AUTOCHORA by holo- collective (Michaela Cagáňová & Kamila Valešová)
JEDNA DVA TŘI Gallery
16. 06. 2025 - 28. 07. 2025
Vstupné: dobrovolné
Entry: donation
AUTOCHORA — by holo- collective - Michaela Cagáňová & Kamila Valešová (@michaela_cagan & @kml_vls )
curated by Edita Malina (@edita.malina)
performance by Ondřej Kubeš (@kubeon)
What stories could be told if, instead of looking, hearing, or reading, we just smelled our way through life? Can scents offer us different narratives about the world?
As we don't have any means to preserve scents and smells from the prehistoric era, it is solely left to our imagination. These scents are unarchivable, but yet, they are probably stored somewhere within us, bodily. The scent memory passes as one collective organic archive through generations and generations, via soil, water and various organisms.
Heavily fueled by the ambition to free ourselves from human-oriented perspectives of the world, holo- tried to broaden their perspective on scents by focusing on other species.
If the prehistoric stages of the world had their scents preserved, what would they smell like?
Holo- tried to rebuild these narratives via their own scent fossils. Attempting to capture the world life cycle in five stages from the appearance of the very first organism until the very ending of the planet, holo- designed five unique scents to represent this cycle; to get closer to the world’s scent memory. A complete cycle that can be repeated over and over and in which humanity constitutes only a small fragment of the whole. These scents were presented in the custom-made glass censer, which was set in movement during a performance by Ondřej Kubeš.
Holo- proposed whether this ever-repeating cycle of five scents cannot work within the exhibition as some sort of universal, more-than-human “wisdom.”
The universal story of emergence, transformation and decay translated via scents. If non-human actors could pass on their wisdom; if they had their own form of spirituality, or their own values and morals--it could probably take the form of scent. Bodily, intimate, ungraspable, yet powerful. Scent, which often works as an equivalent to language for different species. The visual motifs that blur the lines between what comes across as scientific and what comes across as metaphorical is visualised on the standing altar which works as a space for pondering.
/borosilicate glass, five custom-made scents, metal construction, engraved glass and plaster tiles, glass objects, powder images on the floor
Installation accompanied by performance by Ondřej Kubeš
curated by Edita Malina (@edita.malina)
performance by Ondřej Kubeš (@kubeon)
What stories could be told if, instead of looking, hearing, or reading, we just smelled our way through life? Can scents offer us different narratives about the world?
As we don't have any means to preserve scents and smells from the prehistoric era, it is solely left to our imagination. These scents are unarchivable, but yet, they are probably stored somewhere within us, bodily. The scent memory passes as one collective organic archive through generations and generations, via soil, water and various organisms.
Heavily fueled by the ambition to free ourselves from human-oriented perspectives of the world, holo- tried to broaden their perspective on scents by focusing on other species.
If the prehistoric stages of the world had their scents preserved, what would they smell like?
Holo- tried to rebuild these narratives via their own scent fossils. Attempting to capture the world life cycle in five stages from the appearance of the very first organism until the very ending of the planet, holo- designed five unique scents to represent this cycle; to get closer to the world’s scent memory. A complete cycle that can be repeated over and over and in which humanity constitutes only a small fragment of the whole. These scents were presented in the custom-made glass censer, which was set in movement during a performance by Ondřej Kubeš.
Holo- proposed whether this ever-repeating cycle of five scents cannot work within the exhibition as some sort of universal, more-than-human “wisdom.”
The universal story of emergence, transformation and decay translated via scents. If non-human actors could pass on their wisdom; if they had their own form of spirituality, or their own values and morals--it could probably take the form of scent. Bodily, intimate, ungraspable, yet powerful. Scent, which often works as an equivalent to language for different species. The visual motifs that blur the lines between what comes across as scientific and what comes across as metaphorical is visualised on the standing altar which works as a space for pondering.
/borosilicate glass, five custom-made scents, metal construction, engraved glass and plaster tiles, glass objects, powder images on the floor
Installation accompanied by performance by Ondřej Kubeš
An accompanying workshop Scent is Present III will take place in conjunction with the exhibition.
Said workshop will be held by Holo-collective and Sleepy Press.
What unknown stories could scents and odours tell us?
On July 6th, join holo-collective and Sleepy Press for a scent-fueled writing workshop! For their exhibition “AUTOCHORA”, holo-collective developed 5 scents representing the different stages of a life-cycle. Starting from these scents, participants are invited to explore their perceptions of the world via scents, smells and stink in a series of collective and individual writing exercises guided by experimental publishing project Sleepy Press.
Date: 6th July 2025
Time: 1-4pm
Place: Petrohradská kolektiv, Petrohradská 438/13, 101 00 Praha 10-Vršovice
Scent cannot be digitized, stored online, Scent is about coming close, Close to its source, Breathing in the scent molecules, becoming one with them, Scent is present.
What unknown stories could scents and odours tell us? How can we tell stories in dialogue with the natural world?
For their exhibition “AUTOCHORA”, holo-collective developed 5 scents representing the different stages of a life-cycle. Starting from these scents, workshop participants are invited to explore their perceptions of the world via scents, smells and stink in a series of collective and individual writing exercises guided by experimental publishing project Sleepy Press.
