Lenka Holíková

Lenka Holíková was born in Cheb, a local border town of former Czechoslovakia, seven kilometers from Germany. When the Velvet Revolution occurred, she was only five years old; so, she is not a direct witness to communism or its dividing Iron Curtain. However, it is quite clear that time does not make life into exact blocks, it cannot cut it to the exact "before and after"; some events exceed the time limit and are imprinted into the human subconscious, into the manner of behavior, feeling, as well as into educational methods that are subjected to the next generation.

"My first memories of my native region are already associated with a feeling of heaviness, and until now, the border landscape with its forests provokes restlessness in me. This is one of the reasons why I moved from the Czech Republic and condemned myself to a certain type of nomadic and voluntary exile. In unknown territory, movement between cultures, things become that interfere with the current way of thinking and subsequently in the way of creation. Finally, paradoxically, this distance brought me closer to the Czechs; I tried to get rid of the sense of existential distress, but it returned through my artistic activities.

My artistic work is closely connected with the research of the Czechoslovak Communist era, specifically with the border issue and with methods of monitoring and repression. Through the drawing I consider the various phenomena that are close to me; I develop the initial reflections and convert them into several artistic forms. I draw up a personal archive from the results I get from the research.

The concept of history is fundamental to my current work, I perceive it from the perspective of 'deferred action', which is, according to Hal Foster: 'A different model of causality, timing, and narration, which serves to reassess history, which is alternating between anticipation and reconstruction'. Hal Foster believes that 'one event is two,' one of which can only be understood by the other, who decodes it. My creation seeks to decode fragments of history, essential within the present."

Education:

2005-09 Degree in Plastic Arts, Drawing Specialty, Hradec Králové University, Czech Republic
2009-11 Master in Plastic Arts, Drawing Specialty, Hradec Králové University, Czech Republic
2016-18 Master in Educational intervention, Universidad UPAEP, with scholarship from BUAP, Puebla, Mexico

 

Solo Exhibitions: 

2023 Frontiers, methods of escape. Arte Mare Gallery, Finland
2021 Uden Frygt/ Kunstkollektivet 8B, Unnerud, Denmark
2019 Proyecto Masaryk/ Masaryk Project, Casa Cultural México-Israel, Cdmx, Mexico
2016 Después del deseo/ After the desire, Embassy of the Czech Republic, Cdmx, Mexico

Group Exhibitions: 

2023 Limit of what belongs, exhibition curated by Michel Blancsubé, S. I. Ahuatempan, Mexico
2021 1989, MPAC, MinEastry of Postcollapse Art and Culture, Oregon, USA
2019 Ichtli Mayahuel, Museo Regional de Cholula, Cholula, Mexico
2016 City Forest, seven explorations on the borders between nature and the urban, Baltasar Cultural Center, Córdoba,Veracruz, Mexico

Residencies, scholarships and awards: 

2023 The Other Edges of the World selection/ Meet factory (Prague), Hablarenarte (Madrid). Spain
2023 Programme for the Promotion of Cultural Projects and Co-investments: project with working group “Limit of one’s own”. National Fund for Culture and Arts. Mexico
2023 Cultural residence: “Ukraine´s Artistic Response to the Russian Invasion”. Delegation of the European Union to Ukraine. Internews, Ukraine
2023 O. A. MAL FOUNDATION/ Stipend for the development of the exhibition at Arte Mare, Replot, Finland
2023 NYGRÉNS STIFTELSE/ Stipend for the development of the exhibition at Arte Mare, Replot, Finland
2023 Art Residency selection/ Ateljé Stundars, Solf, Finland

Date of residency: 2. 11. 2023–30. 11. 2023