The project is inspired by the historical journey of St.Constatin (Cyril) and St. Methodus, who created the first script for Old Slavonic—the glagolic (cyrilic) alphabet — the deep roots of Slavic literacy and identity. The Prophets of Alphabet project freely retraces the steps of St. Cyril and St. Methodus, in travelling through several central European and Balkan countries, and interacting with local communities through a combination of art and ethnographic methods to create a multi-site-specific project, which not only evolves with every community visited, but also connects the participants across national boundaries. The project resulted in an interactive multimedia mosaic of visuals, stories, songs and local interpretations of the glagolic alphabet. The iconography and meanings attached to the glagolic script reflect the connections and differences of human experiences, community traditions, nationalities and cultural heritage of the participating countries. These projects draw on the specificity of each locality, its genius loci, culture, history and topography, and always involve local communities, as well as artists and experts in ethnology, sociology, psychology and journalism. The site-specific projects consisted of a variety of forms: story-telling, film and photography, sculpture and installation, performance, recording and publishing the outcome in print or multimedia format.
The project is focused on close collaboration with communities, using new digital media in expressing ideas, appreciating and respecting local traditions, history, and craftsmanship. We perceive the richness of each community in its complex and unique human experience and differing local lifestyles.
