Report of Transart Communication2012
24 - 30 September 2012
Kosice Slovakia
Official opening and speech of exhibition and video screening at DIG Gallery
Transart Communication 2012
International Performance Art Festival
by Chuyia Chia
the Technical University of Košice, Faculty of Arts,
with volunteers involved from the university.
The 21st edition of Transart Communication
2012 International Performance Art Festival started
a new series of the TAC 2012 festival in the city
Košice, Slovakia, from 24 to September 30 2012 at
the Gallery Tabacka and main square are in Košice.
The festival has presented more than 20 major and
emerging artists from over 12 countries that
consists of exhibition, video screenings,
performance art workshop, performance art
program and performance art on the train, as a
testing idea for a bigger project for Kosice 2013 European Cultural Capital. The festival was
organised with and supported by Ministry of
Culture of the Slovak Republic, as a partner of the
Kosice2013 - European Cultural Capital, the three
Universities of Fine Arts (Bratislava, Banska
Bystrica, Kosice), as well as has collaborated with
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During the one week festival, I have presented
four works instead of only one.
First, 'Reading in Kosice' instead of Water right,
an adjusted idea based on the same concept about
the pollution on environment that polluted and
endangered not only the surrounding
environment, but our mind and mental space. The
work was executed at Tabacka Kulturfabrik. I
started with a reading out loud of different
newspapers from different countries, interacting
between and in the middle of the audience. The
papers thereafter has burnt into ashes in a metal
bucket that filled with clean water. Water
contained the burnt news and ashes, poured into a
filter, that support to filter as clean water, instead,
it was bloody water flowing out from the filter.
24 - 30 September 2012
Reading in Kosice, Tabacka Kulturfabrik
The performance ended
when the filter has
finally dropped on the
floor due to burden and
weights, splashed and
left over a bloody floor.
The bloody water was
the effect of color
pigment. the
performance took about
20 mins or more.
2
Second, 'A thread of
red between us', a
communal and
communicative base
performance that
reached out to the local
community and the local
citizen in the main
street of Kosice, Hlavna
Ulica. I have a big roll of
red thread hanging
around my waist. I
pulled the thread slowly
and approached the
people sitting on the
street and in the park. It
was a beautiful saturday
with many are off duty
and enjoyed family time
in the park and on the
street. I had translated
text on both my arms,
'please tell me your
story to exchange for a
flower'. When I
approached different
age group of people,
and showed them the
text as many don't
speak english,
surprisingly they told
me their story, beautiful
story, sad story,
interesting story, about
themselves, about their
school, about their city,
about their love and so
on. During the
participation of the
conversation, my hand
pulled out the red
thread and weaving a
flower, by finger, and
helped putting on the
participant when they
finished the story. A
volunteer was helping
for documentation and
translation found out
that she was very
surprise of the reaction
of the people from her
own city, as she never
thought people are
open to stranger as they
don't normally do. It
changed her perspective
of how an art work can
engaged and opened up
a person. The work took
about a duration of 2
1/2 hours. I ended the
last person who told me
his catastrophic story
that has make me very
emotional and I decided
to end the performance.
Third, 'Action
between two cities', I
called it ComLab series,
a monthly public
intervention
performance in the city
of Gothenburg. It was
happened that the
schedule fall on the time
that I was outside
Gothenburg, I made a
public action together
with another ComLab
member in the city of
Kosice co-existencely
with other members in
the city of Gothenburg
at the same time. We
found an old and
unused telefon booth,
decorated it with
flowers that we got from
the nearby morning
market, one standing
inside the telefon booth
and the other outside
the telefon booth,
created a beautiful
relationship between
inside and outside.
Meanwhile in the city of
Gothenburg, other
members were
collecting sounds from
the city, remix and
transmitted to internet.
Fourth, a
collaboration work with
Joakim Stampe
'Intellectual bar' on the
performance art train
between the city of
Kosice and the city of
24 - 30 September 2012
Reading in Kosice, Tabacka Kulturfabrik, Kosice
Bratislava. The performance art
program was schedule together
with other activity going on in a
duration of 5 hours. There were
poetry readings, a mobile library
and book shop, interview and
conversation of organizer of
Kosice 2013 and invited writers,
and of course performance art
action happening accordingly to
the program. In ''Intellectual bar'
we were serving cocktail that was
a mixing drink with book dust
that drilled from difference
books specially from great
philosopher, such as Michel
Foucault, Peter Weiss and so on.
