In 2024, while researching my grandmother’s suppressed story of flight from Starý Rokytník to Minden, Germany, after the WWII, in the 1628 edition of Sebastian Münster’s Cosmographia I came across an allegorical map that depicted Europa Regina - Europe actually represented through a figure of a woman. I was moved to see that the Kingdom of Bohemia, the former homeland of the Sudeten Germans, my grandmother came from and had to flee in 1946, in that map took the place of heart.
In my version of the map, I intervene by cutting it and inscribing terms that define my current art practice. Moving beyond the map’s original political function, I base my mapping on its later didactic purpose, using fragmentation and manipulation to question the power dynamics inherent in cartography.
In the Patchwork Jacket that carries the mapping, two identities meet through culture and fashion. It combines a traditional Bavarian jacket with a punk leather jacket donated to me by Petr Růžička during my 2024 residency at the House of Arts in Ústí nad Labem (CZ). The garment is a powerful testament to his past—specifically his time as a young musician arrested in Teplice before the Velvet Revolution.
The revolutionary and community-minded spirit of Petr Růžička creates a sharp counterpoint to my own identity. Having been raised in Bavaria in a familiy that silenced its past, I feel removed from a shared sense of belonging, such as the 'Mia san Mia' ethos often associated with Bavarian Tracht.
Karin Sachs Gallery, Munich (DE) as part ofArchived ruptures – Ruptured archives 28.-29.11.2024 (print version) Artists: Olga Bubich, Parastou Forouhar, Jeanno Gaussi, Anahita Razmi, Franziska Windolf
Curator: Cathrine Bublatzky
House of Arts, Ústí nad Labem (CZ) as part of IDENT 4.12.2024-8.3.2025 (print version) Artists: Pavlína Fichta Čierna (SK), Barbara Holub (AT), Valérie Leray (FR/DE), Darja Lukjanenko (UA/CZ), Silvie Milková (CZ), RAFANI (CZ), Zdeněk Svejkovský (CZ), Michaela Thelenová (CZ), Slaven Tolj (HR), Franziska Windolf (DE) Curator: Michal Koleček
Kampus Hybernská, Prague (CZ) as part of Voices of Memory14.-18.7.2025
Artists: Olga Bubich, Nikita Kadan, Michal Kindernay, Magdalena Kracík Štorkánová, Mirta Kupferminc, Rosell Meseguer, Nela Milić, Michalina Musielak, Grace Schwindt, and Franziska Windolf. Curators: Dr. Branislava Kuburović, Dr. Irena Řehořová
Brunel Shed, Buckinghamshire New University, High Wycombe (UK) as part of Voices of Memory11.-21.11.2024
Artists: Olga Bubich, Rosell Meseguer, Grace Schwindt, Michal Kindernay, Lisa Glybchenko, Franziska Windolf, Nela Milić, Alexandra Murphy, Liana Psarologaki, Fil Ieropoulos, Cole Robertson, Tom McGorrian, Elisavet Kalpaxi and Anne-Marie Perks.
Curators: Dr. Nela Milić, Dr. Branislava Kuburović, Dr. Irena Řehořová
Kindly supported by The Jan Evangelista Purkyně University and the House of Arts in Ústí nad Labem (CZ) and Schafhof Europäisches Kunstforum Oberbayern (DE)
