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2024: A year of trains, zines, cables, and resistance
The OBJECT:PARADISE team recounts some of its most memorable moments from 2024.
2024 began 8hrs east of Prague in cozy overheated bunkbeds on the overnight train to Košice. We drank store-bought haiku, wrote knock-off božkov, and waved our shared flag at Tabačka Kulturfabrik in the January haze. Greeted by our dear friends at Slam Poetry SK, we premiered our collective project: Performance, Deformance, Reformance along with on-site readings, actions, and sounds.
And in a city where, just outside of its borders, culture & expression is monitored, we felt your honest and passionate desire to create, sustain, and preserve community through diversity and resilience. We thank you for welcoming us into your circle.
And in a city where, just outside of its borders, culture & expression is monitored, we felt your honest and passionate desire to create, sustain, and preserve community through diversity and resilience. We thank you for welcoming us into your circle.
We drank store-bought haiku, wrote knock-off božkov, and waved our shared flag at Tabačka Kulturfabrik in the January haze.
And after that year and a half of scheming, teething, and happening, we clapped our softened hands & took them on the final train back home to Prague where we would later find each moment engraved. Thank you for letting us get to know you, Krakow, Budapest, and Košice. See you at a potraviny in Žižkov soon.
From February thru December we sat in chairs to let our hair dangle and tangle still in ecstasy. We hosted several zine workshops at Místečko and Kampus Hybernská where we snipped, sipped, glued, and smoothed 56 pages of works from 24 different creators for five new issues of KROTCH Mag.
Thank you for helping us push the O:P Manifesto thru foldable Žižkov monoliths in opposition to the Vinohrady monarch. Your voices are carried in the back pockets of many.
Thank you for helping us push the O:P Manifesto thru foldable Žižkov monoliths in opposition to the Vinohrady monarch. Your voices are carried in the back pockets of many.
Thank you for helping us push the O:P Manifesto thru foldable Žižkov monoliths in opposition to the Vinohrady monarch.
In April, we brought a 100m video cable to the Art Brut Gallery and invited our community to watch a one-time film premiere. One-time because it would never happen again; never happen again because what was projected was being filmed in that moment (100m outside the venue).
The project was titled “Anti-Climax” and nothing happened out of script, because there was no script–only improvised movement & direction. And when we entered the venue with the camera, the method of capture became the subject, the shared moment between the performers & the audience the object.
In June, we launched OBJECT:PARODY, a monthly variety show in partnership with Shella Radio at Planeta za, Ankali. The radioshow exposes the (in)deciences of the artworld that Prague (mis)represents by featuring creative works & reports from KROTCH Mag along with interviews from our OBJECT:VAULT series, critical discussions, and music from the Prague scene.
Thanks again to our KROTCH contributors and those who came out to our live listening sessions in the Planeta za summer garden. We look forward to the next season of this project in 2025!
...exposing the (in)deciences of the artworld that Prague (mis)represents
Later that month, we traveled to Ukraine to meet with local organizations, collectives, and artists to learn about their methods of resistance in Ukraine’s westernmost metropolis: Lviv. What resulted was a 30-minute documentary and full-length book that captures these voices & happenings titled “Existence is Resistance.”
From the Naked Forms festival at Dzyga Gallery, to the punk show at the Kotelyna squat, to the intimate moments in Ed’s Miniatures painting workshop, we learned that, no matter the form or medium, the very act of creating can be a form of resistance.
Our hearts are with our Ukrainian neighbors and the many voices we encountered during our five days in Lviv. In 2025, we will return to premiere the film and book born of your resilience. Sláva Ukrajině!
From the Naked Forms festival at Dzyga Gallery, to the punk show at the Kotelyna squat, to the intimate moments in Ed’s Miniatures painting workshop, we learned that, no matter the form or medium, the very act of creating can be a form of resistance.
Our hearts are with our Ukrainian neighbors and the many voices we encountered during our five days in Lviv. In 2025, we will return to premiere the film and book born of your resilience. Sláva Ukrajině!
In August, we were invited to Inverze Literární Festival in Ostrava to share the OBJECT:PARADISE Manifesto with a screening of O:P III. And when people came up to us after the film and asked, “Is this really happening in Prague?” we responded, “it was then, and when you come it will be as well–only differently.”
We made many new friends and would like to thank you all for sharing the nice evening and early morning with us. We fell asleep under a tree near the river, and it was nice there even under the blistering August.
