Relay of Voices

(2019)

A durational performance involving the participation of nearly a thousand residents of the Mississippi River region, sharing their voices, their lives with lead artists Victoria and Tom Styrbicki. The performance was approached as an expedition on foot, running and cycling through the region from Headwaters to Gulf, engaging with the landscape and the communities at the human scale.

Over the course of 120 days, the Styrbickis treated their bodies like an archive, storing the memories and experiences of these encounters. They also captured sights, sounds, and conversations on GPS-enabled body cameras, cultivating a locatable database of stories and geographic material for future research, writing and re-performance.

The main mechanism that drove the performance was listening. In itself, listening is powerful as a transformative act, as an act of generosity. Performing listening day after day was an effort to contribute to a particular place and people through the intentional presence of another body.

DATE

July 9 – November 5, 2019

PLACE

Mississippi River, Headwaters to Gulf

Artistic Director

Victoria Styrbicki

Collaborating Artists

Tom Styrbicki and Dinah Bradford

PHOTO

Victoria Styrbicki and Tom Styrbicki, © A House Unbuilt