https://terezazelenkova.com Tereza Zelenkova Sat, 29 Apr 2023 10:32:35 +0000 https://terezazelenkova.com en https://terezazelenkova.com/Welcome Tue, 27 Oct 2020 19:45:56 +0000 Tereza Zelenkova https://terezazelenkova.com/Welcome https://terezazelenkova.com/Maladies-of-The-Infinite-2022 Thu, 15 Sep 2022 15:31:59 +0000 Tereza Zelenkova https://terezazelenkova.com/Maladies-of-The-Infinite-2022 &nbsp; <img width="600" height="539" width_o="600" height_o="539" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/417a409519a31dab4d25fcf6a33bb979822c8427066743f5f5090b8d2d36942c/title90small.png" data-mid="177016049" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/600/i/417a409519a31dab4d25fcf6a33bb979822c8427066743f5f5090b8d2d36942c/title90small.png" /> ”The original form of a dwelling is existence not in the house but in the shell. The shell bears the impression of its occupant. In the most extreme instance, the dwelling becomes a shell. The nineteenth century, like no other century, was addicted to dwelling. It conceived the residence as a receptacle for the person, and it encased him with all his appurtenances so deeply in the dwelling’s interior that one might be reminded of the inside of the compass case, where the instrument with all its accessories lies embedded in deep, usually violet folds of velvet.” - &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Walter Benjamin, Arcades project &nbsp; <img width="1517" height="1894" width_o="1517" height_o="1894" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/9af570b2a50b0b98e5ff21ec4a2c3f89a04e41ca7f874c6a18ba054bbbc08937/zelenkova_skull.jpg" data-mid="153198737" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/9af570b2a50b0b98e5ff21ec4a2c3f89a04e41ca7f874c6a18ba054bbbc08937/zelenkova_skull.jpg" /> Skull (2020)40 x 50 cm Framed archival inkjet print on cotton paper <img width="1241" height="1754" width_o="1241" height_o="1754" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/2848d5f419fa11768b05de4369fe9a76ca2d395fc0f57694210b535e87458f0c/poster.jpg" data-mid="158622155" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/2848d5f419fa11768b05de4369fe9a76ca2d395fc0f57694210b535e87458f0c/poster.jpg" /> Exhibition poster, design by Richard Bakeš, Berlinskej Model, Prague, 2022 <img width="2560" height="1708" width_o="2560" height_o="1708" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/c9d650f9017734d35ba97c801abcc29cdc92eb66fddb2d164dd08b0ffe456bc0/zelenkova01.jpeg" data-mid="177016046" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/c9d650f9017734d35ba97c801abcc29cdc92eb66fddb2d164dd08b0ffe456bc0/zelenkova01.jpeg" />Maladies of The Infinite, exhibition view, Berlinskej Model, Prague, 2022 <img width="1536" height="1831" width_o="1536" height_o="1831" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/8b222d306e999957fc1fda89602470bfb86c2ebb0e8643a526ab77642f8ae34e/zelenkova_chairs-copy.jpg" data-mid="153198356" border="0" data-scale="100" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/8b222d306e999957fc1fda89602470bfb86c2ebb0e8643a526ab77642f8ae34e/zelenkova_chairs-copy.jpg" />Chairs (2022)51 x 58 cm Framed gelatin silver handprint on fibre based paper with custom made window mount <img width="3031" height="3789" width_o="3031" height_o="3789" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/71aaafb741e0f6709618a432b81bd5457153f95f2bf273f8a5862cd2e121656b/_R6A0678-copy.jpg" data-mid="153197518" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/71aaafb741e0f6709618a432b81bd5457153f95f2bf273f8a5862cd2e121656b/_R6A0678-copy.jpg" />Maladies of The Infinite, exhibition view, Kultruni Centar Beograda, 2022 <img width="2400" height="3000" width_o="2400" height_o="3000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/d1ec8af329ff01a3d19bc2207ff469c44e42c457a6fefffd3bbc2b03b32ac933/candelabra_zelenkova.jpg" data-mid="153197713" border="0" data-scale="61" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/d1ec8af329ff01a3d19bc2207ff469c44e42c457a6fefffd3bbc2b03b32ac933/candelabra_zelenkova.jpg" /> Candelabra (2021)100 x 125 cm Archival inkjet print on cotton paper “The apartment of the fin de siècle encapsulates the encounter of the near and remote, familiar, and estranged, like reflections in the newly manufactured mirrors. In it, furnishing becomes cohabiting. As the world outside accelerates through steam and electricity, the apartment lies unaffected, conjuring up the image of stillness and dust.” <img width="1196" height="1572" width_o="1196" height_o="1572" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/493afff19b92ca883b0e82985467a8e4d32457fca1397a123ca102b0f40e2975/zelenkova_mirror.jpg" data-mid="153199294" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/493afff19b92ca883b0e82985467a8e4d32457fca1397a123ca102b0f40e2975/zelenkova_mirror.jpg" /> <img width="1190" height="1560" width_o="1190" height_o="1560" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/7c3bca7599be9095321428242352ba56fc3da296ebe7180ab9444a2da6778f0f/zelenkova_lion.jpg" data-mid="153199174" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/7c3bca7599be9095321428242352ba56fc3da296ebe7180ab9444a2da6778f0f/zelenkova_lion.jpg" /> <img width="1176" height="1567" width_o="1176" height_o="1567" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/0b3a2b88b233f75f1b8464667d63362df0aae7b234cad25fca8969d9041e162a/zelenkova_crucifix.jpg" data-mid="153199173" border="0" data-scale="99" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/0b3a2b88b233f75f1b8464667d63362df0aae7b234cad25fca8969d9041e162a/zelenkova_crucifix.jpg" /> <img width="1190" height="1562" width_o="1190" height_o="1562" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/b5bd3e7d88f94494e879ae3ccf2a0867af58ad04511b66f343756074e1a8e61a/zelenkova_library.jpg" data-mid="153199293" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/b5bd3e7d88f94494e879ae3ccf2a0867af58ad04511b66f343756074e1a8e61a/zelenkova_library.jpg" /> From left to right: Interior, Paris (2013), Lion (2013), Crucifix (2020), Library (2013)30 x 40 cm&nbsp;Framed gelatin silver handprints on fibre based paper <img width="2000" height="1600" width_o="2000" height_o="1600" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/a90e1d6721afb985b106fb5306060f61ab4e9ff338eecadbf1cc1938a0e99a56/operating_theatre.jpg" data-mid="153199443" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/a90e1d6721afb985b106fb5306060f61ab4e9ff338eecadbf1cc1938a0e99a56/operating_theatre.jpg" />Operating table, Bologna (2021) 130 x 104 cm Archival inkjet print on cotton paper <img width="2560" height="1708" width_o="2560" height_o="1708" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/3c34b53e773fc31aa5a9b5f0d65028f46e32e5957adc924fdf6851899248bb7e/zelenkova4.jpeg" data-mid="177016044" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/3c34b53e773fc31aa5a9b5f0d65028f46e32e5957adc924fdf6851899248bb7e/zelenkova4.jpeg" /> Maladies of The Infinite, exhibition view, Berlinskej Model, Prague, 2022 <img width="1547" height="1929" width_o="1547" height_o="1929" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/857f7cb8d4f90c6c7bcd85846863c6a925d100c1aeba9fd335901dc7ba623e24/zelenkova_drape-copy.jpg" data-mid="153198073" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/857f7cb8d4f90c6c7bcd85846863c6a925d100c1aeba9fd335901dc7ba623e24/zelenkova_drape-copy.jpg" /> Infinite movement (2020) 40 x 50 cmFramed archival inkjet print on cotton paper <img width="1708" height="2560" width_o="1708" height_o="2560" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/12a7558d73c010a3af37dc6aecd62ecdf3cf5f78818f39b0df7cc3fe39a28c94/zelenkova8.jpeg" data-mid="177016041" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/12a7558d73c010a3af37dc6aecd62ecdf3cf5f78818f39b0df7cc3fe39a28c94/zelenkova8.jpeg" /> Maladies of The Infinite, exhibition view, Berlinskej Model, Prague, 2022 Maladies of The Infinitebrings together photographs, objects, and texts from Tereza Zelenkova’s ongoing practice that is based on photographic inquiries informed by the 19th century cultural landscape, local mythologies, classical literature, psychoanalysis, and philosophy. Working in analog black and white technique, her photographs draw the viewer into the world of the occult and mystical, translating speculative historical narratives and sensibilities of the passed epochs into tangible representations. The work is conceived as a comprehensive installation made up of fragments through which the notion of the interior is considered, both in the historical context of dwelling in the 19th century, and in particular symbolically charged spaces such as apartments of prominent authors, curiosity cabinets and museum rooms, as well as in terms of the ambivalent experience of one's own home in contemporary post-pandemic times. Walter Benjamin's observation that the nineteenth century like no other before was obsessed with dwelling, referring to a space that "like an alluring creature disguises itself, putting on the costumes of moods” best describes the melancholy of stuffy rooms from the time of the Paris spleen, crowded room-museums that tend to archive their own tenants. One such tenant is T. from the story written by the artist, which is an integral part of the exhibition. Like JK Huysmans’ des Esseintes from the novel À Rebours, this eccentric character withdraws into a radical form of isolation that can be read as an attempt at a kind of "experimental sensualism", isolated and surrounded by refined objects, plants and textures, which slowly take over him. He no longer inhabits the room, but the room imperceptibly moves into him. We may ask a question at this point, aren’t our homes always at once universes of our individuality but also prisons that frame and expose our mortality? Home in this case becomes a solitary stage for the reclusive character to perform his bizarre habits and idiosyncrasies, to engage with his own transience of which he is somewhat paradoxically reminded by his mute possessions. The idea of an interior as an expression of an individual’s macrocosm has a historical rootedness; it comes with an invention of personal taste and boredom, and as such it is related to class power and cultural capital, especially in the 19th century. The maladies of the bourgeoisie, as Freud famously identified them, were a result of repressions of fundamental and primordial desires, which, regulated by social norms— especially in the era of an intense moral preoccupation, would return as unconscious manifestations through involuntary actions. In other words, that which is suppressed would come back to haunt us often in unexpected forms and guises. This was the case with a married couple from the newspaper article that Freud mentions in his essay “The Uncanny”, who upon moving into a new house furnished with stylish furniture, start experiencing disturbing sensations. The curiously shaped wooden table with carvings of crocodiles somehow comes to life at night as the tenants begin to experience a series of symptoms- swampy odor, gliding sounds, tripping over enigmatic objects in the darkness and so on. For the remarkable terror of the uncanny arises precisely from something foreign and threatening that is yet always “too familiar”, always “within”.