Playing with the tension between growth and decay present in holo’s exhibition “AUTOCHORA”, in SCENT IS PRESENT III we propose to collaboratively re-imagine the life cycle by creating stories from scents. Participants will somatically explore 5 different scents developed by holo-collective by engaging in writing exercises. Based on both our olfactory associations and excerpts from texts that inspired the exhibition, together we will explore these narratives, destroying, reusing, and adding onto them, in order to create new stories for the life cycle from the ruins of the old.
There will be both individual and collective exercises, ultimately leading towards the making of a joint publication that proposes itself as an experimental archive for an ephemeral medium. This publication will be published in collaboration with Paper Can Dance. All participants will receive a free copy at a later date. Individual texts will remain anonymous, unless participants wish otherwise.
The workshop is open to any form of “writing” be it prose, poetry, automatic writing or even drawings.
The workshop will be conducted in English, but participants are invited to write in English and/or Czech/Slovak.
If you have any further questions or concerns do not hesitate to contact: holoquiries@gmail.com
About
“SCENT IS PRESENT” is a series of scent-related workshops organized by holo-collective and facilitated by different creative practitioners such as olfactory artist Elektra Stamopoulou or experimental publishing project Sleepy Press. The aim of the workshop series is to re-think the world around us through scents, breaking free of binary understandings of our environments.
Holo- is a duo consisting of graphic designer Kamila Valešová (1995) and transdisciplinary glass artist Michaela Cagáňová (1999). A millennial and Gen Z duet. The driving force behind their practice is a curiosity about how non-human life operates, explored through field research and collaboration with experts across various scientific fields. The core of their practice is fabricating hypothetical, fictional landscapes and narratives in which they apply post-anthropocentric values.
Sleepy Press is an experimental publishing project based in Amsterdam, edited by Lucia Holásková and Marta Lopes Santos. Our first issue, on Anger, came out in February and is stocked in 10 bookshops around Europe. Our next publication - Letters of No - is forthcoming later this year. Sleepy Press seeks to playfully expand their publishing practice through publications, workshops, broadcasts and other community events.
Said workshop will be held by Holo-collective and Sleepy Press.
What unknown stories could scents and odours tell us?
On July 6th, join holo-collective and Sleepy Press for a scent-fueled writing workshop! For their exhibition “AUTOCHORA”, holo-collective developed 5 scents representing the different stages of a life-cycle. Starting from these scents, participants are invited to explore their perceptions of the world via scents, smells and stink in a series of collective and individual writing exercises guided by experimental publishing project Sleepy Press.
Date: 6th July 2025
Time: 1-4pm
Place: Petrohradská kolektiv, Petrohradská 438/13, 101 00 Praha 10-Vršovice
Scent cannot be digitized, stored online, Scent is about coming close, Close to its source, Breathing in the scent molecules, becoming one with them, Scent is present.
What unknown stories could scents and odours tell us? How can we tell stories in dialogue with the natural world?
For their exhibition “AUTOCHORA”, holo-collective developed 5 scents representing the different stages of a life-cycle. Starting from these scents, workshop participants are invited to explore their perceptions of the world via scents, smells and stink in a series of collective and individual writing exercises guided by experimental publishing project Sleepy Press.
Playing with the tension between growth and decay present in holo’s exhibition “AUTOCHORA”, in SCENT IS PRESENT III we propose to collaboratively re-imagine the life cycle by creating stories from scents. Participants will somatically explore 5 different scents developed by holo-collective by engaging in writing exercises. Based on both our olfactory associations and excerpts from texts that inspired the exhibition, together we will explore these narratives, destroying, reusing, and adding onto them, in order to create new stories for the life cycle from the ruins of the old.
There will be both individual and collective exercises, ultimately leading towards the making of a joint publication that proposes itself as an experimental archive for an ephemeral medium. This publication will be published in collaboration with Paper Can Dance. All participants will receive a free copy at a later date. Individual texts will remain anonymous, unless participants wish otherwise.
The workshop is open to any form of “writing” be it prose, poetry, automatic writing or even drawings.
The workshop will be conducted in English, but participants are invited to write in English and/or Czech/Slovak.
If you have any further questions or concerns do not hesitate to contact: holoquiries@gmail.com
About
“SCENT IS PRESENT” is a series of scent-related workshops organized by holo-collective and facilitated by different creative practitioners such as olfactory artist Elektra Stamopoulou or experimental publishing project Sleepy Press. The aim of the workshop series is to re-think the world around us through scents, breaking free of binary understandings of our environments.
Holo- is a duo consisting of graphic designer Kamila Valešová (1995) and transdisciplinary glass artist Michaela Cagáňová (1999). A millennial and Gen Z duet. The driving force behind their practice is a curiosity about how non-human life operates, explored through field research and collaboration with experts across various scientific fields. The core of their practice is fabricating hypothetical, fictional landscapes and narratives in which they apply post-anthropocentric values.
Sleepy Press is an experimental publishing project based in Amsterdam, edited by Lucia Holásková and Marta Lopes Santos. Our first issue, on Anger, came out in February and is stocked in 10 bookshops around Europe. Our next publication - Letters of No - is forthcoming later this year. Sleepy Press seeks to playfully expand their publishing practice through publications, workshops, broadcasts and other community events.
Provoz kulturních aktivit Petrohradská kolektiv je v roce 2025 finančně podpořen Ministerstvem kultury ČR, Hlavním městem Praha a Městskou částí Prahy 10, Národním plánem obnovy ze zdrojů Evropské unie.
The production of the cultural activities of the Petrohradská kolektiv is financially supported in 2025 by the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic, Capital city of Prague, and the Municipal District of Prague 10.