And when people came up to us after the film and asked, “Is this really happening in Prague?” we responded, “it was then, and when you come it will be as well–only differently.”
In October, we brought O:P to the Prague Microfestival, complementing its 3-week interdisciplinary literary and arts festival with a showcase of works from this year and past with installations, films, and works from our community. Thanks to those of you who came to a workshop, attended a happening, or joined at the Czech premiere of Existence is Resistance. We are forever grateful to be given the opportunity to continue to create, share, and explore with you.
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And so, 2024—our year of trains, zines, cables, and resistance—closes with hands softened & spirits sharpened. From the smoky haze of Košice to the backrooms of Krakow, the streets of Lviv to the gardens of Žižkov, we found ourselves tangled in the ecstasy of creation and defiance.
We’ll carry yr voices in our back pockets, your stories folded into our manifesto, and yr resilience tattooed on the insides of our eyelobes. 2025—come at us sideways. We’ll meet you at the potraviny to fly flags and make noise.
- OBJECT:PARADISE, January 1st 2025.
Photos by Katka Rybárová, Tyko Say, and Louis Armand.
Read more about our team here, and check out our Manifesto while you’re at it!
We’ll carry yr voices in our back pockets, your stories folded into our manifesto, and yr resilience tattooed on the insides of our eyelobes. 2025—come at us sideways. We’ll meet you at the potraviny to fly flags and make noise.
- OBJECT:PARADISE, January 1st 2025.
Photos by Katka Rybárová, Tyko Say, and Louis Armand.
Read more about our team here, and check out our Manifesto while you’re at it!
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2025: cherishing the moment we share together, because in that moment, that’s all that exists
The OBJECT:PARADISE team reflects on the happenings, events, and insight that 2025 gave us.
Momentument: event 1 at Místečko (Žižkov)
Unlike 2024, 2025 was a year of many personal projects, experiences, and achievements for the OBJECT:PARADISE collective and its wider community. From events, films, books, and exhibitions, we are glad to have shared so many tender and wonderful moments with our community. And while O:P hosted fewer events than usual this year, we were certainly busy working behind the scenes with our friends who believe that art should be a community-based experience because it is in these moments where meaning is found, created, and shared.
Unfortunately, 2025 began with the sad news of the passing of Ásgeir H. Ingólfsson, a long-time friend, O:P contributor, and staple in the Prague community. We had the pleasure of hosting Ásgeir at our very first language happening, Poetry of Sound (2018, Czech Inn), and later at our first international language happening, Performance Deformance Reformance (2024, Poland).
![Ásgeir H. Ingólfsson, Tyko Say, and Sandra Pasławska]()
Unfortunately, 2025 began with the sad news of the passing of Ásgeir H. Ingólfsson, a long-time friend, O:P contributor, and staple in the Prague community. We had the pleasure of hosting Ásgeir at our very first language happening, Poetry of Sound (2018, Czech Inn), and later at our first international language happening, Performance Deformance Reformance (2024, Poland).
Ásgeir H. Ingólfsson, Tyko Say, and Sandra Pasławska
Over the seven years that we knew him, he published pieces in KROTCH Mag and performed in several O:P curations: Sound of June, Channels of Communication, 1-minute mundane, Tunnel Vision(s), and Performance Deformance Reformance. We are grateful to have met such a thoughtful writer and wonderful person who celebrated the strange realities of life in his prose and poetry. Ásgeir died at age 48 after a short and fierce battle with cancer.
Ásgeir h ingolffson reading on the tram (Prague)
On January 18, we printed the 18th issue of KROTCH Magazine, which would, sadly, feature Ásgeir‘s last published text.
On February 1, the Prague community gathered to celebrate him as a writer and friend. We read pieces from his book The Future along with other works dedicated to him. We send our thoughts to his friends and family. Members of the Prague community are currently editing an anthology of his poetry, due to be released in 2026.
Memorial reading for Ásgeir h ingolffson (February 1st 2025)
In March, we challenged the durability of the O:P Manifesto by applying it to a visual poetics rooted in community participation and pragmatism at Místečko in Žižkov. The project was framed around the question:
“If you could paint a state of mind, would anyone else understand it? And would that be art? Or just a moment?”
The project occurred across three events: creation, curation, and celebration.
For the first event, the objective was to observe how visual communication patterns are created in real time through community collage and chaos. We erected two large blank canvases in the gallery and asked community members to deface them with whatever methods, motives, or motifs were at their disposal. What resulted were two community works shaped entirely by the moment.