&nbsp; The apartment of the fin de siècle encapsulates this encounter of the near and remote, familiar, and estranged, like reflections in the newly manufactured mirrors. In it, furnishing becomes cohabiting. As the world outside accelerates through steam and electricity, the apartment lies unaffected, conjuring up the image of stillness and dust. Fragments of the uncanny interiors from Zelenkova's photographs become symptomatic spots through which the "maladies" of time can be registered—fetishes, desires, reveries, and dreams dreamed in the noise of the industrial revolution and early capitalism, which only the room, that private universe of the individual, with its heavy brocade curtains and upholstered furniture can still muffle. Text: Mia Ćuk https://terezazelenkova.com/Dead-Language-2020 Tue, 27 Oct 2020 08:49:40 +0000 Tereza Zelenkova https://terezazelenkova.com/Dead-Language-2020 Dead Language Tereza Zelenková’s work has always drawn deeply on a certain strand of darkly imaginative literature, whether the transgressive musings of Georges Bataille or the lyrical poetry of Rimbaud and Baudelaire. In this series, she has allowed her imagination to roam even more freely, making connections between the visual and the written, while simultaneously acknowledging a frustration with the limits of the purely photographic. In Dead Language, her solo exhibition at Josef Sudek’s Atelier, Zelenková summons up the spirits of diverse writers, artists and thinkers, as well as the lingering ghostly traces of analogue photography in her deftly discursive merging of image and text. The viewer – though reader might be a more apt word here – is thus taken on a tangential journey into the realm of often esoteric interconnected ideas. In The Skull of Descartes, language itself is interrogated and meaning questioned. In The Language of Moths, the migratory journey of the death’s-head hawkmoth is compared to the voyage of Count Dracula, while both are contrasted with the contemporary migrant trails and the fear and suspicion they provoke in Western culture.&nbsp;“The photograph is not the end product or indeed the starting point,” elaborates Zelenkova of her way of working, “Instead, it is about my abiding interest in the actual subject of the photograph or the story behind it. In this instance, I am not making work that explores a single subject deeply. It is more about collecting sometimes rather fragmented information that resonates with each other, pushing the meaning beyond what is commonly expected.” Text: Sean O’Hagan, writer, The Guardian <img width="1600" height="2000" width_o="1600" height_o="2000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/593a55fd1faaa40315da22c73eb083688c2325e528fafaca8a895d8069918119/zelenkova_moth.jpg" data-mid="86807896" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/593a55fd1faaa40315da22c73eb083688c2325e528fafaca8a895d8069918119/zelenkova_moth.jpg" /> Image: Tereza Zelenkova, Moth, 2020 <img width="1600" height="2000" width_o="1600" height_o="2000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/66538a8f4a85c7fa83babc4e2a246a3e3f56cf91f879d2aaf2d20667d7538a75/zelenkova_descartes.jpg" data-mid="86808005" border="0" data-scale="98" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/66538a8f4a85c7fa83babc4e2a246a3e3f56cf91f879d2aaf2d20667d7538a75/zelenkova_descartes.jpg" />Image: Tereza Zelenkova, The Skull of Descartes, 2020 <img width="2000" height="1251" width_o="2000" height_o="1251" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/3c05a1fe91ee853b7353350e01591f1fa9e65e4f2e9a8cfc5d08833850f53712/_R6A0777.jpg" data-mid="90056643" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/3c05a1fe91ee853b7353350e01591f1fa9e65e4f2e9a8cfc5d08833850f53712/_R6A0777.jpg" />Image: Tereza Zelenkova, Dead Language, Ateliér Josefa Sudka, 2020 The Skull of Descartes The skull of the French philosopher René Descartes disappeared, together with the index finger from his right hand, during the transportation of his bodily remains from Sweden to France in 1666, sixteen years after his death. Afterall Descartes is not the only important figure who was posthumously robbed of his bodily parts. The same destiny was met by others, such as Emanuel Swedenborg (the story of his skull would require a separate chapter), Joseph Haydn, Ludwig van Beethoven, or Sir Thomas Browne. Browne himself foresaw the destiny awaiting his remains when he wrote that who is to know the fate of his bones, or how often he is to be buried? It was only in 1823 when a skull appeared, covered with writings in Swedish and Latin that attributed it to Descartes. The skull was sent to France, where it was examined by Georges Cuvier who would try to prove its authenticity because at that time there were five other skulls assigned to the French philosopher. Cuvier would measure the skull and compare it to the best-known likeness of Descartes – a portrait painted by Dutch painter France Halse in 1649. However, the authenticity of the portrait is disputable, similarly like the authenticity of the skull itself. Although it is possible that Halse’s painting is not faithful, Cuvier wasn’t the last one who would try to authenticate the skull by comparing the two. In 1913, the anatomist Dr. Paul Richer made a plaster cast of the skull in question and consequently placed it within a plaster bust based on Halse’s portrait. His motivation was to prove beyond doubt that the skull’s shape and proportions correspond with the physical attributes of Descartes’s face. The resulting object is a plaster bust statue with removable parts of its face, revealing the skull hidden beneath its surface. This unusual representation unintentionally epitomizes Descartes’s best-known concept of dualism of body and soul. According to Descartes, the human body is merely a vessel, some kind of machine, and our soul dwells inside the so-called pineal gland, an organ which can be found in the centre of one’s head. This only unpaired part of our brain is supposedly the place where all ideas are formed and therefore it is a constituent element of the Cartesian concept of existence, summarised in the famous phrase cogito ergo sum, or I think therefore I am. Yet, if the only manifestation of our existence is the act of thinking, isn’t it necessary to take into account the prerequisite for our ability to form and process thoughts – the language? Language cannot exist within one enclosed system, for example our mind, because it would not be able to produce any fixed meaning. Descartes wouldn’t be able to form rational thoughts if the words he uses wouldn’t make sense. The existence of language rests on the illusion of tying words to the signified as if they were directly bound. Similarly, isn’t it the case with graves that they’re purpose is, among other, to certify the illusion of an existing bond between one’s name and his or her body? The missing skull that refuses to be buried, and through that named beyond doubt, is like the ever-elusive concept of the human soul that resists to be fully grasped and described by the very language that supposedly certifies its existence. Text: Tereza Zelenkova Bibliography: W. G. Sebald, The Rings of Saturn, 1995 Michael Taussig, Walter Benjamin’s Grave, 2006 <img width="1600" height="2000" width_o="1600" height_o="2000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/913ce17c3b594d041986bc51ee75ace9a60cf76ed768d20d4223876bae277776/zelenkova_deathhead.jpg" data-mid="86808019" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/913ce17c3b594d041986bc51ee75ace9a60cf76ed768d20d4223876bae277776/zelenkova_deathhead.jpg" /> Image: Tereza Zelenkova, The Language of Moths, 2020 The Language of Moths “For the dead travel fast.” –Bram Stoker, Dracula, 1897 The death’s-head hawkmoth (Acherontia atropos) gets its name after the shape on the back of its head that’s reminiscent of a skull. Together with the patterns on its body that look like skeletal ribs and its wings forming some kind of cloak, this creature’s appearance can be immediately compared to that of a grim reaper. Indeed, even its name, Acherontia, is derived from the Greek name for the River of Pain in the Underworld, Acheron. Thanks to its appearance, finding one of these moths in the house has been widely perceived as a bad omen. It is seen as a messenger of evil spirits and some believe it is supposed to foretell war, hunger and death. All of this thanks to its unusual appearance and people’s superstitious nature. Death’s-head hawkmoth is at home throughout tropical Africa and surrounding areas, but it often migrates impressive distances and therefore can be found in many regions of Europe. It is actually considered to be the fastest flying moth specie in the world. “For the dead travel fast”, as Bram Stoker writes in Dracula. Of course, similarly as the death’s-head hawkmoth travels form South to North, Dracula travels from East to West, both reversing the common colonial narratives, and as such, posing a threat to the established order. Both Dracula and the death’s-head hawkmoth perhaps best embody the fears of the migration processes at work in today’s world. Fueled by fear of the Other, often built on superstitions and preconceived judgements, contemporary migrants from parts of Africa and from the East also represent a bad omen to a substantial portion of the Western population. While we continue our exploitation of other cultures and countries, we hold on to the irrational fears that betray our own false narratives of advanced societies built on empirical science and intellectual superiority. We derive our material wealth from other countries while we refuse to share it with their people, living in the perpetual fear of the Unknown that is coming to haunt our moral complacency. Text:&nbsp; Tereza Zelenkova Bibliography: Bram Stoker, Dracula, 1897 Iain Robert Smith, Transnational Film Remakes, 2017 <img