In the Shadow of the Lion
2018
essay and 6 photographs (inkjet print on paper, 120 x 150 cm)
The
project In the Shadow of the Lion came about in collaboration with
the Fotograf festival with which it shared the theme “non-work”.
I approached it from the perspective of non-productive time. A
certain block of time that modernism has defined as a socially
necessary space for relaxation, personal development and the
cementing of collective consciousness. I was primarily interested in
the way that free time has been defined and has changed in the
Bohemian and Moravian milieu over the last two centuries. From a wide
group of free time and leisure activity institutions, clubs and
movements I selected a representative sample of thirty-eight entities
which we then divided into six categories according to their
societal, cultural and social orientation. These ideological and
organisational frameworks are presented by six large photographs of
their statutes, founding documents, regulations and declarations. The
sentences and paragraphs that define the focus of each institution
are highlighted in colour on each photograph. For the sake of clarity
and legibility, these documents have been enlarged by ten percent.
