AiR 2026 / Azolla Collective

During a short exploratory and research residency, the Azolla Collective mapped the city and explored its cracks. The participating artists observed its infrastructure and searched for abandoned places.

• “We rested together with the space. We worked with the principles of observing, recording, slowing down, and sensitively perceiving changes in the environment over time. While travelling through the city, we discovered an unnamed place where we would like to bring our performance light.dusk.shadow next year. The performance responds to the in-between time and in-between space that emerge in the moments when streetlights are switched on.”

The place discovered by the collective for their future work is located near the K Polabinám bus stop. It is a vague terrain that provides a shortcut from the Závodu Míru housing estate, past the K Polabinám kindergarten, to the road on K Polabinám Street. This neglected place, representing a crack in the urban landscape, has the ambiguous character of a transit space. The collective wants to draw attention to this uncertain fissure, especially as the abandoned park has also been attracting attention among local residents in online discussions, culminating in a petition opposing the planned development.

The Azolla Collective will continue its creative work next year, when a workshop and public performance will also take place.

Azolla Collective, formed by performers Lucie Vrbíková and Adina Voldrábová, focuses on artistic interventions and performances in public space that create opportunities for sharing and gathering through movement, participation, and collective imagination. They draw inspiration from the inconspicuous aquatic fern azolla – a symbol of care, interconnectedness, and creating the conditions for others to grow.

The OFFCITY AiR 2026 residency project is made possible with the kind financial support of the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic and the Statutory City of Pardubice.