width="2000" height="1601" width_o="2000" height_o="1601" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/58f67ce6975582bef39cd63d967c1c555eff63de6c883dcf15b2986737cdb970/zelenkova_book.jpg" data-mid="86808021" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/58f67ce6975582bef39cd63d967c1c555eff63de6c883dcf15b2986737cdb970/zelenkova_book.jpg" /> <img width="2000" height="1600" width_o="2000" height_o="1600" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/9c6604661a93271d1426f3e1d6ce1ddc802f4b5e704dc5156119f89bc356ee8e/_R6A9658_edit.jpg" data-mid="90056543" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/9c6604661a93271d1426f3e1d6ce1ddc802f4b5e704dc5156119f89bc356ee8e/_R6A9658_edit.jpg" /> Image: Tereza Zelenkova, The Open Book, 2020 The Open Book “Library where the books have melted into one another and the titles have faded away.” –Dr. Pierre Mabille, “Prefáce á l’Eloge des préjugés populaires!”, Minotaur, 2, no. 6 (Winter 1935, p.2) I wanted to photograph old libraries and bookshops Books with their cracked spines gathering dust on overstuffed shelves Dark corners and towering labyrinths The excess of information, unexplained, inaccessible, there’s just too many Like Borges’s Library of Babel Like time itself I experienced doubts about photography I no longer believed I wanted to examine the things themselves, their history and what they meant But the information was just not getting through And all the meaning was lost Like a photograph of a closed book Text: Tereza Zelenkova <img width="2000" height="1600" width_o="2000" height_o="1600" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/53597bc17b7ff1ea1cb7f1d4c971642af5634fef8093fe3ba4e142dae7745b54/zelenkova_courbet.jpg" data-mid="86810890" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/53597bc17b7ff1ea1cb7f1d4c971642af5634fef8093fe3ba4e142dae7745b54/zelenkova_courbet.jpg" /> Image: Tereza Zelenkova, The Secret Language of Images, 2020 The Secret Language of Images Leafing through the book on Courbet, I came across L’Origin du Monde. It brought back memories related to times when I first saw it at Museé d’Orsay, during the weeks spent travelling, strolling through the streets of this and that city, all the while experiencing an overload of new sensations. I would take long walks, visiting places where the writers I was reading used to live. Among them also 5 Rue de Lille, home to Jacques Lacan, the last private owner of the painting. Just like that, images creep their way into our lives, taking on significance that one would never anticipate. Pictures have their own secret language that translates differently to everyone and like music, we can even endow them with meaning that’s unique to our own lived experience. This brings forth questions surrounding the inherent miscommunication that might arise from any attempt at interpreting them. It is as if we were all mumbling to ourselves within the echo chambers of our consciousness. Yet it seems there’s affinity among a number of people, when the invisible becomes visible and ideas and images suddenly stand clear and their meaning, however obscure, resonate with one another. Text: Tereza Zelenkova <img width="1600" height="2000" width_o="1600" height_o="2000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/fcd18670f847f9acd3c34c66f0098eb74ad4513ebb9e3795b1383fa523a863c8/zelenkova_plaster_cast_disection.jpg" data-mid="86808022" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/fcd18670f847f9acd3c34c66f0098eb74ad4513ebb9e3795b1383fa523a863c8/zelenkova_plaster_cast_disection.jpg" />Image: Tereza Zelenkova,&nbsp;Plaster cast of a dissected hand, 2020 <img width="2000" height="1600" width_o="2000" height_o="1600" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/8858a46ceb6cc05118f97cbace1bdd2412a1941b645f0702bb8152facf45fa5c/_R6A9657_edit.jpg" data-mid="90056217" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/8858a46ceb6cc05118f97cbace1bdd2412a1941b645f0702bb8152facf45fa5c/_R6A9657_edit.jpg" />Image: Tereza Zelenkova,&nbsp;Dead Language (Mrtvý jazyk), 2020 <img width="2000" height="1600" width_o="2000" height_o="1600" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/3f49d61aa7fcf789bda7ea1a45ed2555aa0afac2fcb3ea2a310211ebb5a58a70/_R6A9659_edit.jpg" data-mid="90056231" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/3f49d61aa7fcf789bda7ea1a45ed2555aa0afac2fcb3ea2a310211ebb5a58a70/_R6A9659_edit.jpg" />Image: Tereza Zelenkova,&nbsp;The Language of Moths, 2020 <img width="2000" height="1600" width_o="2000" height_o="1600" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/6733152ca555401a6f1063de2ce7206a345e528d2f1256b129e3b766985d5ce9/_R6A9661_edit.jpg" data-mid="90056414" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/6733152ca555401a6f1063de2ce7206a345e528d2f1256b129e3b766985d5ce9/_R6A9661_edit.jpg" />Image: Tereza Zelenkova,&nbsp;The Secret Language of Images, 2020 <img width="2000" height="1251" width_o="2000" height_o="1251" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/5c8b0d3d65fb8dbc0d77c002780378adcb395d4ee858f892859d9b38e4801ff1/_R6A0777.jpg" data-mid="90056601" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/5c8b0d3d65fb8dbc0d77c002780378adcb395d4ee858f892859d9b38e4801ff1/_R6A0777.jpg" /><img width="2000" height="1364" width_o="2000" height_o="1364" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/1c63ae51be01e4f2a7dc733cce3cefa2a70baf7dc6af6ba7e1de1b0e7927b592/_R6A0775-2.jpg" data-mid="90056635" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/1c63ae51be01e4f2a7dc733cce3cefa2a70baf7dc6af6ba7e1de1b0e7927b592/_R6A0775-2.jpg" /> <img width="2000" height="1245" width_o="2000" height_o="1245" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/5ff140fb81ff5708b13a295fca4539da625fc4f8dfacb68a42036fd5808e7213/_R6A9676_edit.jpg" data-mid="90056629" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/5ff140fb81ff5708b13a295fca4539da625fc4f8dfacb68a42036fd5808e7213/_R6A9676_edit.jpg" /> Images: Tereza Zelenkova,&nbsp;Dead Language, exhibition views, Ateliér Josefa Sudka, Prague, 2020 https://terezazelenkova.com/The-Essential-Solitude-2018 Tue, 27 Oct 2020 08:49:41 +0000 Tereza Zelenkova https://terezazelenkova.com/The-Essential-Solitude-2018 The Essential Solitude <img width="1733" height="2600" width_o="1733" height_o="2600" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/194346b7d179e5fc91db02e1f1bfe29246ef7a65656138fa6d2689eaf7a94025/zelenkova_double_room.jpg" data-mid="86811428" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/194346b7d179e5fc91db02e1f1bfe29246ef7a65656138fa6d2689eaf7a94025/zelenkova_double_room.jpg" /> Image: Tereza Zelenkova, The Double Room, 2018 <img width="1890" height="2835" width_o="1890" height_o="2835" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/ce11cb4eff2f0ff157f9d44d085b28c02bdc125cb9552dfdddee0d20856ced72/_R6A6269-copy.jpg" data-mid="86875183" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/ce11cb4eff2f0ff157f9d44d085b28c02bdc125cb9552dfdddee0d20856ced72/_R6A6269-copy.jpg" /> Image: Tereza Zelenkova, Oh Mirror!, 2018 The Essential Solitude “Literature connected since romanticism with the decadence of religion in that it tends to lay a discreet claim to the heritage of religion, is not so much cognate with the content of religion as it is with the content of mysticism which, incidentally, is an almost asocial aspect of religion. Similarly mysticism is closer to the truth than I can possibly say. By mysticism I do not mean those systems of thought on which this vague name is conferred. I refer, rather, to the ‘mystical experience’, to those ‘mystical states’ experienced in solitude. In these states we can see a different truth to that which is concerned with the perception of objects, or indeed of the subject, connected, as it is, with the intellectual consequences of perception. But this is not a formal truth. Coherent discussion cannot account for it. It would be incommunicable if we could not approach it in two ways: through poetry and through the description of those conditions by which one arrives at these states.” - Georges Bataille, Literature and Evil [1] There are places where time has ceased to exist a while ago through a careful and thoughtful maintenance of appearances. Then there are places where time has always had its way and corruption and decay has marked its every surface. How strange it is then that after spending some time in a painstakingly preserved interior of the former, one can after a short while recognize a faint odor of formaldehyde in the air and right after come to the realization that, in fact, he finds himself inside a body of an embalmed corpse. On the contrary, the rotting entrails of a seemingly derelict room can be surprisingly high-spirited. With death comes renewal; past, present and future co-exist together within the folds of decomposing upholstery and life and its counterpart can no longer be perceived as contradictions, but only as an eternal cycle of things. Like the Sun, decay brings both life and destruction. These photographs show one such room. Although at first sight a derelict ruin, it is also a folly created by someone who I’d like to imagine as the 20th century answer to Des Essientes, a decadent character from J. K. Huysmans infamous novel A Rebours, who transformed his house into a sensual feast in which he surrounded himself with historic interiors, carefully arranged objects and, of course, an array of smells and sounds. “Travel, indeed, struck him as being a waste of time, since he believed that the imagination could provide a more-than-adequate substitute for the vulgar reality of actual experience”.[2] A book as figure for an infinite knowledge, a room as a stage for imagination, “a room that is like a dream, a truly spiritual room, where the stagnant atmosphere is nebulously tinted pink and blue. Here the soul takes a bath of indolence, scented with all the aromatic perfumes of desire and regret. There is about it something crepuscular, bluish shot with rose; a voluptuous dream in an eclipse. Every piece of furniture is of an elongated form, languid and prostrate, and seems to be dreaming; endowed, one would say, with somnambular existence like minerals and vegetables. The hangings speak a silent language like flowers, skies and setting suns”.