Audiences were free to select an
author of their choice, Joakim
drilled the book to get the dust,
and I put them together with
fruit, alcohol and juice in a
blender, mixed and offered to
audience. The performance was
taking about 1 1/2 hours and
has attracted many people to and
around the little bar in the train.
realistic realization and
budgeting. It was incredible.
most of the stuffs are pretty
concentrated in the city center.
There were 30mins party at
the end of program after all, on
the train, before arriving
Bratislava. Everybody were
dancing and connected very well
in the end of the festival, and
that including other partner
organizers other than Transart
Communication stuff and artists.
The festival have great
volunteer crews that helped a lot
in term of technical need and
setting up of space for realising
artists's work. Besides, a team of
media crew, helped in
documentation in both form like
still images and moving images,
also responding to the media
and working on publicity.
The festival remained open
minded attitude, so there were
discussion and feedback after all
program of the festival, which I
thought it was good and
important. For a festival and
event to improved, it required an
open arm, embraced new input
as well as criticism. Through my
observation, discussion and
exchanges with the artists and
organizer, I really appreciated
the festival brought us together
for such amazing experience.
Kosice has it potential for a
The idea of the performance
festival like this, clean city,
art train was really amazing and
affordable consumption so
interesting. I was happy and
artists are not starved from a
honored to be in this project, to
over expensive city. The artists
see how the collaboration
have comfortable lodging right in
between organizers and their
the middle of the city, with all
test and carried out the idea on
restaurant, cafe, and market
the train, for subsequence bigger around. It was easy to get
project, also to understand
performance material too since
3
The cost to bring my self
there and during the budget
spending in Kosice by
percentage was as such, 55%
went to all forms of
transportations (flights, trains,
airport transfers, taxi, local
transport etc), 35% went to
eateries and drink, 10% to
material that help realizing the
performance work.
Last but not least, the
contribution and support from
Iaspis was acknowledged and
credited, the gratitude was
specially mentioned during the
exhibition opening speech in the
gallery. The logo of Iaspis was
also printed in the catalogue of
the festival in the specific artist
profile page.
24 - 30 September 2012
A thread of red between us, Hlavna Ulica, Kosice.
Personally I am thankful to the support of Iaspis
that I have the such opportunity to experience this
special exchange. Due to the reason that poster
has printed before the notification of the grant,
the organizer hoped that the acknowledgement of
the support from Iaspis is suffice with the
catalogue.
4
Transart Communication is a non-profit
organization, with support of most media based in
Kosice, but they have yet to have an official
website. Insteads, they have many area for
publicity to cover the event. Major social network
media were the important platform for
publication, such as Facebook, YouTube, Blogs,
and local TV news. Below find the links, but they
all in Slovakian.
24 - 30 September 2012
A thread of red between us, Hlavna Ulica, Kosice.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PW0v4xs6KeE
Links and media report about the
festival
https://www.facebook.com/pages/TransArtCommunicaTION/400704369984667?ref=ts&fref=ts
TV news from mins 3:56-5:25
http://www.stv.sk/online/archiv/spravy-hirek?
date=2012-10-01&id=50484
5
http://www.felvidek.ma/felvidek/kultura/35771transart-communication-kassan
http://www.piestanskydennik.sk/sita-detail/?
tx_kiossita_pi1%5Bdetail%5D=118822
http://kocsisova.blog.sme.sk/c/307641/TransartCommunication-2012-v-Kosiciach.html
24 - 30 September 2012
6
Co-exist, Action between two cities
by Chuyia Chia and Joakim Stampe
24 - 30 September 2012
Performance Art Train
between Kosice and Bratislava.
Interview with writer and poetry reading
Activities and performance art on the train
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24 - 30 September 2012
Action on the train
‘Intellectual bar’ by Chuyia Chia and Joakim Stampe
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