Phoebe Bognár (AUS/HU/CH), Aleksander Gabryś (CH/PL), Paweł Romańczuk (PL), Kostas Georgakopulos (PL)

KATÁBASIS is an interdisciplinary research project in the fields of sound and performance, dedicated to crossing existential, social and physical thresholds. Drawing on the archetype of katabasis found in ancient myths, psychological literature and contemporary cultural narratives, the artists investigate sound in extreme and liminal states: the voice transformed beyond the human, matter resonating on the verge of rupture, and acoustic energy approaching the point of destruction. These phenomena are treated not merely as aesthetic effects, but as consequences of moving beyond an anthropocentric perspective.

The project draws on references including the Brothers Grimm fairy tale Iron John, the history of the Kola Superdeep Borehole, the coordinates of the Tsar Bomba detonation, and contemporary physics of black holes and singularities. These do not serve as illustrations, but as dramaturgical models for moments in which familiar structures, narratives and systems of meaning begin to break down. One strand of the research involves recording the micro-movements, tensions and almost inaudible vibrations of glass immediately before it shatters — materials that are gradually forming an archive of pre-catastrophic states.

The presentation at Avant Art Festival will take the form of a work in progress: an open artistic encounter and the first public stage of a long-term research process. It is not a presentation of a completed work, but a space for testing methods, relationships between the artists, and the sound and performance materials currently being developed. KATÁBASIS will continue through further experimentation, international collaborations, and future concert, performance and installation formats.