To Leave Is to Return Another Way is the second edition of the festival of performance art curated by tranzit.cz. The event will take place on 13 December 2023 from 7PM at Ankali & Planeta Za in Prague.

The club is the new white cube. The festival of performance art introduces into the operations of the club an alienation of the common expectations that come with a visit to such a venue, presenting performative and conceptual interventions that expand the audience’s expectations of what can happen in a club. In addition to music, communal food, and social interactions, viewers are invited to observe and directly participate in artworks that work with themes of absurdity, humor, narration, and boundary crossing, all within the bowels of the club, which becomes a new vessel for old messages. Sometimes a maze, sometimes a playground. Entering the space means entering a certain game, an artistic environment, a scaled-down model of the world. It is a ritual inversion of our everyday structure. It is a catalyst for energies – physical, thermal, social, sonic. If we allow ourselves to be transformed by the space, then to leave it is to return another way, to return as someone else.

The festival program will feature ten artists, whose performances will take place in different parts of the club’s segmented space. AXT is a Ukrainian DJ and sound artist who lives in Prague. She is a resident at the club Bike Jesus and cofounder of the platform Motsion. 3C 273 is the solo music project of the Prague-based Slovak composer Monika Kováčová. Vojtěch Fröhlich derives his artistic thinking and expression from sports, nature, and the feelings that come from personally sharing strange situations. The members of the collective Glory Affairs are united by their desire to forge connections between friends and strangers as well as by the shared experience of migration. For the festival, they are preparing a multisensory performance with elements of physiotherapy and an audiovisual environment. Producer and DJ Martyyna premiered her new concert program at the Lunchmeat Festival in September 2023 and will play a DJ set at Ankali as part of the festival of performance art. There will be a live performance by Tot Onyx – the solo project of artist Tommi Tokyo from the Japanese experimental musical performance duo group A. Curator, chef, performer, and educator Tomek Pawłowski-Jarmołajew is preparing a culinary intervention for the festival, inspired by traditional Polish cuisine. Artist Sláva Sobotovičová explores the memory imprinted in folklore and pop culture, and during the event she will present a new performance about the queer history of club culture. Jonáš Strouhal oscillates between the roles of artist, scientist, and sociologist. In his project for the festival, he will explore the emotions associated with life in late capitalist society. Artist Sráč Sam is preparing a performative release of the Czech translation of the book Airless Spaces by American feminist writer, activist, and artist Shulamith Firestone. The book, which includes original illustrations by Sráč Sam, will be available for purchase for the first time at the festival.

The event will take place at Ankali & Planeta Za in Prague's Vršovice district. The entrance to the venue is located at the address Lopuchová 58/6, Prague 10. The exit will be to Na Louži street. Admission is free of charge with a prior reservation. The capacity of the space is limited. Tickets can be booked through the portal GoOut.cz.

3C 273

AXT

Glory Affairs

Jonáš Strouhal

Martyyna

Sláva Sobotovičová

Sráč Sam

Tomek Pawłowski-Jarmołajev

Tot Onyx

Vojtěch Fröhlich

The performance festival To Leave Is to Return Another Way is organized by tranzit.cz in cooperation with Ankali and with the support of the City of Prague and the State Culture Fund of the Czech Republic. The main partner of tranzit.cz is the ERSTE Foundation. The media partners of the festival are A2 kulturní čtrnáctideník, Artalk.cz, ArtMap, and Deník Alarm.