WE NO LONGER SEARCH

We no longer search for the Quarantine Diary, which has gotten lost somewhere. It was last seen in France, then it either decided to hide or wander somewhere else, but without our control. After a few days of searching, we have stopped looking. We take it as a fate of diaries. Thanks to everyone it travelled to and who put their entry in it: for a while, we were not alone when reading it.

Jiří Kovanda & Institute of Anxiety

Dear Colleagues,

We are addressing you with a proposal for the compilation of a kind of relay diary, a quarantine sketchbook and collaborative anthology that could help us remain in contact during the present adverse situation. In this project we are not concerned with a commentary on the situation, and we do not wish to be bound to it whatsoever in terms of content or to designate any other common theme, but rather we are interested chiefly in mutual communication and support, pooling and active interconnectedness.

The principle is a simple one, tried and tested many times: You will receive from your predecessor a page featuring a sketch, photograph, text, anything, to which you will attach any contribution of your choice in a simple form of collage. Then on the next, new page you will attach your own sketch, photograph, text, anything, write your name and the date in the lower section, and send it on to any person of your choice, who will continue in the same manner.

You have the possibility to see all the preceding pages, so please take care to ensure that nobody is repeated. Please process your contribution quickly, ideally by the next day, so as to create a genuine form of diary. Should anyone not want to participate, they can return the page to their predecessor, who will choose someone else.

Our goal is for this to lead to the creation of an extensive collection that will not be limited only to a certain part of our local scene, which will be a testimony, a footprint, our common quarantine diary.
We look forward to co-operating with you. Thank you for your contribution, we wish you the best of health!

Jiří Kovanda & Institute of Anxiety