Mark Požlep

James (00:01)
This episode is a special that I’m doing in partnership with the Spill Festival, which is running in Ipswich between the 23rd and the 26th of October.

James (00:09)
Welcome to Big Bad Beautiful Brains. I’m James. Since I was diagnosed at the age of 45 with autism and ADHD, I’ve been on a journey not only to discover how my brain works and how to look after myself, but also about other people’s brains and how they look after theirs.

I’ll be speaking to people from all different backgrounds, all different ages, and all different experiences to understand how they think and how their big bad beautiful brains work.

Big Bad Beautiful Brains (00:39)
This episode I’m speaking to Mark Poslep, an artist from Slovenia whose work sits at the intersection of performance, travel and social engagement.

Mark creates what he calls durational performances, long, often physical journeys that place him in direct, embodied interaction with people and places.

Through these experiences, he explores how art can question structures of power, provoke reflection, and connect us through shared moments of humanity.

His work often unfolds across borders, geographically, politically, and emotionally,

using media like travelogues, film essays and documentary performance to translate the poetics of lived experience for audiences.

At the heart of his practice is a question that feels especially relevant today. How can we truly understand experiences we haven’t lived ourselves?

James (01:22)
Mark, hi. Thanks for coming in. How are doing?

Mark (01:26)
Hello, thank you for the invitation. I’m good. Thank you.

James (01:31)
Have you got, is everything, well nothing’s ever complete but you do feel ready for the Spill Festival.

Mark (01:37)
I do feel ready, yes. I mean, we need to still do the installment in the church, but as for the work that I could bring here, I think it’s ready.

James (01:50)
I look forward to seeing it. So you’ll be at St. Clement’s Church, that’s correct isn’t it? Fantastic and if you want to find out anything more then you can go to the Spill Festival website. This episode comes out on the first day of the Spill Festival and then you’ll have a few more days after that to check out Mark’s work and go down and see him at St. Clement’s Church. ⁓ Mark, what’s a song or sound that’s been stuck in your head recently?

Mark (01:55)
Yes, the work will be at St. Clement’s Church.

It’s Lowlands. I don’t know if you know Lowlands, Lowlands away my John Lowlands away ⁓

James (02:30)
you

Congratulations, you’re the first person who has come in and actually, no to be fair actually Sophie came in and did the sugar plum fairy ⁓ a good justice as well so you’re probably the second person to come in and serenade me. ⁓ Thank you for that. Tell me a little bit more about Lowlands and why that’s something that’s stuck in your head.

Mark (02:56)
This song has come to me through different times and different periods. I don’t exactly know the origins of it. I’m not sure if it’s from here or… Yeah, I’m not completely sure about the origins of it, but I have seen it through the works of many different artists. I used it by myself once. ⁓ I think it…

somehow gives this melancholic feeling that you get when you’re close to to the sea in ⁓ and speaks about loss ⁓

of the loved ones but even though I hadn’t had this kind of an experience next to the sea I think the sea still carries this somehow with it so this song yeah while I was doing the editing of the video no

even though we didn’t use this song inside. It crawled in my mind from some corner and then I started to search for it again.

James (04:11)
I think it’s sometimes the kind of most melancholy songs and the saddest songs are sometimes the most uplifting as well that can kind of give you the most comfort which is perhaps why that song in particular kind of comes back to you.

Mark (04:24)
I would say so, I listen to a lot of these kind of things that are actually very sad and melancholic, but at the same time, it made me emotional, which lifts me up somehow.

James (04:38)
Kind of like a big sad hug.

Mark (04:41)
Yeah, it feels

like this.

James (04:45)
What’s something you’ve been curious about lately?

Mark (04:48)
Mostly now it has been waters in different kind of forms. So from rivers, seas. I’ve been working for a year now on research of river channels in end rivers around the city of Ghent in Belgium where I live now. And then it was now the walk along the Suffolk coast.

And then like a constant is always the Adriatic Sea because I come from Slovenia and I sail every summer in Croatia.

So different kind of questions that are connected with this topic from ecology, gentrification, development of technology, how all this is connected with this, how the human civilization is able to live together with these entities.

James (05:48)
Do you find that people are starting to have a greater connection with bodies of water or that things are becoming more disconnected?

