stopairbnb.cz: The Bed with Barbora Bírová and guests

Live Stream from Bed
Friday 14 February 2020, from 10pm till sleep

“Over the last five years our rent has increased by more than eight thousand crowns. I don’t know how to get my hands on such money. But above all, I just don’t see why we have to give in to the demands of private landlords. These demands are getting bigger and bigger and I can’t simply increase my workload at the drop of a hat. I have to live, not simply work.”

Every day we come face to face with a fundamental conflict of values: a roof over one’s head is on the one hand seen as a home, and on the other as a market commodity. The inaccessibility of housing is becoming more and more acute as it effects more and more people. This is not simply a question of isolated individual stories, but a problem that affects society as a whole.

A reading and sharing of the stories of people having to deal with the housing crisis caused by never-ending price increases, gentrification, short-term lets and forced evictions, this time from a rented Airbnb apartment in an unspecified location.

The Institute of Anxiety (IA) bed is 40 x 200 x 180 cm in size, with a comfortable mattress and fresh linen. The only difference is that, while in other beds you sleep, the IA bed is the scene for a speaker, performer or storyteller. It offers a place to recline for those who, forgoing sleep, are willing to share with us their knowledge, opinions and ideas, and to talk and hallucinate on the border of wakefulness and dreaming. Our guests take us to places we would never otherwise visit. They prepare our bodies for the pitfalls they will overcome without after-effects and tiredness the following day. The IA bed is a faithful and tenacious partner of those who cannot fall asleep or who work while we sleep, or those who under cover of darkness seek freedom for others caught in the gears of the system. The bed does not verify the veracity of stories but collects utopian scenarios, dreams and visions. An intimately familiar, gentle environment for relaxation and regenerative dreaming can suddenly become the space for political demands, allowing those whom it offers overnight accommodation to share their experience of certain forms of anxiety or to dispel these demons. You can follow the IA Bed programme starting at 10pm at www.institutuzkosti.cz.

More info at www.stopairbnb.cz