SYMBIOSIS WITH THE TREES LED BY SCARF (2022)
A spontaneous conversation, that led us to a visceral, embodied, emotive and creative ex- perience. Here is the documentation of this journey together. Helikon & Sol, driven by that one special scarf. A scarf as a talisman, a scarf as a guide.
We began organically, no plan, just an idea to design an artwork together, to be printed onto a scarf. Starting out with the notion this would be a project for one afternoon, we had no idea of the deeper journey that would unfold.
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At first, we sat down and talked through our memories, of our roots, our Mums, our bodies, female energy, where we grew up (Czechia & France) what brought us here to London. While exchanging and connecting on many elements and experiences, we started gathe- ring images, sketches, and words from our past life which were igniting and inspiring these conversations. After a few hours, the visual artefacts were then assembled digitally as a collage following a simple grid of small squares, like a photo album. A memory book.
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Dancing in the wood
We printed the collage onto a scarf, and the memories took on a physical dimension.
A visceral connection with this object inspired us to take the scarf and our bodies to the outside world, to a nocturnal realm. To capture the scarf inside the world it was created in.
We ended up going to a little clearing in the woods by night, close to our home. We jumped the fence, warm clothes on, music in the pocket, our phones, and the precious scarf.
It was cold and gloomy, the wood was loud and windy. We were alone with the foxes and night birds. The light was dim, a new realm by night.
Our bones were freezing but the cold began to fade and an unexpected warmth started to enter our bodies contrasting with the frozen tips of our fingers.
An indescribable energy was slowly inhabiting our bodies and we started to blend with the trees that were surrounding us. Scared and excited, adrenaline moving through us, our senses were suddenly heightened. The moon shimmered through the trees, the light was powerful.
For hours we sat, we listened, we felt, we breathed, we talked, we danced, we climbed, we undressed, we filmed, always holding the scarf. Silence, conversations, fears, freedom, sensuality, adrenaline, craned our necks into the forest above.
We left in the middle of the night, slowly crept out as dawn approached, both euphoric. Bringing back branches we had gathered there.
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Suddenly, in a halted moment we realized ‘where is the scarf?’ followed by, ‘we’ve lost the scarf’.
We didn’t go back to the woods, we left it there, it belongs to the wood now and someone may find it.
What an odd feeling to know a person may hold our precious square of fabric with our naked bodies, portraits of our mums, and intimate poetry.
Where is it now? Taken by the night.
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Afterward, we locked ourselves in a room for 2 days, we blocked the light from the win- dows and created a space immersed in projections of the images we took in the wood. Darkness, blue UV halo, projecting on our bodies while keeping the conversation flowing, getting lost in time once again, diving in an ocean of powerful emotions and secrets that this room will hold forever.
A response to the smell and the light of the wood.
A response to our energies of the moment, our soul merging, our bodies connecting without a touch.
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Photographed, filmed, and edited on iPhone:
Solène Riff @solenebiff & Aneta Šebestová @helikon_xx / helikonxx.com
Sound and text: Akimat @sub_mar_een
NASTY MAGAZINE: https://www.nastymagazine.com/art-culture/symbiose-by-riff-sebastova/