works / My Shoes, Your Shoes

Omlouvám se za to, v jak špatném stavu ti přenechávám svět, v němž budeš žít / I apologise to you for the bad condition in which I leave to you the world you will live in

Is it possible to change family behaviour patterns passed down from generation to generation? What are all those things that drive our decisions? What are the reasons that lead us back into situations we have found ourselves in many times before?

Trauma is a story that repeats itself.

Kamila Ženatá invited eight female artists and their daughters to engage in an intergenerational dialogue that explores the emotional legacy of their families. Gallery A at HYB4 has been transformed into a flat divided into several rooms – and in each of them a story unfolds, created by the „family line-up“ of artists. There are records of memories, maps of the landscape of consciousness and the unconscious, abstracts of emotions and dreams, elaborations of family narratives and themes handed down from generation to generation by women: grandmothers, mothers, daughters, granddaughters…

Events, occurrences, recollections of the past and emotions form the memory of a family, creating a social and emotional map that permeates across generations; they are the sediment in the layers of our lives.

Trauma causes wounds that manifest as conflicting and destructive forces. Dialogue and communication, along with what can be described as conscious work with the subject, are tools that have the power to transform the energy of families and reconfigure the inherited patterns. While trauma may disconnect individuals and societies, it also has a tremendous potential to connect.

The exhibition My Shoes, Your Shoes is, in a sense, a reconciliation ritual. It is performed by all the women who participate in the exhibition.

Daniela Baráčková, Karla Ema Nováková, Božena Baráčková, Tereza Marečková, Zora Marečková, Viola Marečková, Lucie Nováčková, Žofie Jarkovská, Jana Preková, Lilian Rullerová, Zuzana Růžičková, Alice Probstová, Olga Stehlíková, Rosaria Viola Mlčková, Denisa Václavová, Emma Kintera, Maya Kintera, Kateřina Závodová, Viola Závodová, Kamila Ženatá, Tereza Bečičková, Alena Bečičková

Kamila Ženatá created for the exhibition the installation Garden (2024), used the video My Shoes, Your Shoes (2011), Rod (mixed media on canvas, light, dark, 2024) and with her daughter Tereza Bečičková and granddaughter Alenka Bečičková the installation Memory (text and drawings on the wall, audio, 2024).

The catalogue is an integral part of the exhibition.

Umělecký projekt / Art project: Kamila Ženatá
Kurátor galerie / Gallery curator: Filip Kazda
Produkce / Production: Michal Štochl
Překlad do angličtiny / Translation: Rosana Murcott
Fotografie / Photos: Adriána Vančová