“The train came to a stop between stations. There was no announcement. At first, fear set in. Then came something vague, a barely audible hum. Some began to smile, without knowing exactly why. When the subway arrived at the station, the passengers got off without rushing. They began dancing around the streetlights, jumping over curbs, peering into the bushes, and repeatedly circling the pillars. Steam rose from the vents. Was it a glitch? A brief nap? Or something for which we have no name?”

The exhibition by Savka Marenić is based on her book Whispers of the Valley and her doctoral research in the arts, which explores how situated storytelling can become a spatial intervention, a call to participation, and a tool of critical pedagogy. It draws inspiration from moments when the city’s everyday reality shifts slightly from its usual logic, revealing layers of relationships that typically remain hidden. Such “glitches,” which she deliberately creates to highlight cracks in urban planning, not only disrupt the established order of space but also open up new ways of reading and imagining it.

In her case study of the Nuselské Valley, the author combines field research, performative situations, and collective experience. The valley, shaped by the monumental infrastructure of the Nusle Bridge and the highway, is a place of contrasts between planned functionality, everyday use, and layers of local memory. Through speculative fiction that grows out of concrete experiences and observations, she creates a space for listening to what is usually marginalized in the image of the city.

The exhibition intervention includes audio walks, a reading by the author from the book Whispers of the Valley, and a suburban camp for children. Together, they form an open narrative about the Nusle Valley—about its well-known and overlooked places, about the possibilities of shared experiences of space, and about how the city can be retold.

artistic collaboration: Pamela

book graphic design: Bára Růžičková

sound production: Jonáš Balcar

exhibition graphics: Nela Klímová

curatorial collaboration: Nela Klajbanová, Tereza Vinklárková

exhibition architecture: Savka Marenić

acknowledgments: Nika Datiashvili, Dominik Lang, Johana Lomová, Sára Märc