[3] And within there’s a figure - part female, part male; half deity, half whore; both immortal and corpse, and like Maldoror crouching in the depths of his cave, eyes closed, moves his neck from right to left, from left to right, for hours on end. “I cover my face with piece of velvet, black as the soot which gathers inside chimneys”[4], writes Lautréamont. The enigma of Isidore Ducasse, dying alone in a gritty room of one of the cheap hotels in the 19th century Paris, haunts these photographs as much as delirious visions of an anonymous opium eater, arms spread open on filthy sheets covering a makeshift bed. Baudelaire embarked on distant voyages running his long thin fingers through his lover’s hair (“If you only knew all that I see! all that I feel! all that I hear in your hair!”[5]); Rimbaud hadn’t seen the sea before writing The Drunken Boat; there’s no need to leave this room, which one man had dreamt out in the 1970’s London. What is irrefutable is solitude – the essential solitude of this room that no longer fits within its surrounding buildings of glass and steal, of the one trapped within; of a reader, writer, or of anyone else looking into the abyss on the reverse side of his eyelids - the essential solitude of inner experience. After each day comes night, there’s Moon to every Sun, like the blind spot that fascinates the understanding by denying the fullness of it. Text: Tereza Zelenkova [1] Bataille, Georges. Literature and Evil. Penguin Classics, 2012. [2] Huysmans, Joris-Karl. Against Nature (A Rebours). Penguin, 2003. [3] Baudelaire, Charles. Paris Spleen. New Directions Pub. Co., 1988. [4] Lautréamont, et al. Maldoror and Poems. Penguin Books, 1988. [5] Baudelaire, Charles. Paris Spleen. New Directions Pub. Co., 1988. YOU CAN BUY THE BOOK HERE<img width="1200" height="800" width_o="1200" height_o="800" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/756ad677cd26e18275080d91663441319be5e4a843852c5a144aaf74df114e1d/TheEssentialSolitude_Book-1-of-49_EDITED-small.jpg" data-mid="141383263" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/756ad677cd26e18275080d91663441319be5e4a843852c5a144aaf74df114e1d/TheEssentialSolitude_Book-1-of-49_EDITED-small.jpg" /> <img width="1890" height="2835" width_o="1890" height_o="2835" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/efbb1b8eeb4866f481343565cf0b364eda38508f52da318a32af08093fe42081/_R6A6346.jpg" data-mid="86875185" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/efbb1b8eeb4866f481343565cf0b364eda38508f52da318a32af08093fe42081/_R6A6346.jpg" /> Image: Tereza Zelenkova, I am the Sun,&nbsp;2018 <img width="2600" height="3278" width_o="2600" height_o="3278" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/c5147bdd5a60dd2cd173a674978ee38b26aaca72e731765ae974ae5d50a34c59/zelenkova_poppy_II.jpg" data-mid="86811432" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/c5147bdd5a60dd2cd173a674978ee38b26aaca72e731765ae974ae5d50a34c59/zelenkova_poppy_II.jpg" />Image: Tereza Zelenkova, Poppy Head II, 2018 <img width="2600" height="3278" width_o="2600" height_o="3278" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/cdc4012072b551dc7c3b61da29b28a635352875fb91782e298cd853df38a16f3/zelenkova_poppy_I.jpg" data-mid="86811431" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/cdc4012072b551dc7c3b61da29b28a635352875fb91782e298cd853df38a16f3/zelenkova_poppy_I.jpg" />Image: Tereza Zelenkova, Poppy Head I, 2018 <img width="2600" height="2062" width_o="2600" height_o="2062" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/0f16e0928b12988fa7a9c1e5afb347df9a1ac9d0050062862735972f1f113b2a/zelenkova_oratory.jpg" data-mid="86811430" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/0f16e0928b12988fa7a9c1e5afb347df9a1ac9d0050062862735972f1f113b2a/zelenkova_oratory.jpg" />Image: Tereza Zelenkova, Oratory, 2018 <img width="2600" height="3279" width_o="2600" height_o="3279" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/583372136d4b5125c1ddcb548dadb601382dd214bbf145899a0c9d0f8e73bae8/zelenkova_all_that.jpg" data-mid="86811411" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/583372136d4b5125c1ddcb548dadb601382dd214bbf145899a0c9d0f8e73bae8/zelenkova_all_that.jpg" /> Image: Tereza Zelenkova, All that I see, 2018 <img width="2600" height="3278" width_o="2600" height_o="3278" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/ba40d394ba6df84e5ea7f09583f0c9d860943ea0abc8989e7f69346efb290dbf/zelenkova_silk.jpg" data-mid="86811433" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/ba40d394ba6df84e5ea7f09583f0c9d860943ea0abc8989e7f69346efb290dbf/zelenkova_silk.jpg" />Image: Tereza Zelenkova, Spitalfields Silk, 2018 <img width="2062" height="2600" width_o="2062" height_o="2600" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/1aca60f4cce40d7b8b0b097783022f940d63232447fca248a4ca6e2a200bb968/zelenkova_chamber.jpg" data-mid="115916613" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/1aca60f4cce40d7b8b0b097783022f940d63232447fca248a4ca6e2a200bb968/zelenkova_chamber.jpg" />Image: Tereza Zelenkova, Chamber of Solitude, 2018 <img width="2600" height="3278" width_o="2600" height_o="3278" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/d19dbe9f317bb6a9de8fd0b49f41290f5dadc2b21f7f4f8d6dd5d12918138a8c/zelenkova_daguerrotype.jpg" data-mid="86811418" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/d19dbe9f317bb6a9de8fd0b49f41290f5dadc2b21f7f4f8d6dd5d12918138a8c/zelenkova_daguerrotype.jpg" />Image: Tereza Zelenkova, Daguerreotype, 2018 https://terezazelenkova.com/The-Double-Room-2021 Wed, 20 Apr 2022 10:14:17 +0000 Tereza Zelenkova https://terezazelenkova.com/The-Double-Room-2021 The Double Room “The Double Room” (2020-2021) is a site specific work created for the Campbell House Museum in Toronto. Built in 1822, Campbell House is an inimitable landmark in Toronto’s urban centre and its history is bound to the legal justice system. I created new works onsite based on 19th-century crime scene photographs. These images point to some unexplained occurrences within the house and suggest another reality—hidden situations that take place in the same space but in a different time, or some parallel existence beyond the image’s surface. The photographs function as both mirrors reflecting the spaces in which they are exhibited, such as the dining and drawing rooms, and as windows presenting false memories and fictional narratives that represent the possibility of a hidden past or doppelgänger house that occupies the parallel space beyond the mirror. <img width="2500" height="2108" width_o="2500" height_o="2108" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/ba43db0257fbaa30c1ae0472fed6c04ebb77abf038ad5f30c7688de9ecf70d9e/CampbellHouse_2021_Zelenkova_Foyer_HAF1990_sm-copy.jpg" data-mid="140144167" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/ba43db0257fbaa30c1ae0472fed6c04ebb77abf038ad5f30c7688de9ecf70d9e/CampbellHouse_2021_Zelenkova_Foyer_HAF1990_sm-copy.jpg" />Image: Installation view, The Campbell House Museum, Toronto, 2021: Hallway Mirror (2020), transparent foil on antique mirror. The phenomenon of doubling, or the one of doppelgänger, can be often encountered in gothic literature or surrealist art. It produces the sensation of something uncanny in the viewer, something that is familiar yet deeply unsettling to us. The most common experience of doubling is the act of looking into the mirror.&nbsp; In the mirror, particularly striking difference between the reflection and the reflected is that the right becomes left and left becomes right. - But where in the space does this inversion happen? - In one mathematically concrete point. Indeed it is curious how much, comparatively to the rest of the space, can happen in this small point, in which everything becomes inverted. <img width="1125" height="1500" width_o="1125" height_o="1500" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/3dbf6adfa53b39f2ef011c8de820dc7a767d39369778482187b56803ad81f7e9/mirror.jpg" data-mid="140142500" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/3dbf6adfa53b39f2ef011c8de820dc7a767d39369778482187b56803ad81f7e9/mirror.jpg" /> Mirror, Cambpell House, 2020 Photography is often compared to a mirror. It also reflects the world and translates it into two-dimensional images, preserving the accurate perspective from the viewer’s point of view. Of course if the viewer moves in front of the photograph, the reflected image remains the same, unlike in the mirror in which the image is never fixed. This fixed photographic image separates itself from the reflected reality and therefore is not bound to any particular place or time. We rarely encounter this fixed reflection in the same moment and place where it was originally taken from. That’s why photographs are also compared to windows, because they usually do not reflect the space in which they are encountered but rather open up to another worlds beyond the transparent-like surface of the image. <img width="2000" height="1500" width_o="2000" height_o="1500" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f77808a9d5ee87075f7a2fee2ec6d92e971dad002632c41978b5ee040412d644/dining_room01_zelenkova.jpg" data-mid="140142976" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/f77808a9d5ee87075f7a2fee2ec6d92e971dad002632c41978b5ee040412d644/dining_room01_zelenkova.jpg" />Dining Room I, Campbell House, 2020 <img width="2000" height="1500" width_o="2000" height_o="1500" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/acfdf604e10a4367ae09ca65ebe14e875290937d27fe3c8863b7b5d0683a4da6/dining_room02mirror_zelenkova.jpg" data-mid="140142981" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/acfdf604e10a4367ae09ca65ebe14e875290937d27fe3c8863b7b5d0683a4da6/dining_room02mirror_zelenkova.jpg" />Dining Room II, Campbell House, 2020 The photographs in this exhibition come from two different series photographed in two different houses – Dennis Severs’ house in London, United Kingdom and Campbell House Museum in Toronto, Canada. They are both very distinctive locations with specific histories but they share some commonalities. Both of the buildings are examples of Georgian architecture but both of them find themselves surrounded by modern high risers that only amplify their belonging to another era. Both are not permanently inhabited and function as museums of sorts. While Severs’ house is filled with what he called “still-life drama”, lending the house a lived-in feeling, Campbell house presents itself to me as a stage to be filled, peopled, brought back to life. I do not want to suggest that these houses are each other’s double, as there is equal amount or more of differences as there are similarities, yet I wanted to reduce the distance between these two places through my work and bring some aspects of Dennis Severs’ house to the Campbell House. <img