Mark (05:57)
I think that through the history it always ⁓ comes in waves somehow. I have a feeling that the people always want to be above everything. And the technology is more or less, the development of technology is allowing a control of these things. ⁓

So they also feel above and then they feel above then they start to lose the connection. But I do feel that a lot of people, there are initiatives to make it better and to establish a stronger connection with it. I mean, in the past, ⁓ yeah, if we talk about like where, when was it different? think that in the past, was people were more dependent from the…

the sea for example or from the rivers in the terms of really like basic survival from food and all these things which now I have a feeling that it’s less somehow so then we don’t put so much of thinking into it.

James (07:14)
you had to describe how your brain works in three words, what would they be and why?

Mark (07:20)
how my brain works in three words.

constantly questioning things, it’s observing and then it’s questioning and then it’s trying to understand and then tries to somehow submerge under the skin of the things and try to understand them there.

James (07:47)
Did you always have the curiosity there and then you translated that into it becoming an art form and use it to understand things or did the art come first and then the need for understanding come second?

Mark (08:01)
I think that the need for understanding comes first and then the artwork is a tool to explain it, also to myself and then to the public. But it would be the curiosity would be first.

James (08:22)
What’s something you’re still figuring out?

Mark (08:24)
everything. I don’t have a complete answer to nothing, actually.

James (08:25)
Hahaha.

And

do you enjoy the?

path of figuring things out? Is that something you enjoy or do you find it a frustration sometimes?

Mark (08:40)
Both, I would say. I really love the process. This is actually something that I found it most interesting in the work itself and also in life.

moments are somehow a little bit boring. I don’t really find so much of joy in it. A little bit, yes, but not as much as in the process when the things happen sometimes even outside of your domain. You cannot take the credit for them because they’re just not clear completely from where they’re coming from.

I studied painting, I think that still this process of painting is something that I see in all the different media that I’m also working for. I’m searching for it, the moment when something appears in the painting where you actually don’t know where it came from.

James (09:47)
And do you think the studying painting and the creative process have helped you change the way you think about the world and helped you figure things out through the creative process and has your creative process changed over time to adapt to thinking about new things?

Mark (10:07)
In one way I always thought that it would, you know, that the more that I will be working with the things that easier I will be able to find answers, but actually it didn’t change. I just started to realize that I cannot rush it. So it needs its time. Normally now my projects last for at least a year or sometimes even longer because it’s…

needs this time and for the research and for the unexpected things to happen and for my mind to put the things in line and to clean it out at the end.

James (10:51)
What’s something about everyday life that’s easy for you but hard for others, or the other way round?

Mark (10:56)
what’s easy for me.

James (10:58)
or what’s hard for you that others might find easy.

Mark (11:01)
I like cooking, for example. This is easy for me. And I hate bureaucracy. This makes me so scared and sometimes even paranoid when I have to call some numbers that are connected to this or pay the bills online or blah, blah, But otherwise I can…

I can cook a complicated meal and I’m happy with this.

James (11:29)
Meals,

yes. Paperwork, no.

Mark (11:32)
you

James (11:33)
Have you found any approaches that make the world better for you?

Mark (11:36)
Not really. Not really. I’m trying. But then I still find myself… ⁓

or lost or frustrated, but…

Yeah, no one.

James (11:49)
I guess one of things you mentioned was about slowing down ⁓ and kind of not rushing the process and that sort of thing, I guess, is that something that you’ve learned over time that makes it makes…

Mark (12:02)
I get lost again

in it, know, like then I want to speed it up because I have a feeling that I know it and then again I don’t know how to be like really smart about these things, you know, it’s like somehow…

Life has its own ways that honestly I realized one thing that I cannot control them. I try and I try to make it easier. Yeah, for me, the easiest would be that I would have this organized brain where things would, I know how it could be, but it’s just not working like this. You know, like I know that also yoga in the morning helps me, but do I do it every day? And I really feel much better if I do the

the morning stretch but yeah but then sometimes I do and then sometimes I don’t ⁓ so

James (12:57)
something that’s made it easier for me is not worrying about the things I can’t change and not letting those fill up my brain with overthinking and information when I could be thinking about something I can change and something that is in front of me that I can.

Mark (13:15)
But can you really decide for this?

James (13:18)
Yes and no, I think that there’s some things that you can overthink, ⁓ particularly in my case, where I will overthink interactions with people that have happened a week ago that I’ll kind of overanalyze and I’ll think about and kind of, I’ve spent too long on it and I could actually just let it go and actually think about something that’s directly in front of me at that time that I can change or that I can inform or that I could make for the better. And I think part of the things that I’ve learned is that

making the world better for me is to not dwell too long on things that have already happened that I can’t change. So I think to your point about, I could make time for doing my yoga in the morning because I know it does it better, but I’m not going to beat myself up about it because I didn’t.

