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Viktorie Pražáková

Trust

  • video
    • 7’03”

Author: Viktorie Pražáková
Year of Creation: 2023 Place of Creation: Ostrava Technique: Video Cooperation and Acknowledgements: Edith Jeřábková, Lenka Škutová

Special Thanks: European Union – Next Generation EU, Ministy of Culture Czech Republic, National Recovery Plan

Reportage form the exhibition Escaped, Found a Hideout, Still on the Run (Animal News).

Viktorie Pražáková is the youngest artist in the exhibition. She lives in Ostrava and studies at the Hladnov Grammar School, where she takes care of cultural events and where she also founded the school’s queer club. She attends cultural events in theatre, music and exhibitions, and creates and makes films. In the place where she lives, she has long been following a cat family that spans several generations and hangs around the Hruška department store. The cats have created a small community of people around them who care for them – bringing them food and taking an interest in their future life together. As a community, however, they have no human-animal rights, so they try to at least enjoy every day together. Based on her observations and conversations with other people in the “cat community,” Viktorie Pražáková has created a story about the complexity of human-cat relationships that might help people to realise that urban interspecies friendships are places filled with emotion and care and as such should be protected from destructive interference. But watching the video also makes us realise how important individual cats are – how important it is to see them as distinct beings and not just as a species. Victoria might inspire you to film your own story, or draw, model or collage it, and record it or share it with visitors to the exhibition in other ways.

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