Excerpt from the MOMENTUMENT Zine
For the second event, we invited community members back into the space, but rather than creating, we asked them to curate the work by deciding what should and shouldn’t be seen. People came with empty picture frames—bought, created, or found—and placed them on the canvases, highlighting their subjective perspective and experience of the moment. At the end of the three-hour event, 26 frames were nailed into place. Then we cut the excess canvas beyond the frames, exposing an erasure of the context that they originated from.
Excerpt from the MOMENTUMENT Zine
For the final event, we exhibited the framed perspectives in a one-night vernissage/dernisaz event, featuring readings, sound, and performance by community members. Toward the end of the night, frame owners were instructed to take their perspectives off the wall and home with them, celebrating the temporality of art, time, and memory.
OBJECT:PARADISE Banner
The 26 framed pieces, now separated from the collective canvas, exist not alone, but differently in their new spaces—as we do, as we will, until we meet again, newly, in the momentument.
The project was filmed as part of the annual OBJECT:PRAHA film series and would be screened in Berlin and Prague later that year.
Filmers Tyko Say and Vaclav Šulc at the final event of Momentument
We thank all participants for their subjective experiences:
Sandra Pasławska, Uglješa Janjić, Nic McDonald, Sasha Honigman, James Tickner, Agnar Danielsson, Mariya Shatova, Viktor Švolík, Michael Rowland, Hana Slaninová, Matěj Fibigr, Keelan Kechane, Tyko Say, Elkin Kutluer, Salomé Tissot, Eve Miller, Leńa Simon, Ariel Lanchman, Jaromír Lelek, Cody Perk, Jan Černý, Philip O’Neil, Philip Ester, Daniel Gurin, Federico Pirredda, David Stiny, Michele Cappelli, Markéta Kobrová, Ella Wegerová, Sára Wegerová, Celine Mammatova, Jo Blin, Tim Postovit, Jan Tomeš, Martin Koloušek, Anna Pulkrabová, and Honza Luhan.
Final works after event 1 of Momentument
Momentument as a project—and later, in the film—was perhaps our greatest project curated from the O:P Manifesto in 2025. It embodied the idea that temporality and context provide value, and that when an experience is co-created and shared, a natural feeling of belonging and meaning can be found.
Event 3 of Momentument live video recording and mix
In April, O:P was invited to the Spring Zine Festival at Eternia where we showcased the 19th edition of KROTCH Magazine among many other DIY zines and creations from the Prague community. At the event, we displayed back issues of KROTCH along with our archival VHS footage on a small TV and a very long extension cord. The setup was simple, but the point wasn’t the setup—it was the response of people, “This is happening in Prague? Where can I submit?”
![KROTCH Magazine]()
Backlog of KROTCH Magazine
Shortly after, Louis Armand celebrated the launch of his new book, A Tomb in H-Section, at the Místečko gallery. The night featured readings and performances derived and/or inspired from his 664-page multi-media / multi-genre collection. The event wasn’t a traditional book launch, but a happening where the room became part of the work. Later in the year, pieces of that energy would echo again—especially in October at the Prague Microfestival.
A Tomb in H-Section Release Event
From April, Tyko Say met with film editor Victor Tomsa and began crafting OBJECT:PRAHA V: Momentument. The collaboration presented new methods to communicating the O:P Manifesto to a general audience while still staying local, specific, and community-driven.
Because Momentument was so rooted in people, places, and participation, it also required a technical crew that understood the sensitivity of documenting community without flattening it. We want to give a huge thank you to our crew who helped make OBJECT:PRAHA V possible: Editing — Victor Tomsa; Sound — Nikodem Dybiński & Petar etar et; Camera — Václav Šulc; Color — Lenka Bondorová; and Gallery Manager — Nic McDonald.
In May, O:P was invited to give a guest lecture at the Film and Television Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (FAMU) where we shared the O:P Manifesto, the value of community-driven works, and our purpose for using analogue media. We want to thank Eric Rosenveig for inviting us to talk with students.
Shortly after our academic presentation, Warm Braník, the O:P-based sound project, gave their “last concert” performance as part of the book launch for Pigeons at Breakfast—a collection of haiku written over the Covid-19 pandemic by collective members Tyko Say and Jaromír Lelek. The event featured readings, performances, and lots and lots of mustard (the book was christened in a 3-gallon bucket of mustard) . Warm Braník—composed of Sandra Pasławska, Roksan Mandel, Jaromír Lelek, and Tyko Say—closed out the night with classic, improvised hits such as “Don’t put your Braník in the Fridge,” “There’s a Skeleton in my Body,” and “Give me More Protein.”
