Heaven Above Tábor / Tribute To My Father

My dad has lived for airplanes since childhood. His dream was to become a pilot: when he couldn’t, he dropped out of high school and went to an aviation apprenticeship so that he could at least assemble and repair planes. He has remained faithful to his original childhood hobby till today. Over the decades he collected medals at world championships in the field of „free flight“, i.e. non-motorized aircraft, he was among others a coach of the Czech junior national team, and invented various technical improvements for aircraft construction.
What airplanes mean to my dad is poetry to me. The Heaven Over Tábor event is a symbolic tribute to his perseverance and ability to succeed in an unusual field. In a small passenger plane, I read the Zone, whose original (relatively short) text I had varied in various ways, and the author’s reading was transmitted via mobile phone to the Okraje gallery space. My intention was to read continuously throughout the flight, which was arranged for 15 minutes. However, we ended up staying in the air for three times as long, which made me deconstruct the text completely and end up creating entirely new poems and meanings in a slightly hypnotic state.

Performed as part of „The Poetry Is“ festival, 20 May 2023 in Tábor, Čápův dvůr airport.

The artwork was exhibited as an audiovisual installation as part of the Jana Orlová exhibition: Above Ground, (A)void Gallery, Prague, 10.11. – 17.11. 2023, curator Matouš Karel Zavadil. The opening included a musical improvisation with Jan Chaluš (Tree of Shadows) and Mikoláš Chadima (MCH Band).

CH

The performance took place on a ferry that circled the route around the old railway bridge over the Vltava River, whose possible demolition has stirred up local resentment. At the Bridge Connects Festival 13.10 – 16.10.2023, a number of artists of various backgrounds expressed their support for the bridge. Jana Orlová was the curator of the performance section 15.10. 2023, during which she and Ondřej Macl realized a performance entitled CH. In it, the themes of the Charonic ferrying, death, the figure of Persephone, and the poison that brings oblivion resonated. The performance took place in very bad weather, but this did not deter the artists or the audience.

Festival Most spojuje, Prague, 15 October 2023, photo by Jan Černý.

To Write, To Drink

Creativity and alcohol… myth or reality? A literary experiment, writing, and consumption during a three-hour performance.

The performance is a part of my project of long durational performances/ poetry writing under the influence of various consciousness-changing substances.

Next Wave festival, HaDivadlo, Brno, 6.10. 2023, foto Anna Černá.

https://nextwave.cz/jana-orlova-psat-pit/

1st Liberec Poetry Festival, 14 October 2024, photo author’s archive.

Mors ex machina

The eclectic Grim Reaper performed as a guest in the stage form Stupid Game directed by Ondřej Macl. The Grim Reaper was and was not part of the play itself – she functioned rather as an independent performative deux ex machina. Another conceptual layer of the performance was working with the specific environment of the touristically overexposed center of Prague. The distinctive costume, which mixed several cultural traditions (Mexico, Japan, China, India), was first perceived by passers-by from afar as just another commercial attraction. Challenging the status quo was part of the artist’s intention.

Next Wave Festival, Piazzetta of the National Theatre, 25 September 2023, photo by Anna Černá.