THE ERGOT //

METAMORPHOSIS OF HOSPITALITY AND BLEAKNESS

We are all just the last larvae of the butterfly effect.

Our parents' generation isn’t dead, because “as long as there’s singing, no one has died”. But our generation seems dead – passive, indifferent, unawakened. In a world of revolutions and celebrations of revolutions, we have not learned to be sustainable.

We feel pressure and responsibility to fix problems we did not create, while also experiencing a constant unrest and fear that, should we find peace, we would not know how to survive in it. We do not see our generation’s lethargy as the result of inaction, but rather as an active choice to become something permanent, unnoticed, and constant. Something like a mountain, a landscape itself. The question of whether to stay or leave, and what vision we have for ourselves and the country we inhabit, becomes more complicated by the day – by the undignified treatment between the government and the citizens, and among citizens themselves.

A retreat to nature – because in its helpless and silent scream, in its thoughtful yet unsolvable, deafening silence, one can endure.

The text was read in the Velvet Revolution Square in Bratislava during the Velvet! festival (16 November 2025), performed by actresses Annamária Janeková, Viktória Vadovičová, and Naďa Balacenková.

Note: Ergot is an exceptionally important text for my artistic practice, as it allowed me to discover my own authorial voice, which I wish to continue developing in my future work.