width="1334" height="2000" width_o="1334" height_o="2000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/473cf4df15cc226e0c26e2da455b2870b2b33671c6158af692ea15c1fdbe5777/CampbellHouse_2021_Zelenkova_SittingRm_HAF2099_sm-copy.jpg" data-mid="140144169" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/473cf4df15cc226e0c26e2da455b2870b2b33671c6158af692ea15c1fdbe5777/CampbellHouse_2021_Zelenkova_SittingRm_HAF2099_sm-copy.jpg" />Installation view, The Campbell House Museum, Toronto, 2021 In the ground floors of the house, I explored different ways of mirroring and reflecting reality, hinting on the existence of the exhibition space, in this case the house, beyond the scope of our experiencing it in the present moment. I set myself a task to create images that would suggest another reality, hidden narratives that take place in the same space but in different time or in some parallel reality beyond the image surface. Drawingon the fact that the Campbell House is bound to the history of legal justice in Toronto, I took inspiration from the 19th century crime scene photographs and decided to stage fictional situations that would hint on some unexplained occurrences within the house. The displayed photographs then function as both, mirrors reflecting the rooms in which they are exhibited and windows presenting false memories and fictional narratives that represent a possibility of a hidden past or doppelgänger house that occupies the parallel space beyond the mirror. <img width="1500" height="1125" width_o="1500" height_o="1125" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/e6c82569b6a3d2e21c96418b2e9777b58135c61833f30859b1b6861a9e69dd98/sitting_room.jpg" data-mid="140142602" border="0" data-scale="75" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/e6c82569b6a3d2e21c96418b2e9777b58135c61833f30859b1b6861a9e69dd98/sitting_room.jpg" />Drawing Room, Campbell House, 2020 <img width="2500" height="1572" width_o="2500" height_o="1572" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/09dab4b9ea75ebed946d61bbd448626c975b9f93d28cf2f145839871cbc82527/CampbellHouse_2021_Zelenkova_Ballroom_Untitled-14_sm-copy.jpg" data-mid="140144166" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/09dab4b9ea75ebed946d61bbd448626c975b9f93d28cf2f145839871cbc82527/CampbellHouse_2021_Zelenkova_Ballroom_Untitled-14_sm-copy.jpg" />Installation view at the Campbell House Museum, Toronto, 2021 In the first floor, there were photographs from the series The Essential Solitude (2018) that were produced almost entirely in one room at Dennis Severs’ house in London. Although at first sight a derelict ruin, the room in the photographs is also a folly created by someone who I’d like to imagine as the 20th century’s answer to Des Essientes, a decadent character from J. K. Huysmans infamous novel À rebours. Des Essientes had transformed his house into a sensual feast in which he surrounded.The Essential Solitude both seeks to capture and question the profound experience of seeing, reading, dreaming and thinking; experiences that can never be fully shared and that one always necessarily experiences alone. <img width="2000" height="1500" width_o="2000" height_o="1500" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/9f6f704cdf4ac2e3c5fb80a97f3767c75f1ec80a82ad03b1c1d032c5af74f5f0/birdcage_zelenkova.jpg" data-mid="140142975" border="0" data-scale="67" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/9f6f704cdf4ac2e3c5fb80a97f3767c75f1ec80a82ad03b1c1d032c5af74f5f0/birdcage_zelenkova.jpg" />Bird cage, Campbell House, 2020 <img width="2000" height="1620" width_o="2000" height_o="1620" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/c3d0dec745f4c023608a48e7f41bccfeed1bcdd90662f3c7c484c3ee10633b17/CampbellHouse_2021_Zelenkova_Landing_Untitled-5.jpg" data-mid="140144238" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/c3d0dec745f4c023608a48e7f41bccfeed1bcdd90662f3c7c484c3ee10633b17/CampbellHouse_2021_Zelenkova_Landing_Untitled-5.jpg" />Installation view, The Campbell House Museum, Toronto, 2021 https://terezazelenkova.com/A-Snake-That-Disappeared-Through-a-Hole-in-The-Wall-2015-present Tue, 27 Oct 2020 08:49:41 +0000 Tereza Zelenkova https://terezazelenkova.com/A-Snake-That-Disappeared-Through-a-Hole-in-The-Wall-2015-present A Snake That Dissapeared Through a Hole in The Wall <img width="1875" height="1500" width_o="1875" height_o="1500" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/5a75107299e4d6e3b6c25f3466bc0183c8c2e2c8ebe3dbac32a8428f23a83fd1/dog_cemetery.jpg" data-mid="86819175" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/5a75107299e4d6e3b6c25f3466bc0183c8c2e2c8ebe3dbac32a8428f23a83fd1/dog_cemetery.jpg" /> Image: Tereza Zelenkova,&nbsp;Dog cemetery, 2015 We can rarely break free from the spell that is cast upon us by the landscape of our childhood, our primordial home. Every place has its own complex history and a unique character, formed by an intricate web of nuances that are perceptible only to those who inhabit it for long enough. At the same time, we are often unaware of the uniqueness of our homeland and that invisible bond, at once comforting and suffocating, until we decide to leave. Its image, similarly, like a photograph, often acquires value only through a displacement across time and space. It is only when we’re faced with the realities of other worlds that we begin to learn about the distinct peculiarities of where we’re from, how it influences who we are, or, perhaps more accurately, who we think we are. After many years of living abroad, I returned to the Czech Republic, the country where I grew up, to revisit and photograph places and local mythologies that were deeply connected to my childhood image of the Czech landscape. There’s a sense of melancholy that can be traced through literary works and oral legends from my homeland, a melancholy that can also be found in the impressions that the land made upon its more notable visitors. Romantic painters like Caspar David Friedrich, for example, were inspired by the landscape of northern Bohemia, and writers such as Hans Christian Andersen and the Brothers Grimm set some of their fairy tales in the same region. Nowadays, this melancholia often arises from the tangible traces of a not-so-distant past. Events set in motion by World War II and its aftermath, such as the forceful deportation of Sudeten Germans, as well as nearly five decades of totalitarian rule under the Communist regime, and the impact of exponential industry and agriculture growth, left many open wounds in the landscape. While working on this project, I always envisioned it resulting in a book combining writing and photographs, carving out a near-mythical image of a land located somewhere in the lacuna between history and fiction. Back then, though, I hadn’t anticipated the political twists and turns that have since taken place. Recent years have been affected by a radical shift in public opinion throughout many parts of the Western world. The political situation has become increasingly more favorable to conservative governments, and this socio-political climate has stoked a sharp rise in the popularity of far-right groups and parties. So-called migration crises hit hard, while dubious media coverage impacted people’s votes and led to reactionary movements in many countries. The modern world has never been more divided. In times like this it was hard to return to the largely romantic national mythologies of a country and not see the flaws in the identities that we all feel the need to cherish and protect. The nationalistic myth, like many other types of myths, can both unite and divide societies, and so they are problematic because they promote the false idea that only those sharing the same mythological past are our genuine allies. When revisiting my favorite books, architecture and artefacts representing my deepest associations with my own cultural heritage, what became increasingly obvious is how many of them had been commissioned, created, or introduced to this country by people of varying nationalities. It is not surprising of course, based on historical and geographical facts, but it is important to acknowledge this in order to understand that any national identity is, similarly as parts of this book, a fiction. Text: Tereza Zelenkova <img width="2285" height="2793" width_o="2285" height_o="2793" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/c2250cfa98dfc451a41c22bd9176a0c3f5bbdcbcf8e9c4140c08ad70d73adea9/brauns_nativity_scene.jpg" data-mid="86819188" border="0" data-scale="100" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/c2250cfa98dfc451a41c22bd9176a0c3f5bbdcbcf8e9c4140c08ad70d73adea9/brauns_nativity_scene.jpg" />Image: Tereza Zelenkova,&nbsp;Braun’s Nativity Scene, Kuks, 2015 “Due to its peculiar relationship with time, its uncanny stillness and its potential for minute detail, photography promises to reveal just that bit more; something beyond the ordinary image of the everyday. It lures us to believe that it can see what’s unseen to the naked eye, that it can trespass into ordinary notions of time, and even that it can blur the thresholds between the world of the living and those long since passed. Moreover, I find the ambiguity, which might occasionally arise from certain photographs, to be a healthy antidote to a sometimes dangerously rational, definitive view of the world. <img width="1000" height="1250" width_o="1000" height_o="1250" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/695dbfa053712a503da85110737ccadc943960c71399beb189a03cda1d404602/tripod.jpg" data-mid="208661849" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/695dbfa053712a503da85110737ccadc943960c71399beb189a03cda1d404602/tripod.jpg" /> Image: Tereza Zelenkova, Tripod, Meridian Hall, Prague, 2016 <img width="1500" height="1200" width_o="1500" height_o="1200" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/30625bc25bfb22b582a0bdc390e217eb21735896736b8152143539741886f7ae/the_unseen.jpg" data-mid="86819179" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/30625bc25bfb22b582a0bdc390e217eb21735896736b8152143539741886f7ae/the_unseen.jpg" />Image: Tereza Zelenkova, The Unseen, 2015 <img width="672" height="1500" width_o="672" height_o="1500" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/bc6098df0669c36a989f2d3b07fc6d829f3932f3037f357ebd9699b8d5623c5e/05.jpg" data-mid="86819170" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/672/i/bc6098df0669c36a989f2d3b07fc6d829f3932f3037f357ebd9699b8d5623c5e/05.jpg" /> <img width="1600" height="2000" width_o="1600" height_o="2000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/cc6ba92540757f900c0f66cea5931511907dfa6ed86b33c296f95a1107e7bf4f/24.jpg" data-mid="86819173" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/cc6ba92540757f900c0f66cea5931511907dfa6ed86b33c296f95a1107e7bf4f/24.jpg" /> <img