Event overview
Hana Janeckova, with Lenka Vráblíková as respondent
Lenka the giraffe was captured in Kenya in 1954 and transported to Prague Zoo to become the very first Czechoslovak giraffe. She survived only two years in captivity, after which her body was donated to the National Museum in Prague where it was exhibited until 2000. The contested field of Czechoslovak histories of animal acquisition from the countries of the Global South is the subject of Czech artist Eva Koťátková’s collaborative project for 60 th Venice Biennale: The heart of a giraffe in captivity is twelve kilos lighter. Through historical material gathered from the National Film Archive, National Museum and Prague Zoo, I will discuss the potential of the project to address the legacies of Czechoslovakia’s rejection of and identification with colonialism through Koťátková’s implementation of decolonial pedagogy.
Hana Janečková is a curator and assistant professor of contemporary and recent art at the Academy of Fine Arts, Prague. Her research focuses on the politics of the body, ecology, critical curating and transnational and decolonial feminism. She is curator of the Czech representation at the Venice Biennale 2024. In 2021-22 she was a Fulbright-Masaryk Scholar at the Institute for Research on Women and CWAH at Rutgers University and the Brooklyn Museum. Her recent publications are The heart of a giraffe is twelve kilos lighter (National Gallery Prague, 2024), Animal Touch (Artmap, 2022), Multilogues on the Now (Display, 2022), Nature Red in Tooth and Claw (Tranzit, 2023) and ‘Cripping Curating’ in Radicalizing Care: Feminist and Queer Activism in Curating (Academy of Art, Vienna, 2021). The first monographic book, Feminist Alliances and Politics of the Body, is forthcoming in 2025.
Image credits: The heart of a giraffe in captivity is twelve kilos lighter, Eva Koťátková in collaboration with Himali Singh Soin David Soin Tappesser, Gesturing Towards Decolonial Futures and groups of children and older people, photo credit Aleksandra Vajd, 2024
Dates & times
| Date | Time | Add to calendar |
|---|---|---|
| 24 Oct 2024 | 5:00pm - 7:00pm |
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