Wells of Wisdom: dernisage

The last day of Wells of Wisdom exhibition contains a guided tour with curator Eva B. Riebová, a workshop to support the pelvic floor and screenings of videos / short films that follow on from the exhibition and expand it.
 

Secrets of the female pelvic floor I. - workshop
Lecturer: Jana King Kochánková
start: 11:00, meeting in front of the MeetFactory Gallery

"The greatest, most mysterious and most beautiful gifts and treasures of a woman are hidden in her womb. Sometimes we are happy, full of life and love, and everything goes well. We 're glowing. Other times we deal with a serious situation in life and we have sadness or stress, it is not the best for us. All these situations are then stored in our womb, in our pelvis. Our pelvis acts as an emotional barometer. This then needs a little more self-care for our body and pelvic floor. Everything can be changed. Everything can be healed. Each situation has at least three solutions."

In the course led by Jana King Kochánková, we will learn how to shake anger, aggression and stress out of your pelvis, how to change your sitting habits, how to take care of your pelvis and how to feel well and satisfied in your body through simple lying and sitting exercises based on breath and gentle movement.

The workshop is free, capacity is limited, if you are interested, register here, or write to sales@meetfactory.cz
There will be a limited number of training mats on site, we recommend that you bring your own.
 

Guided tour of the Well of Wisdom exhibition
start at: 13:00, MeetFactory Gallery
One of the curators, Eva B. Riebová, will present an exhibition that seeks answers to the questions of how corporeality affects our understanding and experience of the world, and how the body itself can be a source of knowledge.

Down the Wells of Wisdom - screening
11:00 to 17:00
Concept: Tereza Jindrová
Artists: Helena Aleksandrova, Mary Maggic, Tabita Rezaire, Ezra Šimek

Line-up (in loop):
Mary Maggic: Genital(*)Panic, 7:05, 2021
Tabita Rezaire: Sugar Walls Teardom, 21:38, 2016
Ezra Šimek: Do They/Thems Like Flowers or Do I Buy Platform Shoes and Tarot Cards?, 13:05, 2021
Helena Aleksandrova: We Are Lady Godiva They Are Peeping Tom, 27:24, 2019

The accompanying screening of the exhibition Wells of Wisdom presents videos / short films that follow the concept of the exhibition and further expand it. The main motive of the selection is non-normativity - exposing and rejecting restrictive norms that prevail in patriarchal society.

Video manifesto Genital (*) Panic by Mary Maggic draws attention to the changes in our bodies, specifically the genitals, which are associated with increasing toxicity in the environment. At the same time, it presents a vision of a bottom-up database of "alien bodies", which can be a tool for questioning dominant scientific classifications that are discriminatory and pathologizing to differences.

The video Sugar Walls Teardom by Tabita Rezaire obscures the key role played by the womb of Black womxn in advancing modern medical science and technology. As part of slavery, their bodies were used and abused as commodities - for hard work on plantations, sexual slavery, reproductive exploitation and medical experiments. Anarcha, Betsey and Lucy were among the captive “guinea pigs” of Dr. James Marion Sims, the so-called "father of modern gynecology," who tortured countless enslaved womxn in the name of science.

In their video, Ezra Šimek focuses on the phenomenon of so-called gender euphoria and dysphoria, which is often experienced by trans and non-binary people. Gender dysphoria is a feeling of anxiety caused by the desire to have the physical characteristics of the sex with whom you identify, but which were not assigned to you at birth. Gender euphoria, on the other hand, is the feeling of joy that such a person can have when living his or her true gender identity. At the same time, dysphoria and euphoria are inextricably linked to how a person is (not) received by their surroundings. In the video, Ezra Šimek presents a very personal statement, which at the same time has a largely manifestational (and educational) character and thus addresses, among other things, all those who identify as allies of gender non-conforming persons and queer communities.

Helena Aleksandrova's short film We Are Lady Godiva They Are Peeping Tom explores how we see a woman's body and body hair in real life and in an online environment. It is a reflection on the standards of beauty, voyeurism and sexualization. She brings these topics together through the story of Lady Godiva, whose hair served as a protection of chastity, and Peeping Tom, who was punished for looking at her with an intensity that we unfortunately rarely encounter in sexual assailants in reality. In the film, the artist interviews several women (including her mother) about the perception of beauty and her own body in connection with social expectations.

The selection of screened films thus underlines the diversity (of our bodies and identities) as one of the key sources of wisdom that is so often left behind.

Line-up:
11:00 workshop (meeting at the MeetFactory Gallery)
13:00 guided tour of the exhibition
11: 00–17: 00 film screenings
11: 00–17: 00 flea market
11: 00–17: 00 food collection for UA

Free entry. MeetFactory Gallery and Kostka Gallery are open until 20:00.