Oto Hudec: Kým plávame spolu / As Long as We Float Together SK
2024
As Long as We Float Together
performance: Songs for Planetary Articulation
performers: Anna Čonková, Eva Šušková, Marek Kundlák, and Peter Mazalán
sculpture installation, performance
wood, acrylic, audio system
collaborated by: Juliana Sokolová, Fero Király, Petra Fornayová, Michaela Bednárová, and Lýdia Pribišová
PROGRAM
Oto Hudec: As Long as We Float Together / performance
Friday
10:30 – 11:00
17:30 – 18:00
Saturday
10:30 – 11:00
17:00 – 17:30
The installation and performance titled As Long as We Float Together is a tribute to endangered trees and people—the activists who stood up in their defense. It continues the Floating Arboretum project, which was part of the Slovak representation at last year’s Venice Biennale. A symbolic wooden boat carries an oversized wooden cone of the Lebanese cedar, a species threatened by climate change.
What can we do when forests and trees are in danger? Is there a safe place to transport them to?
It often seems as though we, trees and humans, coexist in a conflict—one growth opposing another, competing for space on Earth. But this is a misconception: a forest is a multi-species organism and is always open to welcoming humans in its community. For mutual survival, there is only one thing we can do—cooperate. This exhibition project narrates the story of moments when people and trees acted together, in physical proximity, for a shared cause. And although they did not always win, they always achieved something.
The project is dedicated to activists, environmentalists, and many passionate individuals who did not hesitate to sacrifice personal comfort for the sake of saving endangered trees. The boat structure with the oversized cone serves as a platform for a musical performance titled Songs for Planetary Articulation created by poet Juliana Sokolová, musician Fero Király, choreographer Petra Fornayová, and textile designer Michaela Bednárová (the Floating Arboretum project was curated by Lýdia Pribišová).