Pigeons at Breakfast
Later in May, Jo Blin invited us into her Playground—a vast space, raw and cold, with a towering ceiling, a central balcony, and an expansive open floor below. It was the right kind of room for an adult playground: 15 interactive works that exposed the thin border between propaganda and satire (and how easily a room can shift from one to the other depending on how people move through it).
Michael Rowland and Jaromír Lelek at Jo Blin’s Playground
In June, Robert Carrithers invited O:P to Berlin to premiere the fifth iteration of the OBJECT:PRAHA series: Momentument. The film premiered alongside Carrithers’ exhibition dernisaz of BLACK & WHITE & READ ALL OVER, a collection of chalk drawing memories and stories from his life in New York in the 1980s. The event attracted friends and artists who were in Robert’s stories, along with people interested in what life was like in the 80s art scene of New York.
Nic Mcdonald and Robert Carrithers in Berlin at the Momentument Premiere
Similarly, a large group of friends who contributed to the Momentument project back in Prague also joined in Berlin for the world premiere. While each group came from a different context and history, both shared a common thread: community, and the value of temporality. We thank Robert Carrithers for inviting us to share our project and Manifesto with a community who shared the same values as us.
OBJECT:PRAHA V : Momentument Premiere
Later that month, collective members Tyko Say and Sandra Pasławska celebrated their first of four weddings in Sandra’s village: Orneta, Poland. Of course the event celebrated the love and relationship between Tyko and Sandra, but it also celebrated the opportunity to bring O:P collaborators and friends together for something that wasn’t (entirely) about performance and poetry. We were happy to host over forty friends who traveled from around the world to share the special moment. The ceremony was officiated by Jaromír Lelek and Wiktoria kruk in particular O:P fashion.
Polish Wedding of Tyko Say and Sandra Pasławska
In August, OBJECT:PRAHA V: Momentument premiered in Prague at Kino Pilotů where participants and community members gathered to celebrate the achievement of viewing a VHS film on the big screen.
The event was followed by a discussion with Jo Feinberg of A2 Magazine where we discussed the purpose of the project, our value in community-driven works, and the magic of the O:P Manifesto when shared at the local level.
At the end of the month, Tyko and Sandra celebrated their second wedding—this time in Žižkov, where attendees came dressed in their best wedding dresses. The event started with performances by long-time O:P friends (China Soup, Alpha Strategy) and ended with a final performance by Tyko and Sandra’s no-wave project: David’s Sister. The night was officiated by Jaromír Lelek, who stood shirtless in ceremony surrounded by stacks of TVs playing analogue mixes that stated: “Tonight, we all get married.”
The Žižkov wedding of Tyko Say and Sandra Pasławska
In September, we celebrated former O:P Sound Director Roksan Mandel’s release of her first EP, Pure Magic, at Kampus Hybernská. The album features four earworm tracks that were performed live, along with several other tracks with her Turkish group 3Kalp Trio. We congratulate Roksan and her team on the great achievement and are also a little angry that all of her songs are still stuck in our heads.
EP Release show of Roksan Mandel at Kampus Hybernská
In October, O:P was invited to screen Momentument at the 17th annual Prague Microfestival. The festival took place across three days and featured readings, performances, and film screenings across the Prague community. While O:P was not part of the scenography team this year–due to Tyko & Sandra’s third wedding happening in Seattle, Washington at the same time–we were happy to learn that the space did, still, feature a few TVs along with a diverse range of installations and other media that made the PMF space feel immersive in its traditional interdisciplinary & chaotic fashion.
At the festival, Michael Rowland released his book, The Unnamable Object, which features 100 “Prague Cantos,” depicting and painting the various happenings, spaces, and faces that interweave throughout the city.
Later that month, we received the latest copy of the Québécois journal, Spirale, where samizdat researcher and writer Alice Derrier wrote about KROTCH Magazine and the OBJECT:PARADISE Manifesto:
Unfortunately, in early November we learned that another great writer and Prague staple, Philip O’Neil, had passed away. Philip was a prominent figure in the Prague literary community, often giving readings in his deep, honest voice, including the memorial reading for Ásgeir just earlier that year.
