Past and Present
The Office of the Professional Human Being
By Alexander Komlosi, P.H.B. The Office of the Professional Human Being
began as a respectful parody of the psychotherapeutic process. It has
grown to become a real and virtual event during which people can share
and reflect upon the distinctive experiences that characterize what being
a human being is about for them.
Presently…
I am spending the autumn sifting through my research and writing. The
writing is primarily inspired by my work with my last client.
We are planning to develop the virtual Office’s interactive element to
allow clients to share their unique human experiences.
Recently…
The Office appeared in the garden of the Café des Sports in Menz, France
in the Summer of 2004. This very positive experience was our first one
in French with a French public. We have been invited to return next year.
The garden-tent consulting room was presented at the internationally renowned
Prague Quadrennial in June of 2003. The performance was included on the
Prague Quadrennial DVD and catalogue. Additionally, footage from a live-performance
and interview at the Quadrennial was used to make a documentary of the
Office (see DVD link to watch film).
Early History…
I first consulted in a room in the derelict Holesovice Brewery as part
of the Holesovice Arts Festival in the fall of 2000 in Prague. I redecorated
and refurbished the room, making it cozy and homey. Subsequently, the
Office transformed itself into the small, white-roofed tent walled with
bright orange cloth walls. It was set up on the roof of the theater of
The Academy of Performing Arts as part of the school's performing arts
festival in May, 2001. (Please see attached photos.) Its success at the
four day festival prompted a four-week extension of its lease and run.
More than ten clients returned for additional consultations. In the summer
of 2001, the Office traveled to a one-day art and music, Babylon, in northern
Moravia. (Please see the attached photos.) In the fall of 2001, the small,
mirthful tent, as well as its inhabitant, found themselves in yet another
derelict brewery. This time it was in the north of the Czech Republic,
near the Polish border, in Centrum Broumov, a center for experimental
art and arts education. Before its appearance at the Prague Quadrennial,
the Office last appeared at the official opening of the Laundry Theater
in the winter of 2001 in Prague Over six hundred people have come to the
Office for an initial consultation. More than fifty have returned to continue
the process. |