Thin Skin

Performers: Eliška Brtnická, Alžběta Tichá, Filip Zahradnický

Trapeze artist Eliška Brtnická has long been engaged in artistic research in the field of contemporary circus. She asks questions about what a trapeze is, what forms it can take, how it reflects on the movement of the body and what this movement conveys to the spectator. Her work is characterized by strong visual elements, which is why her new project is presented in the context of the gallery. In Thin Skin, for which she invited Alžběta Ticha and Filip Zahradnický, she focused on the trapeze as a kinetic and action sculpture. The trapeze was deconstructed, its parameters radically changed and the main protagonist became a long thin iron rod.

„We are fascinated by the behaviour of the material, the movement of the suspended rod almost hypnotizes us. Certain movements can irreversibly affect the shape of the trapeze bar and create new conditions of non-stability to which we must adapt. We come to terms with a fragility and vulnerability that can only be felt through thin skin.“*

*Thin Skin is a meditative work of movement installation. The world as a graphic model, a landscape of lines. Metal rods intertwine in space with the bodies of the performers, who sensitively receive the physical responses of the material – their partner. Moving sculptures appear and disappear. Their archetypal skeletons can be wrapped in meanings or just be left to flow. The body imprints itself in the material, the image in the mind, time bends. This intuitive physics demonstrates the most basic principles of being in the earth's gravitational field.