width="2000" height="1586" width_o="2000" height_o="1586" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/46200c2639e795edd218dda5dbe3cce47cda571e9270debfbb449febb0bef939/harfenice001.jpg" data-mid="86821886" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/46200c2639e795edd218dda5dbe3cce47cda571e9270debfbb449febb0bef939/harfenice001.jpg" /> <img width="1200" height="1500" width_o="1200" height_o="1500" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f76475eb6bc979a6e3257d0712a31cc9e29b9d563b39bf5a0a558f08d9a0d26a/Jesus.jpg" data-mid="86819177" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/f76475eb6bc979a6e3257d0712a31cc9e29b9d563b39bf5a0a558f08d9a0d26a/Jesus.jpg" /> <img width="1500" height="1875" width_o="1500" height_o="1875" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/6246fb563df52c84793c00bf6ef1178eaffc8be974a7c6de5ac85ec2fd9f0167/img024A.jpg" data-mid="86819176" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/6246fb563df52c84793c00bf6ef1178eaffc8be974a7c6de5ac85ec2fd9f0167/img024A.jpg" /> <img width="1000" height="1261" width_o="1000" height_o="1261" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/a792038da3c2cec0372e57d5f38434b84f60cf8a6ab7186b81302da65877f8f5/30.jpg" data-mid="86819185" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/a792038da3c2cec0372e57d5f38434b84f60cf8a6ab7186b81302da65877f8f5/30.jpg" /> <img width="1200" height="1500" width_o="1200" height_o="1500" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/d894eb209d2fabed5776dcdf60a9b59d9da796910ee1db42329d48e8fa0c75a9/016.jpg" data-mid="86819184" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/d894eb209d2fabed5776dcdf60a9b59d9da796910ee1db42329d48e8fa0c75a9/016.jpg" /> <img width="1200" height="1500" width_o="1200" height_o="1500" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/5d37385fcbc0689955221d17b1426bc08b56e83ba828bde58cc567512a541368/stairs.jpg" data-mid="86819182" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/5d37385fcbc0689955221d17b1426bc08b56e83ba828bde58cc567512a541368/stairs.jpg" /> <img width="1200" height="1500" width_o="1200" height_o="1500" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/66ca561cbc8d8c402b3147f3fdaa8afb1e6363dd69832ed4d71dd880f4a2564a/bathorys_bedroom.jpg" data-mid="86819186" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/66ca561cbc8d8c402b3147f3fdaa8afb1e6363dd69832ed4d71dd880f4a2564a/bathorys_bedroom.jpg" /> <img width="700" height="900" width_o="700" height_o="900" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/ac9a5a8335fbc979f578d5f69a0d17f46a358fd7c83257e804d56d2e2aaf06e5/menhirs01.jpg" data-mid="86819178" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/700/i/ac9a5a8335fbc979f578d5f69a0d17f46a358fd7c83257e804d56d2e2aaf06e5/menhirs01.jpg" /> <img width="2500" height="2000" width_o="2500" height_o="2000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/054d31483e82337bd2a08e8f211446125bbe7178efc8431a012858cdb60ecd58/zidovsky01.jpg" data-mid="86821458" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/054d31483e82337bd2a08e8f211446125bbe7178efc8431a012858cdb60ecd58/zidovsky01.jpg" /> <img width="2000" height="1600" width_o="2000" height_o="1600" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/78d69c4c5ada56c27054d5d962a86c75ca5f6ebe34c868072c86295139ff783f/004.jpg" data-mid="86819169" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/78d69c4c5ada56c27054d5d962a86c75ca5f6ebe34c868072c86295139ff783f/004.jpg" /> <img width="2500" height="2000" width_o="2500" height_o="2000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f2c910c1a0c846214bf6eb2c0e921b30d4dde6f7767beb84bbd860a32cbf4a73/001-copy.jpg" data-mid="86819166" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/f2c910c1a0c846214bf6eb2c0e921b30d4dde6f7767beb84bbd860a32cbf4a73/001-copy.jpg" /> <img width="1398" height="1118" width_o="1398" height_o="1118" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/996df01dec5ac8940ca468d7d76b9470d9274a3f6705ab1daed8ad1bf382d7a9/aderspach.jpg" data-mid="86819187" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/996df01dec5ac8940ca468d7d76b9470d9274a3f6705ab1daed8ad1bf382d7a9/aderspach.jpg" /> <img width="1152" height="1500" width_o="1152" height_o="1500" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/9ac9620b1cbbea86578732fb6f481412edc5e8c690ad2d72cca9096bd87e9fe0/01.jpg" data-mid="86819167" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/9ac9620b1cbbea86578732fb6f481412edc5e8c690ad2d72cca9096bd87e9fe0/01.jpg" /> <img width="1500" height="1891" width_o="1500" height_o="1891" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/320f5ce58da56ef61cbda1ba262ed2f739bfc1eff861c60848b63fde1a0a7861/meyrink_01b.jpg" data-mid="86821456" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/320f5ce58da56ef61cbda1ba262ed2f739bfc1eff861c60848b63fde1a0a7861/meyrink_01b.jpg" /> <img width="1500" height="1875" width_o="1500" height_o="1875" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/b2be46d9a37d82accd91917636dc75112b9066e7ec6c166d4ed3f1481a552dce/kostnice001.jpg" data-mid="86822100" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/b2be46d9a37d82accd91917636dc75112b9066e7ec6c166d4ed3f1481a552dce/kostnice001.jpg" /> <img width="1600" height="2000" width_o="1600" height_o="2000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/057988d4b5c834b236e7553b2642f01174616ec4889debc6a1280465f394c36f/opatovicka.jpg" data-mid="86821457" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/057988d4b5c834b236e7553b2642f01174616ec4889debc6a1280465f394c36f/opatovicka.jpg" /> <img width="1600" height="2000" width_o="1600" height_o="2000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/1d551e07e1859a734964e6bb1f8f66beab1371e1818377c478a86728dcc315ac/sporkova.jpg" data-mid="86821881" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/1d551e07e1859a734964e6bb1f8f66beab1371e1818377c478a86728dcc315ac/sporkova.jpg" /> <img width="2000" height="1600" width_o="2000" height_o="1600" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/844f4cb66fb85652fa626061d57da0ea144d1bc69360d53f5913d1a921cd0cea/terezin_flat.jpg" data-mid="86821879" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/844f4cb66fb85652fa626061d57da0ea144d1bc69360d53f5913d1a921cd0cea/terezin_flat.jpg" /> Images: Tereza Zelenkova, from the series&nbsp;The Snake That Disappeared Through a Hole, 2015 - present<img width="6011" height="3542" width_o="6011" height_o="3542" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/8d27acbcfde71174dee24f894a15a76ac33cdd053d6c3626bf61fe362af69035/V-amp-A-Photography-Centre---Known-and-Strange---Photographs-from-the-Collection-52.jpg" data-mid="140141512" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/8d27acbcfde71174dee24f894a15a76ac33cdd053d6c3626bf61fe362af69035/V-amp-A-Photography-Centre---Known-and-Strange---Photographs-from-the-Collection-52.jpg" /> Installation view, Known &amp; Strange exhibition, Victoria &amp; Albert Museum, London, 2022 (Copyright V&amp;A Museum) Exhibition views, NoD Gallery, Prague, 2017 <img width="2000" height="1346" width_o="2000" height_o="1346" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/a5af9a8b095f5aa546c4cf37bff9fb5690fd47a0ead6e4208522395e869185c3/IMG_8394.jpg" data-mid="86819277" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/a5af9a8b095f5aa546c4cf37bff9fb5690fd47a0ead6e4208522395e869185c3/IMG_8394.jpg" /><img width="2000" height="1333" width_o="2000" height_o="1333" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/4458474dd2417387f7bafd3cd51ae5e59d4f1edaea2ac8680533974e15f1a1ee/IMG_8122.jpg" data-mid="86819276" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/4458474dd2417387f7bafd3cd51ae5e59d4f1edaea2ac8680533974e15f1a1ee/IMG_8122.jpg" /> Exhibition views, Foam Museum, Amsterdam, 2018 <img width="2000" height="1333" width_o="2000" height_o="1333" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/0df35275673ef086391a0cc22bfab911ac9375aaba2de68cb3ca9cab14debf2c/Tereza-Zelenkova-Foam-3h-by-CvdK-03.jpg" data-mid="86822602" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/0df35275673ef086391a0cc22bfab911ac9375aaba2de68cb3ca9cab14debf2c/Tereza-Zelenkova-Foam-3h-by-CvdK-03.jpg" /><img width="2000" height="1333" width_o="2000" height_o="1333" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/cc4129f6cfe1b76ef861b4c98748162f435192fd6cabb1a7951c43a4100dd16e/Tereza-Zelenkova-Foam-3h-by-CvdK-06.jpg" data-mid="86822598" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/cc4129f6cfe1b76ef861b4c98748162f435192fd6cabb1a7951c43a4100dd16e/Tereza-Zelenkova-Foam-3h-by-CvdK-06.jpg" /> The photography of Tereza Zelenkova is remarkable in that, although it employs a medium that is generally limited to capturing, representing and exploring the surface of things, it strongly alludes to that which often lies beneath the surface; imaginary, subliminal or unconscious undercurrents that, although elusive and difficult to pin down in an exacting way, are both emotionally familiar and hauntingly ever-present within her work. In a visual sense, the images themselves are by no means ethereal – they are crisp, clear, carefully considered and compositionally controlled – and yet each photograph disarmingly hums with discordant undertones that hint at uncertain mysteries, tenuous melancholies or seductively hidden meanings. In previous projects, Zelenkova has often invoked rather heavy theories or dark themes to propel her work, including the death of God, Paleolithic cave dwellings, the daydreams of insomnia, and what she refers to as the ‘shamelessness’ of Georges Bataille.&nbsp; So it comes as somewhat of a surprise that her most recent body of work centers upon a seemingly straightforward return to the Czechoslovakian landscapes of her childhood, and visits to various historical and folkloric sites within it. Nevertheless, Zelenkova’s intuitively rich and darkly imaginative sensibilities thrive in such environments, sidestepping literal, documentative description and conventional cultural or allegorical associations in favor of overarching personal and emotional resonances.&nbsp; Although the photographs are situated in places that purportedly contain legends of Medieval mass murder and heroic villainy, as well as the “Devil’s Table” and the “Gates of Hell”, the specifics of these histories and affiliations are secondary, if not entirely inconsequential, to the underlying and unnerving tenor of the images themselves.