Born in 1982 in Prague, where she lives and works. 

 

Through installations, drawings, collages, videos and performances, Eva Kot'átková establishes a form of mediation between man and the world. The surrealist universe of her installations has the charm of a fascinating cabinet of curiosities, made up of layers of images, personal stories and enigmatic objects. Using a quasi-archaeological approach, and stimulated by a keen interest in institutions (administrative, psychiatric or educational) and theater, Eva Kot'átková creates immersive environments of high symbolic intensity in which diverted photographs, drawings, collages, photomontages share the stage with elements sometimes recovered and sometimes fabricated.

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The objects collected by Eva Kot'átková in the surroundings of Saché during her residency are familiar and perfectly identifiable. However, their arrangement in her installations remains mysterious, their classification seems to function as a free association of ideas, a path that the spectator would be invited to reconstruct. 

 

In parallel to this collecting process, Eva has conducted research on François Rabelais' novel Gargantua, published in 1534, in which the author evokes the childhood of his character while at the same time putting the educational methods of the time on trial. Gargantua plunges us into an excessive universe to which the artist refers, using the space offered by the studio. 

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As part of a collaborative project, Eva Kot'átková invited students from three classes of the school in Saché to participate in a performance, a practice she uses regularly in parallel with her installations. 

The artist asked the children to imagine being either an animal, a plant or a natural element. The students made the masks and costumes of their character and then each wrote the story. Finally, in a colorful and poetic performance, they became the spokespersons for their characters in a reconstructed school classroom at the Atelier Calder. The students in disguise were able to share their character's story.

 

 

 

Photos Guillaume Blanc

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