In March, however, we had the pleasure of presenting his work at the Momentument project, where he attached a collage of his own to the canvas that was composed of medication and shards of reflective glass. Although often quiet (partly due to deafness in one ear), he spoke with passion—evident in his book Mental Shrapnel, which vividly depicts the strain of trauma and amnesia. Sadly, his last published work was in KROTCH Magazine, Issue 15 (printed May 16, 2024).
We send our thoughts to those closest to him. We are grateful we shared moments with him, even briefly.
By December, we were exhausted both physically and mentally, to say the least, but made sure to end the year right by hosting a party at the OBJECT:PARADISE residence—Tyko and Sandra’s—where over 50 people came to dance, sing, and celebrate 2025.
Holiday part at the O:P Headquarters
And so, as we step into 2026, let us not forget all of the memories we created in 2025 and all the people we shared them with. From the creative chaos of Momentument to the celebrations of love and community, from OBJECT:PARADISE, we thank all of you who helped make 2025 a memorable year. With that being said, we tip our hats and beer glasses to both Asgeir and Philip, who left us too soon and will be greatly missed. May 2026 provide us more opportunities to love, share, and create together—because in the moment we share together, that is all that exists.
- OBJECT:PARADISE, January 1st 2026.
The OBJECT:PARADISE Collective: Jaromír Lelek, Tyko Say, and Sandra Pasławska
Photos by Tyko Say, Louis Armand, Jan Černy, Robert Carrithers, Zuzana Wrona, and Martin Doležal.
Read more about our team here, and check out our Manifesto while you’re at it!
Read more about our team here, and check out our Manifesto while you’re at it!
Blog
Performance, Context, and the Underground: Reflections on the Prague Microfestival
Exploring the Evolution of Underground Art and Performance in Prague
by Tyko Say
Our objective was to create an immersive, multi-media space that vistors were invited to get lost in, allowing the saturation of media to pull them into each corner. of the basement--and, eventually, to the performances & happenings in the main space. However, I quickly realized that the festival's success was not just about the curated happenings. The space itself—and the context in which the festival unfolded—was just as vital to the experience. In fact, it might be even more important than the events themselves.
We wanted this immersive, multi-media environment to encourage the visitors to make the experience their own. To do this, we placed elements throughout the space that invited interaction and exploration. For instance, we set up a microphone in the hallway that transcribed (poorly) the voices it picked up, creating an abstract, living record of the festival. We kept the sounds and visuals running throughout the venue during performances, and we installed a camera at the entrance that labeled every visitor as a poet because, in that moment, they were.
What Does It Mean to Be 'Underground' Today?
There’s an ongoing debate around whether it’s even possible to do something 'new' in a world where it feels like everything has been done. While I can understand that viewpoint, I think the key misunderstanding lies in a fixation on the past. People often become preoccupied with previous cultural artifacts—texts, songs, actions—forgetting that context is what gives them meaning. And context is always changing.
Every action, every event, every language exchange is an opportunity for something new to emerge. It might be familiar in form, but it’s never exactly the same. That’s what’s so thrilling about underground movements today—each happening is unique because it exists only once, in one moment, in one context. And that’s something special. It’s also why the commercial world has embraced 'pop-up' experiences—they’re fleeting, never to be replicated, making them inherently valuable in a way that’s impossible to capture otherwise.
Challenging My Idea of Performance
The festival challenged my understanding of performance, especially through one memorable act: Leap Lembo’s piece during the Thursday evening MicroLabs. It involved 24 rolls of toilet paper and a microphone. Lembo began by slowly creating a hole through one roll with his finger. Once through, he held the roll above his head and began unrolling it, the small hole on every ply aligning perfectly with the microphone’s feed. What followed was a series of sounds as he blew air through the roll.
He handed the remaining toilet paper to the audience and encouraged them to do whatever they wanted. What followed was a spontaneous, chaotic, and beautiful moment: people hummed, chanted, and strung toilet paper around the room, connecting with each other and the moment in a visceral, unscripted way. It was messy, loud, and—at times—dark. It was sexual and unrefined, but it was in the moment, and that made it honest. If someone were to watch a recording of it or attempt to 're-enact' the performance, it would likely fall flat. That’s because the magic was in the live, fleeting moment—the unique context that made it feel raw and genuine.
Throughout the entire festival, there were moments that felt like 'happenings'—raw, real, and ephemeral—and moments that felt more like 'featured performances.' It’s the difference between something that takes place within the moment and something that’s carefully staged for an audience. For me, the most powerful moments were the ones that truly 'happened,' where performance and context converged, reminding us of the subjective and transient nature of art and experience.