Artist: Eva Koťátková

Curator: Jen Kratochvil

Title: Get Used to My Body, I Live Quite Comfortably in It

Venue: Kunsthalle LAB, Bratislava

Photo: Kunsthalle Bratislava / Adam Šakový

Czech, internationally renowned artist, Eva Koťátková’s first solo exhibition at Kunsthalle Bratislava – stepping into the complex web of ongoing relations in the square – is presented on the ground level of the institution at Kunsthalle LAB, in direct contact with the surrounding environment through the large storefront windows.

The square functions as a petri dish of multilayered social encounters and interactions. Almost as a strangely premeditated, carefully constructed meticulously and precisely choreographed and timed experiment. Even though it all seems to be happening naturally.

“Koťátková’s practice explores, analyses, and symbolically relates to, and comments on multilayered social relations. Her long-term interest lies in the role of institutionalized forms of power and established social units, such as community, family, and their politically-defined controlling mechanisms. Through her complex artistic practice, Koťátková maps their formative influences on an individual, no matter how and if such a person, can or wants to, actually belong to the given predefined structures.” states Jen Kratochvil, exhibition curator.

Koťátková’s scenographies consist of a multitude of elements; welded objects, alluding to figurative properties; ready-made objects holding specific clearly recognizable references, such as typical school chair units; miniature models of various scales; hand-sewn costumes and clothing; collages composed of found material complemented with drawings, often altered intervened in by her young daughter or other children; pieces of reformulated household furniture like tables or beds; all accompanied by and bathed in the sound of voices of people elaborating on their social experiences.

EVA KOŤÁTKOVÁ (*1982, Prague), in her art practice, works with the object, installation, environment or performance, while focusing on the relationship of the individual and the society. She explores how social habits and behaviours affect the individual problems of an individual and his or her behaviour. After graduating at Academy of Fine Arts in Prague she completed her PhD studies at UMPRUM in Prague. In 2007 she was awarded Jindřich Chalupecký Award. She appeared as well among the finalists of Future Generation Art Prize. She has exhibited at Istanbul Biennial (2019), The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (2018), 21er Haus – Museum for Contemporary Art in Vienna (2017), Schinkel Pavillon in Berlin (2014), or Venice Biennale.