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▓ Skeleton. Episode Two of the Euromedieval Saga |
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Exhibition History |
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Oct 2021-Jan 2022: Solo Exhibition, PLATO PLATO, Ostrava, Czech Republic ↗ |
Our exhibition text |
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„We sat at an elmwood table set in a branchy yew tree. Honza was translating a manuscript about the Druids and I was filling out my first tax return. The company I was delivering food for during lockdown is based in Denmark, so I guess I'm liable for VAT or something. In the Druidic teaching, the yew is associated with death and resurrection. That's why its wood is often used to make weapons.
The deathly light of the full moon was falling over the Prague Nine city district and the fridge was chilling with all its might all the wine left over from the exhibition opening. We had drunk many a glass when something else caught our attention. Our gaze fell on several large stones lying under the yew tree. † Pepíček the parrot, October 25, 1995; † Zuzanka, April 4, 2002; † Zuzi 2 the rosy-faced, April 19, 2002; † Pepík, June 6, 2002. When I saw a greenish light under the yew tree coming from the other side of the garden, I crept closer and jumped up onto a branch. Two almost identical skeleton hamsters were arranging pebbles in a kind of ecstatic concentration on a floor plan drawn on the table. A parrot moved around the edge, squeaking its beak, shaking and rattling its bones as if protecting the table with this ritual dance, while two human skeletons traced Druidic runes on the 2020 tax return. A trickle of rosé wine ran through their empty bodies from time to time. There were five of them. They were preparing an exhibition. Loss of muscle through education, ossification through bureaucracy, emptying through mannerism, the death of meaning before it has been revealed. We gathered, the five of us necromancers, to give reality a second life – and oh, what a life: the green light will easily stir the tax haven sand-clogged bones of Brussels, illuminate the stubborn skull of the Czech art scene, and break the chains over the chicken graves of shopping malls fast-food. One of the basic motifs of Dragon's Lair, the Czech version of the RPG (Role-Playing-Game) Dungeons & Dragons, are ruins. They are a harbinger of danger and often become a lair for various monsters or a refuge for those who need to hide. The Dragon's Lair is basically set in a fantasy world, but the possibilities for RPGs are unlimited – from historical re-enactments to completely abstract worlds of other forms and laws. In the context of contemporary gender issues, the imaginative and fictional nature of the game allows for free permeability, enabling the creation of a whole spectrum of environments – from totally discriminatory to utopian-like tolerant. An important element is the setting of the game situation, i.e. where the game is actually played. Minimalist demand on game resources is undoubtedly an advantage of the game (a pencil, paper and a die will do), but further elaboration of the environment where the player sits can enhance immersion on the one hand, and on the other make the game experience more connected to the reality outside the game." Viktor Dedek and Jan Boháč
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About the project |
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The third continuation of our collaboration with Jan Boháč called the Euro-Medieval Saga, a project whose central medium is the role-playing game Dungeon & Dragons. The game is based on the imaginative collaboration between the narrator and players who move around and act in a fictional world by means of verbal description, dice and several malleable game rules.
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This time we focused on the topic of necromancy and its positive potential, namely the fact that it gives us a second chance. The skeleton, as the central character – a personification of such quality – somehow remains what he once was, and yet he has the opportunity to change completely. Figuratively, necromancery as a power that can bring a second life to ossified institutions.
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In the middle of the gallery, we installed a modified shipwreck, which became the site of several games with members of the public. The adventures that took place on the ship this time – its second life – were quite different than when it had once sailed on water, and yet its past life had set the in‑game situations a certain direction.
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Documentation |
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