three distinct spaces within the unique architectural landmark of the Old Wastewater Treatment Plant (Čistírna1906) in Prague, which retains the original filtration and sewage treatment structures. Free admission subject to capacity. 

Aliza Orlan's performance and installation thorns grow out of my body draws on representations of femininity in fairy tales, mythology, and pop culture. She overcomes polarizing religious stereotypes of women as independent evil or submissive innocence and, through her own trans feminine experience, takes a third path. This intimate and personal work is based on a queer experience of physicality and the crossing of gender boundaries. It shows us the body as a path we follow. The body can lie to us; we evaluate and condemn the body. We can forget about it, but only until it starts to hurt.

Aliza Orlan's performance will take place in the attic space on the 1st floor.

Dominik Styk presents a provocative prophecy of urine in his new performance Pissed Prophet. In this absurd dance burlesque, personifications of the bladder and fish perform a story that connects the physiological processes of the human body with their anthropological interpretations. In medieval medicine, urine served as an indicator of a patient's health, and its color was used to determine a diagnosis. Urine was even used to predict the future (urology). Along with themes of social control of excretion and contemporary queer and kinky connotations, the audience becomes part of its fascinating mythology. Warning: possibility of getting wet!

In their joint work Bow, Skjold Rambow and CTM explore ways of movement and music that show, in an intense yet delicate way, how bodies can believe. In an intuitive dialogue, they examine the transition between expectation and heightened presence in the act of performance. The title Bow has a deliberate ambiguity, referring both to the bow used by a string player to play the cello and to the bow that an artist offers to the audience after a performance. The duet creates a transition from the moment between what was and what is to come. This lyrical and moving work shows us the body and sound as a means of reconciliation. A gesture and a sign that something has happened.

Victoria Oren is one of the beings inhabiting Miriam Kardošová's world. A pop diva in a world of intimacy and fragility. Through her, the author encounters her own femininity and fights against patriarchal expectations and stereotypes, which she and her sisters uninhibitedly sing and shout down in lively and hysterical euphoria. Victoria's hyperfemininity is confrontational, forcing us to look and give up our comfort, balancing on the edge between femme fatale and monstrosity. She longs to transcend her humanity, but remains one of us—an imperfect body.

eva susova in a joint performance A Hand on the Lower Belly: Instruments of Resonance with the artist Publik Universal Frxnd explore their bodies as instruments of resonance. Breath, laughter, words, and cello, together with their physicality, compose a relational and mutable queer assemblage with a touch of eroticism. What plays on our bodies? Without realizing it, we ourselves are vibrated and amplified by memories, hallucinations, ghosts, and social paradigms. The audience is invited to experience a hybrid concert in which bodies resist control. They escape control and succumb to care.

In sixsixsix, Alex Franz Zehetbauer slips into the role of the jester—a figure whose social exception grants him the freedom to say and do anything without consequence. A jester doesn’t need a stage, only a crowd. He digests the world and spits it back out (from one end or the other). This secretion is then presented to the audience as art. He presents the unknown, the uncontrollable, the abject. With a hint of something diabolical, Alex Franz Zehetbauer has come to entertain with his wit, original songs, the soothing strumming of his lyre… and shit.

█ Accessibility: The festival takes place in three different spaces on two floors of Čistírna1906. The entrance to the building and the first floor are not wheelchair accessible. There is a wheelchair-accessible toilet on the ground floor.

█ There is only a limited number of seats available, which are primarily intended for people with reduced mobility. If you need to rest between performances, you can relax in the foyer by the bar.

█ Most of the program is in English, with selected performances in Czech and Slovak. Transcripts and translations are not available. Details regarding language accessibility can be found in the descriptions of the individual performances above.

█ Please put your cell phone into silent mode and refrain from disturbing the performances with loud conversations.

█ Leaving the venue and returning is only possible with a valid wristband. If you plan to leave completely (i.e., you do not plan to return for the rest of the program), please inform the organizers at the entrance. This will help us to better and more smoothly control the capacity of the venue.

█ By entering the festival premises, you consent to the taking of photographs and videos during the event and to their use in the organizer’s promotional and reportage materials (including official online channels, social media, and press materials).

█ Trigger warning: Some performances contain loud sounds, nudity, vandalism, urinating, gender-based violence, verbal abuse, and sexually explicit content. The program is not suitable for children under 15 years of age.

Admission to the festival is free of charge. If the venue reaches its full capacity, admission will only be possible once other visitors have left the building. If you plan to visit the festival, please register using this form so that we can easily contact you regarding any changes to the program and additional information. Please note that registration does not guarantee entry to the venue. The entrance to Čistírna will be open from 7 p.m. and the first performance will start at 7:30 p.m. We recommend arriving as early as possible. Attending without registration is possible.

To apply for press accreditation, please fill out this form. Applications will be accepted until November 4, 2025. Please note that the festival's capacity is limited, and tranzit.cz reserves the right to decline applications if capacity is exceeded.