Interconnection: On Bodies of Water

Tereza Jindrová is a curator and critic who works at several art institutions: the Jindřich Chalupecký Society, MeetFactory and Entrance Gallery. It was within the framework of the Jindřich Chalupecký Society, of which she has been a part since 2016, that she organized the exhibition Interconnection: On Bodies of Water (2019, in collaboration with Veronika Čechová).

This exhibition was part of a programme line called Islands: Possibilities of Coexistence, which functions as a platform for presenting Czech art in an international context. It is based on cooperation with foreign institutions and focuses on the theme of coexistence and relationships between individuals and collectives in today's world. The exhibition Interconnection: On Bodies of Water was created in collaboration with the Swimming Pool Gallery in Sofia. This gallery has a long-standing connection with the Czech environment and is currently - like the Jindřich Chalupecký Society - trying to re-evaluate the forms and roles of art institutions and the ways in which they function in a broader social context.

The main starting point for the exhibition Interconnection: On Bodies of Water, was a planetary and interspecies perspective, situating it within current discourses on sustainability, ecology and forms of communication that transcend the exclusively human framework. In their conception, Tereza Jindrová and Veronika Čechová refer to the ideas of eco and hydro feminism. The primary theoretical basis is Astrid Neimanis' Bodies of Water: Posthuman Feminist Phenomenology (2017), in which the author explores the interconnectedness of life on Earth through water. The human body is largely made up of water - as are the bodies of animals, plants and other organic and inorganic elements - and all these components are in turn part of a cycle that ultimately blurs the boundaries between them. No individual is isolated in its existence; his/her essence is fluid, and so it is always horizontally integrated and merged with other forms of life. Water is an all-encompassing element, the lens of which makes it possible to view, analyse and reflect on the current manifestations of climate change through its distribution, quality and availability. The works on display redefine and present the possibilities of interspecies relations, questioning the principle of otherness, and emphasizing connections and links instead. A perspective of the planet's so-called grand history appears in the exhibition, recalling a time when humans were not yet part of it, while also pointing to a time when they may not be again.

Based on the general starting point, the exhibition Interconnection: On Bodies of Water brings together a wide range of approaches, perspectives and reflections that respond to the challenges of the contemporary world and, using water as a certain metaphor, looks for ways to cope with them, address them or explore their impact.