We are delighted to invite you to Interconnection: On Bodies of Water, an exhibition that revolves around ideas of ecofeminism and, in particular, of hydrofeminism. This is the second exhibition within the long-term project Islands: Possibilities of Togetherness, launched in 2019 by the Jindřich Chalupecký Society, a Czech platform for contemporary arts. The exhibition includes works by Catherine Biocca, Valko Chobanov, Nona Inescu, Maria Nalbantova, Jakub Nepraš, Petr Nikl, Karolína Rossí and Johana Střížková.
Water not only constitutes over 80% of the human body (the percentage being even higher in a number of animal and plant species), but also interconnects us with all organic and inorganic matter on Earth in constant circulation, blurring boundaries. As if each living creature, each cell was an island in an endless sea, inevitably linked together.
The exhibition focuses on the motif of water as a condition for life, on circulation and merging of life forms as well as on the search for a non-human perspective where the human is only a part rather than the highest life form within the ecosystem. This conceptual framework was inspired by Australian theorist Astrida Neimanis, who proposes the term “hydrofeminism” (elaborated most broadly in her 2017 book Bodies of Water: Posthuman Feminist Phenomenology) to reflect the post-humanist, materialistic notion of the subject/self as fluid and ontologically related to “others”.
The long-term project Islands: Possibilities of Togetherness involves a number of partner organizations and considers issues of togetherness, while also addressing themes such as sustainability, ecology, utopia vs dystopia, ethics, communication and symbiosis The first exhibition under the project, titled (Dis)connection, took place at Kunstvereinging Diepeinheim earlier this year and focused on the essential questions of the whole project: How can we be together? Who or what can we connect with in order to start dealing with a planetary crisis? How can we continuously connect with “the other” and be together without closing the circuit? Interconnection, held at Swimming Pool, focuses on aspects of coexistence and collectivity, employing a particular a planetary, interspecies perspective.
Curators: Veronika Čechová and Tereza Jindrová
Concept: Tereza Jindrová
