Kořeny rostou dovnitř

Tereza Jindrová has been collaborating with Entrance Gallery in Prague's Břevnov district since 2015, and five years later she took over its management together with curator Veronika Čechová. The new strategy that Jindrová and Čechová have brought about represents a fundamental transformation of the curatorial approach and gallery operations. The curators decided to focus the programme on themes related to the environment, to which individual exhibitions can relate in a wide range of approaches and with an interdisciplinary overlap. The interest in ecology, sustainability and the environment is not only expressed thematically, but also influences the actual operation of the gallery. In the preparation of individual projects, emphasis is placed on reducing consumption, sensitive handling of materials or their reuse.

Part of this setup involves rethinking curatorial work and the way in which the gallery program is built. Veronika Čechová and Tereza Jindrová, in line with the desire to reduce the energy burden or the large consumption of materials, have turned to the so-called slow curating. This current trend in curatorial practice is characterised by a significant reduction in the number of exhibitions or projects, a focus on curatorial research, deeper penetration into individual topics and a long-term dialogue with collaborators. This approach is also characterised by the opening of the project to the public during the preparation process in an attempt to involve the public in the whole process and to familiarize them with it. The exhibitions are processual and changing, and when visiting the gallery, the audience can meet the artists, the curators or producers, and the technicians behind the project. Slow curation is often closely related to a turn to community-oriented activities, which is the case with Entrance Gallery, which plans to address both the Břevnov neighbourhood and the local art scene.

The exhibition Roots Grow Inward (2020/2021) reflects in many ways the basic principles of the overall direction of Entrance Gallery. It is a process-based collective exhibition that had several off-line and on-line phases and outcomes. The exhibiting group of artists further expanded on the themes that most of the exhibiting artists had explored during their year-long collaborative residency Clay, Soil, Earth in 2019 at Prototype Studio. Initiated by Nikola Brabcova and Karin Šrubařová, the project aimed to explore and learn about soil. Although soil is often perceived as an everyday, ubiquitous part of our surroundings, the artists realized how little they know and understand it. Through collaborative experiments, trips or workshops, they wanted to re-engage with soil, and in particular address its degradation as a result of the wider climate crisis. Thus, in the Entrance Gallery exhibition itself, working with the soil was an important element - the artists focused on slowly getting to know it, observing it, experiencing it and relating to it in a physical way. The performances in the gallery space took various forms - from videos to laboratory experiments and installations to performances and objects. However, these tangible outcomes were not the main intention of the exhibition - rather, it focused on the potential of these realisations and accompanying materials to stimulate, start and disrupt the imaginations of viewers and performers. Alongside this thematic focus, the exhibiting collective also explored issues of collaboration and group work, modes of decision-making and communication. This motif already appeared at the end of the aforementioned residency at Prototype, when it was thematized through a collective performance about the collaborative creative process, the working environment and coexistence in the gallery, etc.

The curatorial approach of Tereza Jindrová and Veronika Čechová was subtle for this exhibition in particular. Their aim was to create a framework and participate in a dialogue with the exhibiting group, which reflects their long-term intention to formulate and shape the character of the project in mutual communication, not based solely on curatorial decisions. Thus, on the occasion of this exhibition, the gallery's new management meets and intertwines with another, similarly focused project, touching on the themes of sustainability and the transformation of the art operation and its institutions, issues that are currently being intensively discussed on the Czech art scene.