Trieste: In-between states, 2016

Tereza Stehlíková, VSKK Prague

Screening of an impressionistic documentary about Trieste, inspired by a conversation with John Berger on a train from Geneva to Milan. Trieste, a city with a unique history of fluctuating fortunes, lies at the crossroads of different cultures and political states. It is a liminal place, “a hallucinatory city, where fantasy easily brushes with fact” (Jan Morris). The film’s narrative is woven from fragments of interviews, readings, and observations and is a collaboration with writer Deborah Levy. I would like to discuss aspects of the creative process that led me to make this film, how a place can become an expression of an internal state, and the idea of nostalgia for a city one has not yet visited.

Tereza Stehlíková is an artist, researcher and educator. She is the head of the visual arts department at VSKK and also teaches artistic research to PhD and MA students at Academy of Performing Arts and Academy of Applied Arts, Prague. Tereza is engaged in research focused on investigating the role our senses and embodiment play in conveying meaning through artistic practice. Her practice spans moving image, installation and participatory performance and is driven by cross-disciplinary collaboration. She is currently writing a book called Exiled from our Bodies, How to Come Back to our Senses to be published by Routledge, and is also an editor of an online arts journal/platform Tangible Territory, featuring essays and articles by established artists/authors from the world of arts, science, philosophy. Her research can be explored here: cinestheticfeasts.com/about/