PERFORMANCE: RIP THE TEA / HELD

Who is allowed to speak out loud and who is left with only a whisper? Who is believed and whose voice is labeled hysterical, exaggerated or unnecessary? Gossip as a banality, but also a tool of power. In messages, chats, behind the scenes and between the lines that change reputations, relationships and the rules of the game. It functions as a form of regulation, interpretation, and informal justice. At the same time, it can create connections where official structures fail.

HELD approaches gossip as material that needs to be opened and examined. Cut, uncovered, named, cared for, and looks at the mechanisms of shame, discipline, desire and solidarity. At the small stories that create and disrupt hierarchies. To a voice that has long been devalued, but is still coming back. Language as a form of care and a tool for collective survival.

Gossip is not background noise here. It is a space where alternative culture, community, alliances and conflicts arise. Whispers can become articulated resistance.

HELD will present a performance, discussion and workshop in trazitsk.

Members of the collective: Daniela Drobná, Jaroslava Labudová, Veronika Majerčíková, Michaela Kacsiová, Mária Kižnanská, Hana Ontkocová, Fanny Elisabeth Pekarčíková, Sarah Camilla Pekarčíková, Elena Špirengová, Lenka Štefanková

What happens when a group of women create a group chat on Instagram?
HELD is an art-theoretical collective formed out of friendship, shared experience and the need to articulate our own position. We grew up on the peripheries of Slovakia marked by economic deprivation, in the reality of gender inequalities and constant questioning of identity. We share care as a process, strategy and practice. We connect the personal with the political, women’s experience with collective resistance. We create without pressure, without burnout, without obedience.

This event is organized as a part of the Study Room – Platform for Mutual Learning a project initiated by Judit Angel, Viktoria Gajdošová, and Vivien Kvasnicová.

It is a project of the tranzit.org network.
tranzit.sk is a member of the network.

Ilustration: Lenka Štefanková
Visual Identity: Vivien Kvasnicová.