&nbsp; ‘I’m more interested in exploring the general poetics – of the landscape and stories tied to it – than in archiving individual legends or facts’, Zelenkova explains, ‘I’m tracing a sort of subjective image of the place where I grew up, and creating what might be called my own landscape mythology’. Within this newfound mythology, Zelenkova astutely transforms the literal into the symbolic – fallen trees, hewn rock, faceless figures and inky-black voids insist that the mind wanders far beyond the surface of the scene or the limits of the frame, and, in a sense, deeply and searchingly into itself. Yet by denying the power of the existing stories or established symbols already present in the landscapes of her childhood, Zelenkova exhumes new, resolutely ambiguous, and quietly personal meanings, retaining just enough of an open-endedness for the viewer to feel both enveloped by the dense atmosphere of their presence, and, at the same time, invited to decipher their significances and their nuances for themselves. Text: Aaron Schuman, Artist, Independent curator and Programme Leader of MA Photography at UWE Bristol September, 2015 https://terezazelenkova.com/The-Absence-of-Myth-2013 Tue, 27 Oct 2020 08:49:42 +0000 Tereza Zelenkova https://terezazelenkova.com/The-Absence-of-Myth-2013 The Absence of Myth “’Night is also a sun’, and the absence of myth is also a myth: the coldest, the purest, the only true myth.” - Georges Bataille, The Absence of Myth &nbsp; Tereza Zelenkova’s images are mostly uninhabited and still; the time is frozen within them, not only through the alchemic process of photography, but through the subjects themselves: old museum exhibits, preserved period interiors, or historic paintings, among others. It is as if the work resists the passage of time. <img width="1579" height="2000" width_o="1579" height_o="2000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/14409859c24ac3c3d5aea43331e84301a0fcbb9040a9a310ce409d6baf402923/Seville_orange1.jpg" data-mid="86831990" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/14409859c24ac3c3d5aea43331e84301a0fcbb9040a9a310ce409d6baf402923/Seville_orange1.jpg" /> <img width="500" height="633" width_o="500" height_o="633" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/40c97acce9def1fc41b1c02b5d32326da043269258af9496faa7938218747063/dino_bone.jpg" data-mid="86825244" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/500/i/40c97acce9def1fc41b1c02b5d32326da043269258af9496faa7938218747063/dino_bone.jpg" /> &nbsp;&nbsp;<img width="960" height="1280" width_o="960" height_o="1280" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/737cf4024536049ea9add193f2015522d45a45cc168bffa0c87d30d51b631c30/staircase.jpg" data-mid="86825257" border="0" data-scale="94" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/960/i/737cf4024536049ea9add193f2015522d45a45cc168bffa0c87d30d51b631c30/staircase.jpg" /> <img width="500" height="633" width_o="500" height_o="633" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/b58ab639576d2e21f35df7ef3e07eed2953a8adb4907cc7455c0109f21bc3d55/freud_chair.jpg" data-mid="86825247" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/500/i/b58ab639576d2e21f35df7ef3e07eed2953a8adb4907cc7455c0109f21bc3d55/freud_chair.jpg" /> M museum Museum is a sort of non–site outside of time. It is a place in which we attempt to accumulate, classify and categorize all of history. Devoid of their role in the outside world, the objects in the museums and public displays are reminiscent of cadavers. Their form, once subordinate to their function, becomes increasingly visible. The sole purpose of their existence now lies in their appearance - it becomes less important what the objects mean, only how they appear.Text: T. Zelenkova P Paris Time is a currency that is calculated in past and future but it always cheats us of the present. And so, sitting at Place des Vosges surrounded by strangers, once again I’m thinking about the past of the last few days, but also the past of centuries lived in the dusty streets of Paris. The strange silence of Monday afternoon and the lack of sleep bring a feeling of slightly altered consciousness. The only thing that binds me to reality is the place, the sound of the fountains, and the endless circulation of water falling from dozens of small lion heads, only to be pumped back up in order to fall down again, and to repeat this over and over, like a cyclic poem, like history itself. Waves of languor wash over me in regular intervals like the waves in the sea of which I’ve daydreamt so often, longing for eternity, for nothingness, for voyages to faraway lands. “Away from the big city where a man cannot be free”, Lou Reed chants into my ears, while I’m contemplating the traces of other people’s lives that litter the cobbled pavements of metropolis like cigarette butts and burnt out matches. Anew I’m trying to understand what really matters in life and how to live it so that one day, when facing the inevitable end, one can confront it devoid of any remorse. Like each photograph that I take, every love affair is a fleeting illusion of immortality. Yet even in those brief moments of happiness I know that no matter what life throws in my path nothing could save me from the severe and terminal regret that all this would vanish nonetheless, swallowed up whether by death, time or distance. And so at last, when our life lacks any kind of tragedy, we feel as close to dying as ever. Text: T. Zelenkova F Freud’s study Entering Freud’s study, which has been preserved in his former Hampstead home, one is not sure whether one has entered a psychoanalyst’s office, or a Victorian opium den. The oriental décor, antiquities, and Egyptian steles suggest something more than just a casual inquiry into working processes of human psyche. Freud’s study is anything but the sterile environment of a scientist. This place gleams with a decadent glamour and the walls could tell one too many stories of Freud’s patients’ most private and scandalous thoughts. In this dream like space, which seems to be so far from everyday reality, one is immediately drawn to lie down on the infamous couch veiled in Persian tapestries, and confess the darkest of secrets. However the piece of furniture that is somewhat more captivating than the couch itself, is Freud’s slightly grotesque leather armchair. Its design is an uncannily close match with some of the primitive idols resting on Freud’s desk. Apparently the chair was specially designed for Freud by the architect Felix Augenfeld to allow him to read in his favorite and rather peculiar position - one of his legs slung over the arm of the chair, the book held high and his head unsupported. Thus this object of my curiosity is perhaps merely a utilitarian piece of furniture, designed in order to provide comfort during its owner’s reading. On the other hand, it is possible that as such this chair, being a kind of an imprint of Freud’s unique body posture, becomes almost a surrogate for Freud himself.&nbsp; With its bizarre, human-like form, this chair more than anything else in this room haunts the study with Freud’s eternal presence. Text: T. Zelenkova <img width="2414" height="3240" width_o="2414" height_o="3240" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/cb18adca0516d73b460a1650873ec3d2b87db8aa2c75c71362b8a868c404bc8f/Cover.jpg" data-mid="86833077" border="0" data-scale="96" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/cb18adca0516d73b460a1650873ec3d2b87db8aa2c75c71362b8a868c404bc8f/Cover.jpg" />&nbsp;The Absence of Myth, self-published book, 2013 <img width="1000" height="1278" width_o="1000" height_o="1278" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/0942dfffbbb2b2db66935bf4a8071e4c98a51628fb6f06f3b485467b4e74aaee/confessional.jpg" data-mid="86825246" border="0" data-scale="100" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/0942dfffbbb2b2db66935bf4a8071e4c98a51628fb6f06f3b485467b4e74aaee/confessional.jpg" /> <img width="2748" height="2088" width_o="2748" height_o="2088" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/b062871d7a9f68cb38a52fe90a913851d7568a530d9f61ac21fc1d2c51c699c5/freud.jpg" data-mid="86833078" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/b062871d7a9f68cb38a52fe90a913851d7568a530d9f61ac21fc1d2c51c699c5/freud.jpg" /> <img width="2959" height="2249" width_o="2959" height_o="2249" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/49bc9b3909b92ae1427360764d98e755dcfaa3c5eedac4baccf05228da4b69c3/museum.jpg" data-mid="86833079" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/49bc9b3909b92ae1427360764d98e755dcfaa3c5eedac4baccf05228da4b69c3/museum.jpg" /> <img width="2748" height="2088" width_o="2748" height_o="2088" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f167207d98bb3712977d1648e70eaab1e030498d4c02b51911b97058298868fd/rimbaud.jpg" data-mid="86833081" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/f167207d98bb3712977d1648e70eaab1e030498d4c02b51911b97058298868fd/rimbaud.jpg" /> <img width="2000" height="1600" width_o="2000" height_o="1600" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/d9340d8e4846e9d8c3abe084a8dd2effe60c3807b197eb933fd468b7db7f81ca/Bataille_grave.jpg" data-mid="86831996" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/d9340d8e4846e9d8c3abe084a8dd2effe60c3807b197eb933fd468b7db7f81ca/Bataille_grave.jpg" /> This photograph is of Georges Bataille’s grave, a resting place of the writer who so eloquently tied together the worlds of religion, death, and love, which united through acts of violence are all catalysts of innermost experiences, haunting us during nights of self-induced insomnia and anguish. In more general terms, this photograph is an image of death. It opens itself up to nothingness, a dark abyss created by the excess of light hitting the sensitive surface of photographic paper; the film ripped and damaged violently interrupts the depicted scene and exposes the hollow emptiness, the eternity in solitude - still, non-existent, under the ground, silenced like the image itself. Bataille’s friend Maurice Blanchot interestingly observed that images and cadavers have a lot in common. They are both directly bound to something that once was but in their stillness they show us a quite different picture than we were familiar with. Which picture is more genuine, I don’t know, but important is the change, the gap formed between life and its subjective, unique vision formed by series of imperceptible gestures and minor accidents, such as the one that created this photograph. Text: T. Zelenkova <img