Video recording of a performance for the project by Alma Lily Rayner that deals with community models of mutual support, followed by a discussion with performers.

"Survival Manual is a participative platform designed for people with diverse experiences but a shared interest: to be able to find support in difficult life situations and to create autonomous support networks for their communities.

It is a space of encounters between survivors of sexualised violence, psychiatric survivors, Roma women, people with an addiction experience, LGBTQ+ activists and other activists, dealing with various forms of oppression.

Over the course of several months, the group met to discuss the functions and limitations of state institutions in providing emotional and social care. Through the exchange of needs, frustrations and work methods, participants explored alternative models of mutual support, led by experts by experience.

The first public output of the project took place in the form of a collective reading. In the performance, each participant offers a piece of themselves. Each came to read a text meaningful for their existence. Some wrote their own words and some borrowed from the words of others. All are here to transform silence into collective action.

The screening will be followed by a public discussion with the performance participants."

Alma Lily Rayner

Participators: Alma Lily Rayner (reading Audre Lorde), Mirka Slívová, Zuzana Fialová, Martin Novák (reading Donnard White), Alex Sihelská, Andrea Tobolová, Radek Šabacký (reading Bell Hooks), Alex Vonsík, Elena Gorolová, Tess (reading Václav Hrabě), Bára Vidomská (reading Anastázie Klemensová), Ladislav Fabian, Magdalena Šipka and Jakub Černý (reading John Donne)

Camera: Michal Blecha, Ivan Svoboda
Sound: Jakub Černý
Translation to Czech: Olga Pek, Martin Novák
Translation to English: Františka Schormová, Veronika Pehe

The project was initiated by Alma Lily Rayner for the Jindřich Chalupecký Award 2020 exhibition at PLATO.

Alma Lily Rayner (1984, Tel Aviv) is an Israeli-born artist and activist based in Prague. She graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, and has also studied at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design and FAMU in Prague. In her work, Rayner addresses sociopolitical themes linked to gender, trauma and invisible forms of violence. While her projects are very personal, they are linked to long-term research and challenge dominant power systems. The artist works with various digital media, audiovisual “residual materials” as well as text and spoken word.