DOUBLE DOG DAYS AFTERNOON - ZŮSTAŇ (STAY)
Video Documentation: Snap-shot Illustration
of the crucial & telling moments:
THE BACKGROUND STORY:
18th of June, in the very centre of Prague:
we were heading to one street performance of PQ11 and decided to buy some stuff first in a supermarket on the way. However right on a top of a stairway Jitka spotted The Dog sitting there and obviously waiting for its master to come back from shopping. And never she made it down the stairs.
Jitka’s idea came as an original reaction to this indeed ephemeral situation. She — without saying a word — simply sat on the ground next to the dog (even wearing a brown jumper same color as the dog’s fur) and stayed there, as if she was left there too, watching sadly Ondřej & Oldřich as they — not aware of any of that — were continuing downstairs and then into the shopping area.
Jitka stayed there alone with the dog, making its absurd and unpleasant situation — stressed by her even more absurd presence in such a position — widely visible (the corridor of the newly reconstructed holy shopping centre is from glass) and marked for all the passers-by.
After several minutes she really started to feel the intense of the dog’s feelings and its overhelming hope that its master would certainly come back. The dog was not moving from its place, just sitting and gathering all its growing emotions and impatience, and its attention was wholly attracted to the future moment in which it‘d gonna spot its master again. It ignored every possible distractions and only glimpsed now and then on the people passing by as if checking that the master‘s not approaching from some unexpected direction. Having no interest in anyone or anything else.
People started to stop by, were taking photos, shooting videos (Oldřich & Ondřej already too), making fun, offering their hands behind the glass wall, trying to win any attention not so much from the dog itself but rather from Jitka — since her unexplained presence was too disturbing. As Jitka, mirroring simply the dog‘s attitude, didn’t gave them more than a short glimpse expressing lack of interest, it made everyone feel confused and uneasy and people were quickly leaving.
Jitka was only following the tiny moves of the dog, synchronized with it; she‘d turn her head once in a while or gaze nervously downstairs; and the more excited and uptight the dog was getting the more intense the question in her head was growing and she wondered if there really was any master to come back for the dog ever again.
What if the dog had already been waiting there several hours or even days? Or what if the dog had been just wandering the whole weeks from one supermarket staircase to another in belief that its master would never gonna rid of it? What if she (and because of her already all the people from around in that moment) was experiencing this situation right away from the position of a dog abandoned and not able to understand it and get over its faith?
Well, you have already seen the rest of the story on the video. Actually even we were really surprised how the situation she put herself and all the random passers-by into developed and ended up. But of course it don’t make the questions and feelings disappear.
One more note on the soundtrack:
When editing the documentation and looking for some proper sound which would give a suitable rhytm to the material we found a song (Zůstaň/Stay) by our favorite contemporary Czech band MIDI LIDI which fitted perfectly to the event itself.
It is sarcastic and brief comment on the relationship bonds and it goes in Czech in three repetitive parts like this — illustrating the three parts of the event itself:
1) stay – stay – stay – stay – stay – stay ...
2) be my capital – so stay – be my capital – so stay mine – be my capital – so stay just mine ...
3) don’t get rid of me – I’m your capital – don’t get rid of me – I’m your capital - don’t get rid of me - I’m your capital.
Your Commentaries: Double Dog Days Afternoon (Zůstaň)
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