width="1579" height="2000" width_o="1579" height_o="2000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/825abf7effe88fb662db28a08a1c8a5e7395df7486750cee5477e62402a22885/Horse_Bone_Museum.jpg" data-mid="86832560" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/825abf7effe88fb662db28a08a1c8a5e7395df7486750cee5477e62402a22885/Horse_Bone_Museum.jpg" /> <img width="500" height="633" width_o="500" height_o="633" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/d183e1dc5fde573ddb9a46c4ba2fb297998c06e916a8d05dfb60f81cf17d78fa/Statue_Bone_museum.jpg" data-mid="86825258" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/500/i/d183e1dc5fde573ddb9a46c4ba2fb297998c06e916a8d05dfb60f81cf17d78fa/Statue_Bone_museum.jpg" /> <img width="500" height="633" width_o="500" height_o="633" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/6c7767b6a37afcc075dd0ac0c96746f1b6e58ef6d9478cc4850f4c8902425e3f/marsyas.jpg" data-mid="86825251" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/500/i/6c7767b6a37afcc075dd0ac0c96746f1b6e58ef6d9478cc4850f4c8902425e3f/marsyas.jpg" /> <img width="1500" height="1200" width_o="1500" height_o="1200" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/b26663e7f10f4edcb8579edba3c600f0f790c967473bf32e6073adfde9832e22/hugo.jpg" data-mid="86825249" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/b26663e7f10f4edcb8579edba3c600f0f790c967473bf32e6073adfde9832e22/hugo.jpg" /><img width="1579" height="2000" width_o="1579" height_o="2000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/68947093ca1db8f4c4983913aff742095a49784f3589d0eedf2e9479f700610c/Rimbaud.jpg" data-mid="86832453" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/68947093ca1db8f4c4983913aff742095a49784f3589d0eedf2e9479f700610c/Rimbaud.jpg" /><img width="2000" height="1408" width_o="2000" height_o="1408" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/18d838dd167ca2c2a77aac34e8268b66aca37dde15c0e90e8e0b85b5bc6fbd72/wales7.jpg" data-mid="86832561" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/18d838dd167ca2c2a77aac34e8268b66aca37dde15c0e90e8e0b85b5bc6fbd72/wales7.jpg" /><img width="1303" height="1043" width_o="1303" height_o="1043" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/43203fac4e1bea79a19500917a9d7fd38de7f171f074af60a63475c96374e85d/wales3.jpg" data-mid="86825260" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/43203fac4e1bea79a19500917a9d7fd38de7f171f074af60a63475c96374e85d/wales3.jpg" /><img width="4430" height="2953" width_o="4430" height_o="2953" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/6ef507e21169c7f5945bc1f1b7fec0ed1139aeb1a1f30210984bf18484d7adfb/7bw.jpg" data-mid="86825308" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/6ef507e21169c7f5945bc1f1b7fec0ed1139aeb1a1f30210984bf18484d7adfb/7bw.jpg" /><img width="4430" height="2953" width_o="4430" height_o="2953" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/6ab5e55ba69911ad0877f04d47d96bb39c42b3f411ab7022c4c438445a2fae99/10bw.jpg" data-mid="86825310" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/6ab5e55ba69911ad0877f04d47d96bb39c42b3f411ab7022c4c438445a2fae99/10bw.jpg" /><img width="2371" height="2953" width_o="2371" height_o="2953" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/27afbeab42809a17433702619bcdfd257c8db384f278da7ef6afafff318a45ef/9bw.jpg" data-mid="86825309" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/27afbeab42809a17433702619bcdfd257c8db384f278da7ef6afafff318a45ef/9bw.jpg" /><img width="4430" height="2953" width_o="4430" height_o="2953" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/6216aa40147dabf5b06698aba8b25622fbef462808cfdba35c8b1609c3077b63/8.jpg" data-mid="86825311" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/6216aa40147dabf5b06698aba8b25622fbef462808cfdba35c8b1609c3077b63/8.jpg" /><img width="4429" height="2953" width_o="4429" height_o="2953" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/46e73e2b6d0ea310eb438030cfef886c9dcd65675a223f51465d94386bd7dd79/1bw.jpg" data-mid="86825312" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/46e73e2b6d0ea310eb438030cfef886c9dcd65675a223f51465d94386bd7dd79/1bw.jpg" /> https://terezazelenkova.com/Maldoror-2017 Sat, 29 Apr 2023 10:32:35 +0000 Tereza Zelenkova https://terezazelenkova.com/Maldoror-2017 https://terezazelenkova.com/Info Tue, 27 Oct 2020 08:49:43 +0000 Tereza Zelenkova https://terezazelenkova.com/Info Tereza Zelenková’s black and white photographs explore the threshold between the reality and the myth. Her practice draws on literature, philosophy, and history, exploring how images can both record and reimagine the past. Working through a combination of staged and documentary approaches, Zelenková is interested in photography’s relationship to the written word, and how personal identity is shaped by the cultural heritage and collective memory of the places we inhabit. Tereza Zelenkova has received several awards and her work has been exhibited on four different continents. Her photographs are held in the collections of Victoria &amp; Albert Museum, Foam Photography Museum, Musée de l’Élysé, Saatchi Gallery and Fotomuseum Winterthur. Her work was commissioned by The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The Financial Times and Hothsoe magazine among others. CV Education 2010 - 2012 MA Photography, Royal College of Art, London, UK  2007 - 2010 First Class Honors, BA Photographic Arts, University of Westminster, London, UK Public Collections V&amp;A Museum, London, UK Foam Photography Museum, Amsterdam, NL Fotomuseum Winterthur, Winterthur, CH Musée de l’Élysée, Lausanne, CH University of San Diego, USA PPF, CZ National Bank, CZ Commisioned work The New Yorker The Atlantic Der Greif The Financial Times Hotshoe Awards 2023&nbsp; Recipient of the Artist stipend, Ministry of Culture, CZ. 2016&nbsp; ING Unseen Talent Awards, NL. (finalist) 2015&nbsp; Jerwood Photoworks Award, UK. (winner) 2015&nbsp; reGeneration3, Musée de l’Élysée, CH. (finalist) 2012&nbsp; 1000 Words Magazine Award, UK. (winner) 2012&nbsp; Saatchi New Sensations, UK. (finalist)  2012&nbsp; Metro Imaging Award, UK. (winner) 2012&nbsp; Plat(t)form, Fotomuseum Winterthur, CH. (finalist) 2011&nbsp; Fresh Faced &amp; Wild Eyed, The Photographer’s Gallery, UK. (finalist) 2011&nbsp; Flash Forward, Magenta Foundation, UK Honorable Mention. Solo Exhibitions 2026&nbsp; (upcoming) TBC, Fiducia Gallery, Ostrava, CZ 2022&nbsp; Maladies of The Infinite, Berlínskej Model, Prague, CZ. 2022&nbsp; Maladies of The Infinite, Kulturni Centar Beograda, Belgrade, RS. 2021&nbsp; The Double Room, Campbell House Museum, Contact Photography Festival, Torornto, CA. 2020&nbsp; Dead Language, Ateliér Josefa Sudka, Prague, CZ. 2018&nbsp; The Essential Solitude, The Ravestijn Gallery, Amsterdam, NL. 2018&nbsp; A Snake that disappeared through a hole in the wall, Foam, Amsterdam, NL. 2017&nbsp; Had, ktery zmizel v dire ve stene, NoD Gallery, Prague, CZ. 2016&nbsp; Two and two is five, Rough Print Gallery, London, UK. 2014&nbsp; Two and two is five, Galerie Jeleni, Prague, CZ. 2013&nbsp; The Absence of Myth, Legion TV, London, UK. Selected Group Exhibitions 2025 &nbsp; &nbsp; Joie et Refuge, Czech Centre Paris, FR2025&nbsp; &nbsp; Spectral Presences: Spirit Photography, 1865 to the Present, Humanities Centre, University of San Diego, USA2025&nbsp; &nbsp; Zero Stars, NoD Gallery, Prague, CZ. 2024&nbsp; &nbsp;Traces of Labour, Industra Gallery, Brno, CZ. 2023&nbsp; Memory and desire, stirring, Fotograf Gallery, Prague, CZ. 2023&nbsp; &nbsp;Monochrome,&nbsp;The Ravestijn Gallery, Amsterdam, NL. 2022 &nbsp; One of a Kind, The Ravestijn Gallery, Amsterdam, NL. 2022&nbsp; The Lore, Have a butchers, London, UK. 2021&nbsp; &nbsp;Known and Strange, V&amp;A Museum, London, UK. 2021&nbsp; &nbsp;a Handful of Dust, National Center of Photography and Images, Taipei, TW. 2020&nbsp; Le Cabaret du Néant, Frac île-de-france, Le Château, Paris, FR. 2019&nbsp; Unseen Photography Festival, Amsterdam, NL. 2019&nbsp; a Handful of Dust, Polygon Gallery, Vancouver, CA. 2019&nbsp; Gothic Fictions, Silver Eye Photography Center, Pittsburgh, USA. 2019&nbsp; Tender, Czech Center New York, New York, USA. 2018&nbsp; a Handful of Dust, California Museum of Photography, Riverside, USA. 2018&nbsp; Jaipur Photography Festival, Jaipur, IN. 2017&nbsp; a Handful of Dust, Whitechapel Gallery, London, UK. 2017&nbsp; At Home She’s A Tourist, Copeland Gallery, London, UK. 2016 Jerwood / Photoworks Award, Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool, UK. 2016&nbsp; ING Unseen Talent Awards, Unseen Photography Festival, Amsterdam, NL. 2016&nbsp; Jerwood / Photoworks Award, Belfast Exposed, Belfast, UK. 2015&nbsp; Jerwood / Photoworks Award, Jerwood Art Space, London, UK. 2015&nbsp; a Handful of Dust, Le Bal, Paris, F. 2015&nbsp; reGeneration 3, Museo Amparo, Mexico. 2015&nbsp; reGeneration3, Musée de l’Élysée, Lausanne, CH. 2014&nbsp; Re-becoming, Flowers Gallery East, London, UK. 2014&nbsp; Continental Shift, Saatchi Gallery, London, UK. 2013&nbsp; Unnatural Selection, Unseen Photography Fair, Amsterdam, NL. 2013&nbsp; New Order, Saatchi Gallery, London, UK. 2013&nbsp; Thresholds, Belfast Exposed, Belfast, UK. 2012&nbsp; Lianzhou Foto Festival, Lianzhou, China.  2012&nbsp; RCA Show 2012, Royal College of Art, London, UK.  2012&nbsp; Black Thorns in The White Cube, Western Exhibitions, Chicago, USA. 2012&nbsp; Hijacked III, Perth Institute of Contemporary Art, AU. 2011&nbsp; The Wonders of The Visible World, Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art, Sunderland, UK.  2011&nbsp; Altitude +1000 Festival de Photographie de Montagne, Rossiniere, CH. 2011&nbsp; The Collector’s Guide to New Art Photography Vol. 2, Chelsea Museum of Art, New York, USA.  2010&nbsp; This Must be The Place, Jerwood Art Space, London, UK. 2010&nbsp; Women in Art Photography U.K., Taaschen, London, UK. Residencies 2013&nbsp; Aberystwyth Arts Centre, Aberystwyth, UK. 2011&nbsp; School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, USA. 2011&nbsp; Altitude 1000+, Rossiniere, CH. Selected Publications Artist Books 2021&nbsp; The Essential Solitude (VOID) 2018&nbsp; The Essential Solitude, (self-published) 2013&nbsp; The Absence of Myth (self-published) 2012&nbsp; &nbsp;Index of Time (self-published book - with P. Watkins and O. Shamlou) 2011&nbsp; &nbsp;Supreme Vice (Mörel Books) Group Publications 2015&nbsp; a Handful of Dust, by David Campany (MACK Books) 2012&nbsp; Seeing for Others (Black Dog Publishing) 2012&nbsp; Hijacked III (Big City Press) 2011&nbsp; The Collector’s Guide to Emerging Art Photography (HAFNY) Contact: tereza.photography@gmail.com