Holding River

2022

Site-specific performance in collaboration with Eva Priečková
Venue: Danube River bank in Bratislava, Slovakia

HOLDING RIVER performance was created on the bank and in the stream of the Danube river near Bratislava. Layer by layer, we built our choreography as intimate listening and whispering to the environment, as a reflection of our relationship to the river and its bank. The performance begins and ends with putting a stone into our mouths – mirroring the river bed within our own bodies. We are she – she is us.
The choreography unfolds in several loose, overlapping chapters, exploring the possibilities of one’s body in the context of natural environment by mirroring – exploring – playing – submerging – letting go – pushing against and surrendering.

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82) Water is always a spiritual presence. In the company of water I feel in me the presence of things that exceed me.

118) Water is always an intimate experience, even as rain or ocean or river.

119) Water is always an intimate experience, you can’t separate yourself from it.

122) Water is always an intimate experience, your relationship to water is your relationship to yourself.

133) When I look at water, especially this water, I find myself wondering about it: its mechanics, its poetics, and so on. I wander in my thoughts. I go places. Water is lubricant to other places.

135) Water is lubricant to other places; it catalyzes memory and aspiration. (Time has no direction near water).

Excerpts from ANOTHER WATER (The River Thames, for Example)
by Roni Horn, 2000

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(Photo documentation by Natália Zajačiková)