X Apartments: Košice – Staré mesto
Flats X / X Wohnungen Košice is a theatre performance format by the Berlin theatre producer, Matthias Lilienthal. He has already performed in several cities around the world, for example, in Berlin, Warsaw, Istanbul and now in Košice. Untraditional theatre evenings will take place on four evenings, where every 10 minutes two members of the audience will start their route around several private flats in selected parts of the city. A performance, concert or installation will be waiting for them in each flat. This project, addressing the social reality of Košice and facilitating unexpected discoveries and meetings in private areas with their inhabitants and stories, includes 14 local and international artists.
- Xapartments are performances happening in private flats,00:00:04.508
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- the experience cannot be fully mediated by other way00:00:10.346
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- than talking about what we have experienced there.00:00:14.454
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- This is the tour of old town in Košice.00:00:18.685
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- We were given a map and we set out.00:00:21.530
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- Another couple started00:00:24.312
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- and after us there was another couple starting.00:00:27.923
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- It was fabulously mysterious, it was happening at night,00:00:31.108
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- and we didn´t know whether we find the way,00:00:34.568
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- whether we ring the right bell and what will they do with us in.00:00:36.865
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- First stop was in cubist flats of 1920s and I often pass by them,00:00:40.352
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- but I never thought they might be so nice inside,00:00:45.486
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- and that they might have such a cool courtyard.00:00:50.311
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- We were welcomed by their guide on the courtyard,00:00:52.615
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- and she sent us to the flat -00:00:55.322
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- there was a coordinative assistant for each flat that opened the door.00:00:56.780
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- In the first flat the cultural diversity of Košice was shown00:01:02.312
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- in many various ways - the artist Ilona Németh00:01:07.762
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- seated us in living room herself, and the householder screened the film,00:01:10.767
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- showed the photographs and talked.00:01:11.768
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- He switched from Hungarian to Slovak language talking00:01:16.003
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- about his native village divided by the border00:01:20.966
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- between Ukraine and Slovakia.00:01:23.421
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- The border at that time looked this way.00:01:29.361
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- Between two fences there were Soviet soldiers standing guards00:01:35.911
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- driving UAZ cars and riding horses.00:01:45.071
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- We were throwing them the cheapest cigarettes Detva,00:01:52.853
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- and they were throwing us badges.00:02:00.431
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- My wife also comes from Velké Slemence, she lived her childhood in this village.00:02:11.917
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- Our people go there to buy candies, alcohol,00:02:22.915
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- cigarettes are very cheap there.00:02:27.727
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- Here we can see evening and wedding dress.00:02:30.349
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- This is for you, keep it for the memory.00:02:35.092
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- Thank you for visit.00:02:39.778
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- We got the photograph of the border and Ukrainian sweets,00:02:43.104
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- then we went to another flat.00:02:47.419
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- It was in the courtyard, behind the old synagogue,00:02:49.580
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- in the renovated flat of rabbi, we were accompanied by a student00:02:52.267
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- from Israel and we walked through the empty flat,00:02:55.873
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- he had a documentary talk about how it used to be there:00:02:59.875
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- where they prayed, ate, and where was the kitchen.00:03:03.594
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- The director was Anja Salomonowitz from Austria, a film director00:03:06.831
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- she has chosen the form of live and charismatic guide.00:03:12.534
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- From the old city we can walk to the block of flats around.00:03:22.095
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- We didn´t know how to behave, so we expected a performing person00:03:28.751
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- and there was one woman eating her dinner in the kitchen.00:03:36.567
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- But that wasn´t the part of our program,00:03:40.374
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- we were supposed to go to the living room,00:03:42.553
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- we sat there in the dark, lamp, sofa, TV -00:03:45.367
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- the only odd thing was strange book on the table and a mobile.00:03:50.369
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- We were supposed to choose a song from the book and00:03:55.154
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- use the mobile phone to say our wish song and00:03:59.148
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- the voice on the phone sang it for us.00:04:00.899
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- On our way we have noticed lightened kiosk, from where00:04:20.547
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- the phone singer waved his hand for us, surrounded by00:04:23.704
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- notes he was sitting and waiting for another call.00:04:28.254
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- In the centre of town there was an object00:04:34.425
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- looking like a storehouse of building material,00:04:36.270
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- the assistant explained us that the architects from Stuttgart00:04:40.186
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- do temporary architecture there - they didn't even unpacked the material00:04:45.526
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- so it can get back after the happening.00:04:51.446
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- There were openings in the middle, so behind it we could see00:04:55.900
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- things like the picture of St Mary, doily or a chair.00:04:59.441
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- These particular things were chosen by people00:05:05.949
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- that were supposed to chose the dearest thing and talk about it00:05:11.313
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- - we could listen to the talk from the sound record.00:05:13.944
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- In the next flat we were having very nice time.00:05:24.052
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- We really didn't want leave the place and00:07:33.482
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- we envied them that they enjoy the life there even if00:07:35.655
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- from outside it look like an ordinary street.00:07:38.077
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- Then we were walking in the dark with a torch in empty barracks,00:07:53.834
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- there were some writings that reminded me how lucky00:07:56.716
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- I was not to had served in the army.00:08:01.287
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- There were some dark sounds, then we saw two men00:08:04.283
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- reading a dialogue, probably about the war - it was frightening,00:08:08.176
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- mainly after our meeting by the fireplace.00:08:09.177
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- We returned to the start, to the old cinema Úsmev,00:08:29.953
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- where everything is as it used to be before,00:08:32.716
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- also the woman at the counter.00:08:35.508
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- We walked to the bar, where we got wine,00:08:37.587
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- they looked very conspirational, and led us to the cinema auditorium00:08:41.696
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- and convinced us to sit upstairs, at the projectionist.00:08:47.758
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- We watched a piece of film there, then they sent us down00:09:03.379
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- to watch all the screening of unfinished underground film from Košice,00:09:08.540
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- made based on the character of Marcel Strýko.00:09:14.419
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- That was the end, we entered the ordinary streets -00:09:19.526
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- where they will not let us come in so easily.00:09:24.106