Republika Zahradníiíiíiíiíi, a republic unlike any other, emerged as an artistic experiment in sound, movement, and community. Its purpose: to create a space where the sonic and aesthetic life of all things takes precedence, asking the fundamental question: What happens when sound and movement are the most important things?

In this republic, we cast ourselves as gardeners—custodians of the Republic and its sounds. Our task was not one of domination but of care and attunement. As Jean-Luc Nancy writes in The Inoperative Community, “To be in community is not to fuse identities, but to share in their interplay.” As gardeners, we listened to the hum of life, nurtured the sonic environment, and protected the delicate interplay of sounds that defined the republic.

We are facing an escalation of ecological failures with no quick fix in sight. We seem trapped in a spiral of health problems, sensory overload, social tensions and power struggles. This is what you can read in the newspaper everyday… In the face of these multiple crises, art could offer ways of articulating and exploring ways of affirming life.

Is there a difference between nature and culture? Should there be one? What sensorial foundations are needed to perceive the recurring mistakes on our planet? In this republic, citizenship is granted by the mere fact of existence, and human and non-human beings have equal rights and are interrelated. We have chosen to establish the Republika Zahradníiíiíiíiíi in the garden because it is there that you can get to know the world, it is actually a mirror of society, a microcosm in which the relationship between nature and culture is manifested. Now the Republika Zahradníiíiíiíiíi is redefining its territory on air, in the radio space.

Republika Zahradníiíiíiíiíi drew upon the eccentric tradition of micro-republics founded by artists such as Edwin Lipburger’s “Republic of Kügelmügel”, Paddy Roy Bates’ “Sealand”, “NSK” (Neue Slowenische Kunst), and “Ladonia”, where participants throw stones into water to create its anthem. Similarly, “Nutopia”, envisioned by John Lennon and Yoko Ono, symbolised a conceptual republic without physical boundaries. These micro-republics often serve as artistic critiques of political systems, offering alternative modes of existence. Yet Republika Zahradníiíiíiíiíi diverged by eschewing autonomy through control and instead embracing integration—embedding itself within the natural, social, and sonic ecology of its chosen location. Once seen as a reflection of paradise, a place of harmony and fertility, protected from the problems of the world, now the garden, this radio garden, becomes a symbol of power and politics.

Statehood is the ability to maintain the administrative, economic and military functions of a state. This includes maintaining a monopoly on violence, border enforcement, provisional welfare, tax collection and economic development. While nationhood is The construction of a shared identity and sense of unity among the people of a state. Cultivating a sense of cultural and ethnic belonging and identification with the state. This encourages citizens to defend the state in times of crisis and generally contribute to the common good of the nation.

These are the two elements that define the modern nation-state. However, some of today's internationally recognised nation-states may lack one or both of these characteristics. Syria, for example, after more than a decade of war, lacks many features of statehood and some of nationhood. Both Spain and the United Kingdom struggle with contested nationhood. As Catalans and Scots assert their own cultural and ethnic identities.

And yet other states may have both characteristics but still not be internationally recognised as nation states. These types of states come in many forms and go by many names: de facto states; partially recognised states; separatist republics. Abkhazia, South Ossetia, Rojava, Artsakh, Transnistria, Northern Cyprus and Palestine are just a few examples of these types of states. Many of today's internationally recognised nation states were once what we would now call separatist republics. Most of the former Yugoslav republics, for example, were once separatist. And separatism still exists in the region. Even the United States of America were once the very definition of a separatist republic. And it later had to fight its own separatists.

In all this, the Republika Zahradníiíiíiíiíi can also be seen as a separatist republic. It may lack certain features of statehood, but it has a clear, well-defined and eloquently simple construction of nationhood that makes up for its lack of statehood. The common identity that defines the nationhood of the Republika Zahradníiíiíiíiíi is our common existence in its space, which is now a radio space. We exist in this republic because of listening, and if citizenship is granted by existence, then listening becomes citizenship. It is our common listening that unites us and fosters a sense of belonging and identification with the Republic. And it's this sense of belonging and identification with the Republika Zahradníiíiíiíiíi that encourages us, the citizens, the listeners, to contribute to the common good of the nation.

The news bulletin of Republika Zahradníiíiíiíiíi captured a day in the life of the republic through its sonic landscape. Recorded in the cavernous Czech Radio House, the studio became a microcosm of the republic itself. A hydrophone in its bath stood at the back, a dedicated booth housed the snare-based drumkit, and a mobile vibraphone added dynamic layers. Field recordings blended with live performances, and the presence of children’s burbling voices underscored the organic, inclusive ethos. “Art is not just an object of study,” Bourriaud writes, “but a generator of relationships.” The bulletin exemplified this by merging reportage with memory, field recordings, and spontaneous performance. Brandon LaBelle’s ideas in Acoustic Territories reinforce this—the potential of sound to disrupt, connect, and create new spaces for encounter. “To live is to resist; to resist is to create,” Isabelle Fremeaux and Jay Jordan assert, and this creation embraced all sounds, from the burbling of a child to the vibrations of a dancer’s movement.

Politics is not just the domain of the state and experts, but a field of action in which everyone of us can participate and create change. Politics is every choice we take, we constantly need to formulate an opinion that is, in fact, expression of everyday politics. The aesthetic experience of everyday life, the perception of the everyday, is a crucial site for political action. “You have to weed the garden, or the weeds will take over”. By making performative practices fundamental to political phenomena, Republika Zahradníiíiíiíiíi offers perspectives beyond representation, allowing us to experiment with strategies for relating to our world.

The republic’s ephemeral nature underscored its message: sound and movement are fleeting, yet they leave indelible marks. By the time the last bell tolled and the final line was added to The Great Poem of Consequences, Republika Zahradníiíiíiíiíi had created not just a republic, but a legacy—a resonant call to listen deeply and live fully in the sonic tapestry of life. Listeners are encouraged to bring their full attention to the programme, allowing the sounds of their environment to mingle with those from the speakers. Let the bulletin become an act of sonic democracy, where every sound—human and non-human—has its voice.

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Zahradníci: Ran Jiao, Jana Látalová, Loré Lixenberg, Barbora Matějková, Inga Zotova-Mikshin, Roman Zotov-Mikshin, Elia Moretti, Matěj Pour, Zden Brungot Svíteková, Lucie Vrbíková

Projekt vznikl za podpory IDU a PerformCzech
https://www.idu.cz | https://www.performczech.cz
a dále s podporou MKČR, NPO a NextGenerationEU.

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