Tomáš Roček: A Tent One Must Step Out Of

Happening / Work in progress installation

During his residency in Košice, Tomáš Roček has been working with video and painting as means of transforming personal history—an attempt to take a step toward the world and to find a place within collective memory.

The theme of his upcoming video essay is transformation and the search for morally and critically grounded positions. As a tool for this process, he draws from his personal archive: video footage, photographs, diary entries, and found footage.

In a dialogue with his alter ego Muriel, Tomáš explores the origins of his fears, the values he holds, and what may need to be critically re-evaluated—asking what personal transformation might look like when it’s not centered on healing or happiness, but rather on firm moral stances and resilience.

It is an attempt to respond to the crisis of values that hangs in the air like damp smoke.

We invite you to join us inside an improvised tent built from canvases painted in Košice. Together, we will read excerpts of texts created in the context of Tomáš’s work and watch part of the video in the dim light of the shelter. The gathering will gently transition into an open conversation about fear, and the quiet steps we take—from the brightness of the kitchen into the darkness before midnight.

Tomáš Roček (CZ) is a multimedia artist working primarily with video and text, but also engages with other media such as sound, painting, performance, and object-based work. One of the key aspects of his artistic practice is recycling and sustainability. He has presented exhibitions such as Uncertain Cartographies at Prague City Gallery, Petrohradská kolektiv, Bludný kámen, among others. His poetry collection It’s Raining in Toronto was published by Malvern in 2021. He is also the founder of the Trsy festival, which explores sustainable connections between art and landscape.

The residency program is supported using public funding by the Slovak Arts Council. The Slovak Arts Council is the main partner of this project. The project was also supported by the City of Košice and the Košice Self-Governing Region.