Mark (14:04)
Yeah,

I understand. Yeah.

Yeah, maybe one of the things is that I would say like accepting that the results will not be there immediately, that it needs time.

process itself needs its time. cannot force these things to happen from one day to another, they just, yeah, they need their incubation time to be ready and to come out when it’s time. then… ⁓

Yeah, all the other things will have to wait in line.

James (14:48)
Yeah, getting the cue.

I’m working on something else at the moment.

What’s a small thing that always makes you smile?

Mark (14:54)
maybe little really little details that I can find while walking on the street or

I don’t know, just little small things I saw.

sometimes the way how people would scratch themselves, you know, like, or how they would give a kiss to each other or how they would caress each other or like, ⁓

little moments where I see the honesty of the people. But not smiling the way that I’m laughing to them, but smiling the way that seeing that this gentleness would still exist and would still be present.

James (15:39)
There’s still some humanity. Yes. Amongst it. It’s sometimes harder and harder to see. And I think that it’s one of the other guests that I was speaking to recently is a really big fan of people watching and just kind of going to other countries and into other cultures and just watching the day pass. And I think that’s just the stillness of just letting that happen and just watching the world go by, I think is just.

Mark (15:42)
He smile every time when I see it.

James (16:07)
really rewarding sometimes.

Mark (16:09)
I definitely agree. Now when I hear the bird of yours here in the garden, is like taking the minute of time to just have the possibility to observe.

James (16:24)
Yeah, kind of defending that space a little bit and creating a barrier around that space to reserve as this is my time and I’m going to sit and be still and just watch what happens and take some time to absorb it.

Mark (16:40)
This makes me calm already. Just talking about it.

James (16:46)
If you had a free day with no plans, how would you spend it?

Mark (16:49)
It probably would depend where I would be. ⁓

But maybe I would just sit down and have a coffee. I would start with this and maybe read a book and not do nothing for a couple of hours. Try to… Or at least I’m always thinking about this. Then when it comes to the moment that I do have a free day, because I do have a free day sometimes, then of course I don’t do this. But it’s like this in the imagination. It always comes this beautiful idea of…

Yeah, just letting the world come in, what you said before.

James (17:29)
What’s something that always makes you lose track of time?

Do you get into a of a flow state with editing where you’re just kind of the world can fly past and you are completely fixated on the edit?

Mark (17:41)
Yeah, and with painting or with drawing was also like this. It’s just… I mean, now I have a daughter, so it’s not… I cannot lose time like this anymore because I know when and where I have to pick her and… but…

Yeah, like drawing, painting and editing were the things that could just be there and be next to this work and…

the time would be just passing by. It really doesn’t matter because it’s just there and the creation is also there with you to be done and it’s beautiful to be there and to observe it.

James (18:25)
And do those moments where you lose track of time happen naturally or do they just kind of they can they can grab you at whatever time of day it is or whatever time of night it is and you feel like you have to then lock in and and and you’re then there for hours?

Mark (18:41)
While I was studying, it was somehow the practice to just come in the studio at 8 in the morning and stay there until 10 in the evening when they close the school. like, somehow the idea was, which at that moment the teacher gave us, was you need to be present constantly because…

a little thing can happen at that time and if you’re not there to do it then you will miss it. Actually I miss this complete time of being dedicated to the studio in that kind of way because like with the work that I do now

It’s different a little bit, it’s more scheduled. And also, yeah, I’m older with the different responsibilities, not only for myself anymore. But yeah, this was somehow the idea of the studio work and the creation to be present, to be present constantly and then the time really stops playing a role.

James (19:48)
What’s the best advice you’ve ever been given?

Mark (19:50)
Maybe take a second breath before you decide for something.

James (19:55)
It’s amazing how often that comes up. It’s kind of take a pause and just kind of don’t feel the need to react immediately to something and just take a breath, have a second and then react to it. and protecting that space to not feel like you have to react can be really useful sometimes because that pause can just give you a moment to kind of go, okay.

think about it and then react and ⁓ it’s something I’m still practicing.

Is it something that has come easy to you or is it something that you’re still finding your way with?

