Layers (Priestory spomínania)
Layers (Priestory spomínania) is a project based on the artistic research that explores the Stalin’s monument. The resulting project is a photobook mapping the rebirth of the totalitarian era by working with archival materials related to the construction of the monument, its unveiling, and its explosion. It traces the fate of the author Otakar Švec, and records the key moments of the aforementioned territory, including the research of Institute of Archaeology of the Czech Academy of Sciences. The aim of the publication is to show that post-communist, (or post-socialist/post-totalitarian), countries are unable to deal with their own history. Elements of totalitarianism seem to be present in between the lines of everyday reality, whether we find them in people's behavior or problematic sites.
Book of archive photographs, Institute of Archaeology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Slovak National Gallery (Ales Votava archive), National Archives in Prague, author’s manipulated scans and photographsThe Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, Prague, CZ
Visuals were used in collaboration with Institute of Archaeology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague
PERFORMANCES
Layers (Priestory spomínania)
Based on the ritual practices that were conducted in the space of the Stalin’s monument,
I decided to create several performative situations. These performances were unannounced. I was choosing symbolic objects from the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, such as coal or stones. Performances were documented by the Ukrainian artist Kateryna Khramtsova, with the aim of returning to the performances of the past, especially to the minimalist performances of the 1970s in Prague, and to the experience the injustice of the totalitarian regimes on one’s own skin. Totalitarian practices have been maintained and continue to this day, despite us being silent about them. Furthermore, I interviewed Kateryna Khramtsova due to my interest in the Soviet propaganda. Interview can be found here.
Letna, area around the former Stalin’s monument and current Metronome statue, Prague, CZ
Layers (Watching you) I have enacted a performance in which I was carrying a cork board on my back and walked as a dog on the floors over the building of the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague. The gesture of a walking dog can be well understood in terms of the institutional critique.
The English term watchdog is a phrase that refers to an entity - an individual or organization whose aim is to monitor the fairness and moral integrity of politicians, authorities, state organizations or companies. The performance stems from my practice of volunteering in a watch-dog organization. In this particular project, I was carrying the research of the Stalin’s monument conducted by the Archaeological Institute in Prague that is so far not very known and shows the existence of a work camp that used to be built in the area of the Stalin’s monument.
The cork board is a symbol of pedagogical critique the artist has received. Later on, she used it as a symbol of institutional critique in another institution. At first, she was carrying it on her back, and later on, the artist sprayed it red and exhibited it in Pistori palace pop-up event right next to framed paintings on the wall.
The Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, Prague, CZ
Pistori Palace, Bratislava, SK
Layers (5 minutes)
The artist decided to symbolically lie down for five minutes in the middle of the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin, located on Hannah Arendt Straße, in order to pay tribute to the memory of these victims.
Performance, Holocaust memorial, Berlin, Germany, 2024
Layers (Priestory traumy)
Layers (Priestory traumy) is a follow up project to Layers (Priestory spomínania). It serves as a 5-day durational performance that stems from my institutionally critical practice. During the performance, I critically evaluate the publication Layers (Priestory spomínania) and pull out the fragments from the publication, tear, cut, and create an installation in space by layering the material from the pages of the book. The entire exhibition takes place over a period of two weeks at the Jewish cemetery in Telc, where I live in the cemetery space without electricity and running water. The performance follows the line of the five days (this rule was however broken and the piece extended
into more days). I subject the work to a critique, through a technique of destruction and subsequent reconstruction of my trauma. In addition to the institutional critique, the installation also highlights the mechanisms of totality. These paradoxically affect the artists that attempt to critically name the totalitarian themes. The installation is accompanied by a photograph from the performance Layers (5 minutes).
The constantly-changing installation in progress/various moments
Torn pages from the book Layers, red thread and needles, pins, frame found in the basement of the cemetery, spider web, tree trunks and branches found in the cemetery, Jewish cemetery, Telč, CZ
Layers (Washed)
During this ritual, I washed myself in the exhibition space. The next day, I cleaned the space with my own body, using the water in which I was washing myself the previous day. In this way, I have returned to my profession of being a cleaner. The profession is considered one of the menial invisible jobs (hence the concept of invisible labor). The performance can be understood as a continuation of my activity in Slovakia where I used to work a cleaner in a particular art space and exhibited in the exact space a few years later.
Jewish cemetery, Telč, CZ
Layers (Sewing it back)The final performance from the series Layers consists of sewing the book Layers back using a red thread and a needle. Later on, the temporary installation of a certain pages was created. The pages from the book were hung on the construction of Metronome. The installation moved by the wind in space.
Performance, Letna, area around the former Stalin’s monument and current Metronome statue, Prague, Czechia, 2024