Mark (20:36)
Yeah, I do like to act impulsively, but at the same time, I do also have these things that inside somehow it’s built, right, that I don’t like really jump in front of the train. So, because I also…

like the feeling of this impulsive act. It’s something that is inside and I know it and I know what kind of juice it has. To overthink everything and stepping back, this I also don’t like. yeah, somehow for some things you need to learn how to balance it. Because you also should not lose it completely.

James (21:25)
Yeah, I think that’s where sometimes the impulsivity is where the greatest creativity can happen. But it can also, I guess it’s like a tool and it could be used for doing good things or bad things. your reaction can sometimes be, if you kind of stop and check whether your impulsiveness is going to be for the sake of

creativity or thought process or problem solving or whether it’s going to be a kind of a negative emotional reaction and then then you then it’s kind of a good time to kind of go okay pause you don’t need you don’t need your brain firing at full speed for this one you need to take a pause and step back and it’s just having that kind of moment to catch yourself

before everything fires off in 12 different directions.

Mark (22:18)
Exactly.

James (22:19)
What’s something you’re excited to learn or try in the future?

Mark (22:22)
I would like to… many things, I’m constantly finding little stuff that I would like to know how to do. ⁓

I always wanted to play an instrument.

trying to learn something but I never succeeded so this is something what I’m really interested in. don’t know yet. I tried many things. I tried from accordion to guitar. would like… Sometimes I see what kind of pleasure that enjoy music can bring into the apartment if somebody knows how to…

James (22:46)
what sort of instrument are you into?

Mark (23:06)
take an instrument in the hands and play it. At the same time, I’m not this kind of person. I’m not a person that would be like singing around and all that.

James (23:14)
No,

your first answer was bursting into song here.

Mark (23:18)
Yeah, but

these are like little events that I love, but then I’m not this kind of a group entertainer in that kind of way. ⁓ So this is one thing. Another thing I want to learn, ⁓ Flemish, because I want to start speaking with my neighbors. I live in Belgium for 10 years now, and I still don’t speak the language. So I’m really ashamed of it.

James (23:46)
I don’t know where it comes in hard languages to learn but Flemish feels like a kind of really hard point of entry for learning from coming from any language and understanding Flemish or kind of knowing where the jumping on point is with it is because

every language has value. But it is ⁓ in such a small geography in the world that it’s used that you can’t suddenly jump on something like Duolingo and pick up Flemish.

Mark (24:16)
Even though it is in Duolingo. Is it? Yeah.

James (24:18)
I stand corrected. That’s okay, that’s a challenge for me.

Mark (24:22)
It is and

I tried it on the Duolingo but then this owl became really angry on me.

James (24:28)
That

owl is not doing Duolingo a good service because it gets really angry really quickly. But at least now I know that Flemish is on Duolingo. I’m gonna look at it and see if I can pick up a few words as well.

What’s one thing you’d like listeners to take away from this conversation?

Mark (24:44)
I don’t know what they need for themselves. think that each of them put…

would grab something, you normally hook yourself to something at that moment you need, But if they could start thinking about the… maybe about the process itself, ⁓ what does it mean? And how we can actually not control everything? ⁓ That things also come from the…

observation of the things that is somehow around us and that we are maybe some kind of a…

transcriptors of the things that are happening around us and not… Of course we are creators but…

We are also being together with the others. So we are co-creators, let’s say.

James (25:40)
And what’s next for you?

Mark (25:42)
Next for me is the third part of the last part of the trilogy that we are working with my friend Maxime Bertou. We did two parts already. One was sailing with the boat from Bretagne until the island of Isla.

where we cut the boat in pieces and made two whiskey barrels out of it and fulfill it with the 11 years old whiskey. Single malt. Then with the second project we traveled the whole Mississippi River with a steamboat.

James (26:07)
Wow

Mark (26:21)
and we are researching the impact of the corn monoculture on the river itself and we are collecting corn and then we financed the whole project with distilling the corn and producing moonshine and now the second part will be Japan but this time not the whiskey but the essence of every whiskey which is again water.

This is coming hopefully next year, this third part. ⁓ And the second thing is I’m continuing with my researches on the canals of Ghent. ⁓ And one that I’m now going to do is

It’s going from Ghent until the North Sea. It’s called Ghent-Tenerism Canal. It’s 35 kilometers long and it has been dug out by human hands. of the most important arteries of bringing all kinds of goods to the city.

You’re welcome. Thank you.

James (27:36)
Thanks Mark.